Virginia Baseball Sweeps Seton Hall in Doubleheader, 18-3 and 5-1
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March 3, 2002
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – The University of Virginia baseball team completed a three-game weekend series sweep over the visiting Seton Hall Pirates after recording an 18-3 victory in game one and a 5-1 decision in game two of a doubleheader today at the UVa Baseball Stadium. The Cavaliers also posted a 2-0 shutout over the Pirates on Saturday.
In game one, Dan Street gave Virginia an early 2-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning when he blasted a two-run home run to deep left field to score Mark Reynolds, who singled up the middle to reach first base. In the bottom of the second inning, Chris Sweet followed D. Street’s lead with a home run of his own to left field, this time with a solo shot in UVa’s first at-bat in the inning. Sweet’s home run was his first of the season and pushed Virginia’s lead to 3-0.
In the bottom of the third inning, D. Street belted his second home run of the game (fifth of the season), this time with a solo shot to deep left-center field to make it a 4-0 contest. UVa extended its lead to 5-0 in the third inning when Robert Word reached first base on an error, stole second base, and then scored a run when Sweet hit a RBI-single to center field.
Seton Hall cut Virginia’s lead to 5-2 in the top of the fourth inning when Kyle Williams hit a two-run RBI-double to right center field to drive in Todd Crawford and Chris Carter after both players reached first base on a walk. However, UVa answered right back with two runs of its own in the bottom of the fourth inning when D. Street singled through the left side and scored Matt Street and Kyle Werman to make it a 7-2 ballgame.
Virginia blew the game wide open in the bottom of the fifth inning when UVa scored six runs after the first six batters in the rotation each scored a run to give the Cavaliers a 13-2 lead. Three innings later in the bottom of the eighth inning, M. Street followed in his brother Dan’s footsteps and blasted a three-run home run to deep left-center field to make it a 16-3 lead for UVa. Two batters later, Miguel Luina belted a two-run home run off the scoreboard in left field to push Virginia’s lead to 18-2. M. Street’s and Luina’s home runs were the first of their career at UVa.
SHU added a run in the top of the ninth when Anthony Seratelli hit a RBI-sacrifice fly to right field to score Santiago Chi to make it an 18-3 game. But that would be all the scoring the Pirates would muster, as UVa recorded a 15-run win.
Virginia’s Canon Hickman (2-0) picked up his second victory of the season after pitching five strong innings and allowed only two runs on two hits with four strikeouts. The Cavaliers’ Ty Collins gathered his first save of the year in the win after pitching four innings to close out the game. Seton Hall’s Elvys Quezada was dealt the loss after going just 1.2 innings and surrendering three runs on four hits in a losing cause.
In game two, Virginia picked right up where it left off when Word hit a two-run home run to right field to give the Cavaliers an early 2-0 lead in the second inning. Word’s home run provided the Cavaliers with the eventual game winning runs after he drove in Reynolds with the hit. UVa added another run in the inning to take a 3-0 lead when Stone laid down a RBI-single on a bunt to score Mike Priest, who reached base on a walk.
The Pirates got on the scoreboard in the sixth inning when Tim Pahuta hit a RBI-double to deep right-center field to drive in Todd Crawford to cut the Cavaliers lead to 3-1. However, Virginia answered right back with two runs of its own in the bottom of the eighth inning when D. Street tripled to right-center and scored on a RBI-single to shallow left field by Word before Priest drove in M. Street with a RBI-single through the right side to give UVa a 5-1 advantage.
The Cavaliers’ Shooter Starr (1-1) earned his first win of the season after pitching five innings and allowing no runs on just three hits with a team-high three strikeouts. SHU’s Noonan (1-2) took the loss for the Pirates after giving up five runs on nine hits through 7.1 innings on the mound.
With the sweep, Virginia’s record improves to 9-2 overall, while the loss drops Seton Hall’s record to 2-7 on the year.
The Cavaliers will return to action on Tuesday, March 5th when UVa travels to Lynchburg, Va. to face the Liberty Flames at 2:30 p.m. The Pirates will return to action on March 9-11 when Seton Hall travels to Columbia, S.C. to face the South Carolina Gamecocks in a three-game series.
– UVa –