The fifth-ranked Virginia baseball team dropped its opener in the 2013 ACC Baseball Championship with a 10-1 defeat to Virginia Tech Wednesday at Durham Bulls Athletic Park in Durham, N.C. The Hokies scored six times in the second inning to take a decisive advantage early.
Virginia (45-10) is seeded third in the field, while Virginia Tech (36-19) is the No. 6 seed. UVa will play No. 7 seed Georgia Tech at 11 a.m. Thursday and No. 2 seed Florida State at 11 a.m. Saturday in the pool-play format. Georgia Tech defeated FSU, 4-3, in the first game Wednesday.
The Cavaliers finished with seven hits and had runners on base in every inning but the eighth. Jared King (R-Sr., Radford, Va.) had two hits for the Cavaliers, who suffered just their second loss of the year by a margin of more than three runs.
Virginia starting pitcher Brandon Waddell (So., Houston, Texas) worked four innings, giving up six runs (two earned) and 10 hits. Waddell (5-2) struck out a pair and did not walk a batter in taking the defeat. UVa gave up a double-digit run total for just the second time this year.
Virginia Tech starter Joe Mantiply (6-0) pitched seven innings to earn the win. He gave up an earned run, seven hits and four walks while striking out two.
Virginia Tech grabbed a big, early lead by sending 11 batters to the plate and scoring six runs in the second inning. Tyler Horan led off with a bloop double to left field and scored when Nick Howard (So., Olney, Md.) threw Andrew Rash’s grounder to shortstop into the stands for a two-base error. Chad Morgan and Brendon Hayden hit back-to-back RBI doubles, and Kyle Wernicki sacrificed Hayden to third. One out later Sean Keselica blooped a single to right to plate Hayden, and Chad Pinder followed with a two-run home run to left-center field, giving Virginia Tech a 6-0 lead. Of the six runs, only two were earned.
UVa sliced a run from the lead in its half of the second as Reed Gragnani (Sr., Richmond, Va.) drew a leadoff walk and scored on a Kenny Towns (So., Burke, Va.) triple to left-center field.
The Hokies blew the game open in the sixth inning, loading the bases with none out against Austin Young (Jr., Mechanicsville, Va.) before Pinder ripped a grand slam to left field for his second blast of the day. The shot gave Virginia Tech a 10-1 advantage.
The ACC’s Regional Sports Networks will broadcast the UVa-Georgia Tech game Thursday (Comcast Mid-Atlantic in the Charlottesville area), while ESPN3 will provide a live webcast. Live audio will be available on VirginiaSports.com through a Cavaliers Live subscription. Live statistics also will be available on VirginiaSports.com.
WINA 1070-AM will have the live radio broadcast Thursday. Select stations across the Virginia Sports Radio Network also will pick up coverage during the tournament.
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