Team of destiny? UVA baseball in College World Series Championship Series with 5-4 win over Florida

UVA third baseman Kenny Towns knocked in three runs, including the tie-breaker in the seventh on a sacrifice fly, and Brandon Waddell and Josh Sborz did just enough to hold down a potent Florida offense in a 5-4 Cavs win on Saturday in the 2015 College World Series.

With the win, Virginia advances to the CWS Championship Series to play Vanderbilt in a rematch of the 2014 Championship Series.

Sborz (6-2) earned the win with four scoreless innings of relief, but it was a team effort on the mound. Waddell pitched into the sixth inning, giving up four runs on six hits, striking out three and walking three, but the junior lefty worked out of a couple of tough spots in his stint on the mound to keep the ‘Hoos in the game.

Virginia (42-23) got on the board first on a solo homer by Matt Thaiss, his 10th of the season, in the bottom of the first off Florida starter Dane Dunning.

The Gators (52-18) answered in the second, getting a two-run homer by Peter Alonso, a 429-foot shot to dead-center.

UVA tied the game at 2-2 in the fourth on a sacrifice fly RBI by Joe McCarthy, byt the Gators went back on top in the next half-inning on a solo homer by Harrison Bader in the top of the fifth.

A two-run, two-out double by Towns in the bottom of the fifth put the ‘Hoos back on top, 4-3. Waddell was lifted in the top of the sixth after giving up a leadoff single to J.J. Schwarz, and Florida eventually tied it up in the sixth off Sborz, on an RBI single by Mike Rivera.

Sborz pitched out of a first-and-third jam in the sixth, and the game would remain tied into the bottom of the seventh, when Virginia got its first two on base, on an Ernie Clement leadoff single and a walk to Adam Haseley.

Daniel Pinero bunted the runners to second and third, and Thaiss was walked intentionally to get to Towns, who lined out to deep right to score Clement from third.

Sborz set the Gators down in order in the eighth, and after a two-out single in the ninth by Bader, he induced a groundout to second by Richie Martin to end it.

Gators reliever Taylor Lewis (6-2) took the loss, giving up a run on two hits in an inning and two-thirds.

Dunning went four and two-thirds for Florida, giving up three runs on four hits, striking out one and walking two.