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Virginia Defeats Maryland 9-6, Sweeps Three Game Series
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April 22, 2001
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – The University of Virginia baseball team defeated the Maryland Terrapins by the score of 9-6 in front of a season-high 533 spectators on Senior Day at the UVa Baseball Field. The Cavaliers turned an early 1-0 deficit into a 7-1 lead and cruised to a three-run victory over the visiting Terrapins.
Maryland took an early 1-0 lead in the top of the second inning when Steve Oursler (3-5, RBI, run) hit an RBI-double to left-center field that scored Kevin McDonald. But that would be the Terrapins first and only lead of the game.
Trailing 1-0 in the bottom of the third inning, Virginia’s Hunter Wyant (1-4, four RBI, run) turned UVa’s 1-0 deficit into a 3-1 lead with the swing of a bat when he launched a three-run home run to deep left field to score David Stone (4-4, two runs) and Shawn McCleary (two RBI, run). The Cavaliers added two more runs in the inning when Dan Street (2-3, RBI) scored Jon Benick (1-3, run) with an RBI-sacrifice fly before Chris Sweet (1-4, RBI) drove in Mark Rueffert (1-3, run) with an RBI-single to left field to make it a 5-1 UVa lead.
Virginia extended its lead to 7-1 in the bottom of the fourth inning when Doug Vroman (2-4, two runs) scored a run before Wyant drove in Stone on a sacrifice fly to give the Cavaliers a six-run cushion. Maryland cut the lead to 7-3 in the top of the sixth inning on back-to-back RBI, sacrifice flies by McDonald and Matt Swope. But UVa countered with a run of its own in the bottom half of the inning when Vroman scored on a wild pitch to make it an 8-3 ball game.
The Terrapins made a late rally and cut Virginia’s lead to 8-6 by scoring three runs in the top of the eighth inning highlighted by a two-run, home run by McDonald down the right field line. However, UVa added an insurance run in the bottom half of the inning and used Greg Hansard to close out the game after he threw a scoreless ninth inning to earn his second save of the season.
The Cavaliers’ Canon Hickman (3-4) won his third game of the year after pitching 6.0 innings and allowing three runs (two earned) on seven hits to go along with a game-high four strikeouts. The Terrapins’ Todd Ainsworth (3-1) lost his first game of the season after giving up seven runs on 10 hits with a team-high three strikeouts.
With the victory, Virginia’s record improves to 23-21 overall, 9-12 in the ACC. The loss drops Maryland’s record to 13-27 overall, 3-14 in the conference. UVa won all three contests of the three-game series with the Terps and has now won four consecutive games and five of its last six contests. The victory was also the Cavaliers fifth consecutive win over the Terrapins.
UVa’s five senior players, Jon Benick, Brandon Creswell, Will Parker, Mark Rueffert and Hunter Wyant were each recognized on Senior Day 2001.
Virginia will return to action on Tuesday, April 24th when UVa travels to Harrisonburg, Va. to face the James Madison Dukes at 3:00 p.m. The Terrapins will return to home action on Wednesday, April 25th when Maryland hosts James Madison at 7:00 p.m. in College Park, Md.
– UVa –