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March 18, 2001
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – The University of Virginia baseball team defeated the Duke Blue Devils by the score of 14-5 en route to winning two of the three contests in the three-game Atlantic Coast Conference series. The Cavaliers jumped out to an early 7-0 lead after one inning of play and cruised to a 14-5 victory in the third game of the series.
After the Blue Devils went three batters and out in their first at-bat, Virginia essentially put the game away in the bottom of the first inning. UVa’s Jon Benick (3-5, five RBI, run) put the Cavaliers on the scoreboard first by crushing a two-run home run to right-center field to give Virginia a 2-0 lead. Benick’s home run was his eighth of the season, and he finished as one of four Cavaliers to record three hits in the game.
After back-to-back singles by Hunter Wyant (3-5, two runs, RBI, triple) and Mark Rueffert (2-5, run), Robert Word (3-5, two RBI, run) hit an RBI-single to right field to score Wyant, making it a 3-0 game. Eric Christensen scored Rueffert on a fielders choice to extend Virginia’s lead to 4-0 before Doug Vroman (2-4, three runs, two RBI) hit a two-run double down the left field line that scored Christensen and Chris Sweet (2-2, two runs, RBI) to make it a 6-0 UVa lead. Christensen’s run eventually became the game-winner. The Cavaliers posted one more run in the inning to pull out to a 7-0 lead when David Stone (3-5, RBI, run) singled to score Vroman. With the hit, Stone extended his current hitting streak to 19 games.
Duke scored its first run of the contest in the top of the second inning when Troy Caradonna (3-4, two runs, RBI) hit a solo home run to right field, cutting Virginia’s lead to 8-1. But UVa got the run right back in the bottom of the inning when Wyant tripled to right center field before scoring on another RBI-single by Word.
After adding another run in the bottom of the fifth inning to make it a 9-1 game, Virginia scored four more runs in the bottom of the sixth inning to match its largest lead of the game (12 runs) at 13-1. The Cavaliers four-run inning was sparked by Benick’s two-run, RBI-single to right field. After Duke and Virginia traded runs in the eighth inning to make it a 14-2 game, the Blue Devils tallied three runs in the top of the ninth inning highlighted by RBI-singles by Gideon Thompson (1-2, RBI) and Scott Grossi (1-4, RBI) to pull within 14-5. That was as close as the Blue Devils would get, as the Cavaliers held on for the nine-run victory.
UVa’s Dan Street (2-1) gathered his second win of the season after pitching 7.0 innings and allowing only one run on three hits with two strikeouts. Duke’s Jeff Alleva only made it through one inning of work before being replaced after he surrendered seven runs (three earned) on seven hits.
With the win, Virginia’s record improves to 12-8 overall, 2-4 in the ACC.. The loss drops Duke’s record to 9-15 overall, 2-4 in the conference.
The Cavaliers will return to home action on Monday, March 19th when UVa hosts the George Mason Patriots. The contest is scheduled to begin at 3:00 p.m. and will be played at the UVa Baseball Field.