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March 10, 2001
Tallahassee, Fla.– The University of Virginia Baseball team dropped a doubleheader to the No. 18 Florida State Seminoles at Dick Howser Stadium. Florida State won the first game, the ACC season-opener for both teams, by the score of 9-2 before running away with a 16-1 victory in the nightcap.
Virginia took the early lead in game one when Jon Benick (1-4, RBI, run) hit a solo home run to deep center field in the top of the first inning to give Virginia a 1-0 lead. But UVa’s lead was short lived, as Florida State scored nine unanswered runs to pull out to a 9-1 lead after eight innings. The Cavaliers’ Mark Rueffert (2-3, run) scored on an RBI-single by Andrew Riesenfeld in the top of the ninth inning to make the final score 9-2.
In the bottom of the first inning, Bryan Zech and Mike Futrell reached on bunt singles and John-Ford Griffin walked to load the bases. Ryan Barthelemy knocked in Zech with a sacrifice fly to the wall in the right and Nick Rogers picked up an RBI on a bases loaded walk to put FSU up 2-1.
The Seminoles opened up a five-run lead with four runs in the third. Barthelemy got things going with a double and scored on Karl Jernigan s single to center. Virginia pitcher Brandon Creswell’s throwing error on Brett Groves bunt allowed Jernigan to score and Groves came around to score on the second Cavalier error on the play an overthrow by the right fielder. Scott Toole s second home run of the season, a solo shot to left, made it 6-1.
FSU scored another unearned run in the fourth when Griffin walked, moved to second on a failed pick-off, and scored on Barthelemy s single.
Griffin extended the lead to 9-1 and his hitting streak to 13 games with a two-run homer to right in the sixth inning. The homer was Griffin’s sixth of the season and scored Futrell, who had reached on a single.
Creswell (2-2) took the loss for Virginia, working 5.2 innings and giving up five earned runs on eight hits.
Futrell (2-for-5) and Barthelemy (3-for-4) led the Seminoles at the plate.
Once again, Virginia jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the second game of the doubleheader, this time on a solo home run by Dan Street (1-3, RBI, run) in the top of the second inning. But like game one, FSU answered with huge scoring run of its own. The Seminoles ran off 16 unanswered runs highlighted by Barthelemy’s grand slam in the fifth inning.
UVa’s Joseph Koshansky (2-1) was dealt his first loss of the season after allowing nine runs (eight earned) on 12 hits through just 3.0 innings of work. Florida State’s Robby Reid improved to 4-2 with the win after giving up only one run on five hits through 7.0 innings.
With the two loses, Virginia’s record falls to 7-6 overall, 0-2 in the ACC, while Florida State improves to 13-5 overall, 2-0 in the conference.
The Cavaliers will return to action on Sunday, March 11th when UVa takes on FSU in the third game of a three-game series. The contest is scheduled to begin at 1:00 p.m. and will be played at Dick Howser Stadium. The game will be televised on the Sunshine Network.