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March 19, 2000
RALEIGH, N.C. — Virginia third baseman Luis Giraldo stroked a two-out,two-run single to left field Sunday to break a 1-1 tie and lift theCavaliers to a 3-1 Atlantic Coast Conference baseball victory overNC State at Doak Field. Giraldo’s hit enabled UVa to avoid a seriessweep by the Wolfpack, which won the first two games of the series.
The win was Virginia’s first in the ACC, lifting the Cavs to 1-2 in theconference and 12-12-1 overall. NC State, which had won four consecutiveconference games and five straight overall, dropped to 4-2 in the leagueand 15-8 overall.
Tim Lavigne, Virginia’s starting shortstop, came in to pitch in reliefof starter Will Parker with two out in the bottom of the sixth inning andallowed no runs on one hit in 2 1/3 innings to record the win, his firstdecision of the season. Mike Sollie (3-1) went the distance for theWolfpack, allowing three runs on seven hits to take the loss. Solliewalked none and struck out a career-high eight.
Sollie and Parker matched zeroes and solo homers into the late innings.Hunter Wyant led off the bottom of the second inning with a solo blastfor the Cavaliers, his second of the season, and Josh Schmitt matchedthat with a two-out solo bomb in the bottom of the fifth, his first, totie the game at 1-1.
Other than that, the pitchers dominated into the ninth, and despitetaking the loss Sollie was more the victim of misfortune than of badpitching. With one out in the top of the ninth, David Stone singled toleft field. Robbie Marvin then bunted for a hit to put runners on firstand second with one out. Jon Benick flied to left for the second out ofthe inning.
Wyant then hit a chopper behind the bag at third base. Wolfpack thirdbaseman Jeremy Dutton made a nice play on the ball and started to makethe unassisted putout at third. When Dutton saw that the play would beclose at third he threw to first base instead, but no longer had a chanceto retire Wyant, who reached on a tough infield single that loaded thebases. Giraldo was up next and hit a line single to left field that drovein Stone and Marvin with the winning runs.
Until the ninth inning, Sollie had dominated the Cavaliers. From Wyant’sleadoff homer in the top of the second through the eighth inning, Sollieretired 20 of 23 batters, and two of the three men who reached wereerased on the bases.
Parker, meanwhile, allowed just five baserunners through six innings,and two of those were caught stealing in the fourth inning, when the Packran itself out of a first-and-second situation with none out. TheWolfpack also had runners on first and second with one down in the bottomof the eighth, but a strike-’em-out, throw-’em-out double play ended thatthreat.