UVA Baseball: Orange tosses shutout in fall series opener

Six pitchers combined for a two-hit, shutout in a 3-0 Orange victory in the opening game of the Orange and Blue World Series on Sunday night at Disharoon Park.

Orange starting pitcher Griff McGarry (Portola Valley, Calif.) struck out six batters in three scoreless frames.

McGarry faced the minimum in the top of the first and went on to strikeout five-straight over the course of the second and third innings. McGarry, freshman Kyle Petri (Lighthouse Point, Fla.) and Zach Messinger (Chandler, Ind.) kept Blue without a hit for the first five innings.

Senior Will Allocca (Richmond, Va.) led the way at the plate for Orange with a pair of doubles and two runs scored. Allocca, Devin Ortiz (Irvington, N.J.) and Logan Michaels (DeForest, Wis.) each delivered multi-hit efforts for Orange in the win. Michaels opened up the scoring with a two-out, RBI single to right field in the bottom of the third.

Messinger did a bulk of the relief work, tossing 2.1 flawless innings. He came in with runners on first and second with two outs in the top of the fourth and induced an inning-ending ground out.

Senior Evan Sperling (Poquoson, Va.) and graduate student Stephen Schoch (Laurel, Md.) each turned in scoreless frames before giving way to freshman Matt Wyatt (Timonium, Md.) in the ninth. The first two runners of the ninth inning reached base before the righthander struck out three-straight batters to end the game.

Chesdin Harrington got the start for Blue and struck out five batters over four innings of work. He was charged with the first two runs of the game. Righthanders Mike Vasil (Wellesley, Mass.) and Cristian Sanchez (Centreville, Va.) combined for three scoreless innings of relief for Blue.

The second game of the Orange and Blue World Series is scheduled for Tuesday (Oct. 6) at 6 p.m. Admission to all fall exhibitions at Disharoon Park is free.