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Virginia Baseball Rallies to Beat The Citadel, 5-4
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Feb. 24, 2002
CHARLESTON, S.C. – The University of Virginia baseball team rallied from a4-3 deficit to post a 5-4 come-from-behind victory over The Citadel Bulldogsin the Berkeley Electric Cooperative Challenge at the Joseph P. Riley Jr.Park. With the score tied at 4-4 in the top of the eighth inning, theCavaliers’ Mark Reynolds scored from first base on a Citadel error to giveVirginia a 5-4 win. UVa finished 2-1 in the tournament.
After playing through three scoreless innings, Virginia jumped out to a 3-0lead in the top of the fourth inning. Leadoff batter David Stone reachedbase on a throwing error and later scored a run when Dan Street also reachedbase on a second throwing error in the inning by the Bulldogs. One batterlater, Robert Word blasted a RBI-double off the wall in deep left-centerfield to drive in D. Street to give the Cavaliers a 2-0 lead. In UVa’s nextat-bat, Chris Sweet hit a RBI-single to right field that scored Word to makeit a 3-0 Virginia lead.
The Citadel scored its first run of the game to make it a 3-1 game in thebottom half of the fourth inning when David Griffin reached base on an errorbefore Jason Randall drove him in with a RBI-single up the middle in theBulldogs’ next at-bat. Four batters later, The Citadel took a 4-3 lead whenJon Aughey belted a three-run home run to deep left field to give theBulldogs a one-run lead.
Virginia tied the game at 4-4 in the top of the fifth inning when Kyle Wermanwalked and then scored a run three batters later when Reynolds hit aRBI-single to shallow right field. UVa regained the lead in the top of theeighth inning when Reynolds singled to right field and then scored theeventual game-winning run from first base with two outs on a dropped fly ballto center field by the Bulldogs’ Chris Hutchison to give the Cavaliers a 5-4lead. Virginia would hang on for the 5-4 victory.
The Cavaliers’ D. Street pitched five innings and allowed four runs, allunearned, on five hits with two strikeouts in a no decision. UVa’s CanonHickman replaced Street in the sixth inning and went 3.1 innings with no runson two hits and a team-high four strikeouts en route to his first win of theseason. Closer Chris Marinak pitched 0.2 innings and struck out one batterin a save situation. The Citadel’s T.A. Fuller pitched 5.0 innings andallowed four runs (one earned) on three hits with a game-high 10 strikeoutsin a no decision. The Bulldogs’ Matt Hamer took the loss after going 2.1innings and gave up one run (unearned) on two hits.
With the victory, Virginia improves to 5-1 overall, while the loss drops TheCitadel to 2-5 on the season. The Cavaliers will return to action onTuesday, February 26th when UVa hosts the Virginia Commonwealth Rams. Thecontest is scheduled to begin at 3:00 p.m. and will be played at the UVaBaseball Stadium.
— UVa –