UVA baseball tops Duke, 4-2, wins series

The UVA baseball team earned a series win over Duke with a 4-2 win Sunday afternoon in front of 4,118 fans on Senior Day at Davenport Field. The Cavaliers (29-19, 12-15 ACC) won the series with the Blue Devils (28-21, 8-18), two games to one.

The win moves Virginia into 10th place in the conference, a half-game ahead of idle Wake Forest, with one weekend to go in ACC play. The top 10 teams in the conference qualify for this month’s ACC Tournament in Durham.

“I’m as proud of our team as I have been of any team, the fact that we responded like we did and Josh Sborz responded like he did,” Virginia head coach Brian O’Connor said. “Certainly how we lost last night in the ninth inning, there are a lot of teams that would pack it in and say maybe it’s not our weekend or maybe it’s not our year, but this team kept fighting and was led by Josh Sborz, and we did some really good things offensively.”

In his second start of the season, Josh Sborz (Jr., McLean, Va.) worked seven innings of one-run baseball to earn the win. Sborz (2-2) allowed eight hits and one walk while striking out three. Adam Haseley (Fr., Windermere, Fla.) worked the final two innings to earn his first college save. Duke starter Bailey Clark (3-5) took the loss after giving up three runs (two earned), three hits and three walks in 2 1/3 innings.

Robbie Coman (Jr., Lake Worth, Fla.) and Daniel Pinero (So., Toronto, Ontario) each had a pair of hits, while Pinero also scored twice. Kevin Doherty (Jr., Laytonsville, Md.) drove in a pair of runs. The Cavaliers finished with seven hits, while Duke had nine.

Virginia took a 2-0 lead in the second inning when Doherty bounced a two-out single into right field to score Smith and Coman.

The Cavaliers pushed their lead to 3-0 in the third inning. After Virginia loaded the bases with one out, Smith drew a walk to force in Daniel Pinero (So., Toronto, Ontario). UVa added a run in the fifth inning against reliever Sarkis Ohanian on a Kenny Towns (Sr., Burke, Va.) sacrifice fly.

Duke loaded the bases with none out in the sixth inning on consecutive singles by Peter Zyla, Mike Rosenfeld and Cris Perez. After Phillips hit a sacrifice fly, Sborz induced a foul pop up from Kenny Koplove before getting Justin Bellinger to fly out to center to end the threat and leave runners at the corners.

The Blue Devils got a leadoff home run to right field from Jalen Phillips to begin the ninth inning. With one out Haseley walked Bellinger, but pinch hitter Ryan Day grounded into a 4-6-3 double play to end the game.

Prior to the game, Virginia honored its three seniors – Towns, Thomas Woodruff (Clifton, Va.) and Kevin Radford (Norfolk, Va.) – in Senior Day ceremonies.

Virginia plays its final home game of the season at 6 p.m. Tuesday against Richmond. The Cavaliers wrap up the regular season Thursday through Saturday at North Carolina.