Ace Griff McGarry was solid, and the bullpen barely held off a late Bucknell rally, as Virginia defeated Bucknell, 6-5, in a series opener on Friday at Disharoon Park.
McGarry (2-0, 1.80 ERA) allowed two runs on two hits in five-plus innings, striking out seven and walking four.
Virginia (3-2) led 6-0 heading into the sixth, before the Bison (1-4) scratched across two runs off McGarry, then adding two in the eighth, leaving the bases loaded in that frame, then getting another in the night, before closer Stephen Schoch (2 saves, 4.26 ERA) struck out Peter Marren with the tying run at third to close things out.
“It goes to show you in college baseball, games are hard to win,” Virginia coach Brian O’Connor said. “We just couldn’t finish them off, and that’s a credit to them. They just didn’t go away.”
The early lead was in large part due to one swing of the bat by Devin Ortiz, who belted a grand slam in the bottom of the second inning of a scoreless ball game. Ortiz drilled a 2-2 pitch over the left field wall for his first homer of the season and second of his career.
Virginia tacked on two more runs in the fifth with RBI singles from Brendan Rivoli and Marc Lebreux.
Lebreux and Rivoli each collected two hits on the day, their first multi-hit efforts of the season.
The two teams will play a single-admission doubleheader on Saturday (Feb. 22) beginning at noon before wrapping up the series on Sunday (Feb. 23) at 1 p.m.
Virginia will throw right-handers Mike Vasil (0-0, 2.25 ERA) and Chesdin Harrington (0-1, 6.00 ERA) in games one and two, respectively.
The nightcap of the twinbill will begin 40 minutes after the conclusion of the first game.
Story by Chris Graham
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