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May 12, 2002
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – The University of Virginia baseball team dropped a15-2 decision to the #1 ranked Clemson Tigers this afternoon at the UVaBaseball Stadium, home of Davenport Field. Virginia tied the game at 1-1after two complete innings of play before Clemson erupted to score 14 of thenext 15 runs in the game to record a 13-run victory. It was the Tigers’second consecutive victory with 15 runs scored after posting a 15-4 win overUVa on Friday in game one of the three-game series.
In the bottom of the first inning, Virginia’s David Stone walked and thenrecorded his 24th stolen base of the season to become UVa’s all-time leaderin stolen bases in a single season, breaking Bill Narleski’s former recordmark of 23 in 1986.
After leaving the bases loaded in the top of the first inning without scoringa run, Clemson jumped out to an early 1-0 lead in the top of the secondinning when Jarrod Schmidt blasted a solo home run to left field to lead offthe inning. But Virginia came right back in the bottom half of the inningand tied the game at 1-1 when Chris Sweet singled, stole second base and thenscored a run in the Cavaliers’ next at-bat on Scott Headd’s RBI-singlethrough the left side.
However, the Tigers flexed their muscles in the top of the third inning andtook a 5-1 lead after back-to-back solo home runs by Khalil Greene and JeffBaker before Schmidt blasted his second home run of the game to deep leftfield with a two-run shot to give the Tigers a four-run advantage. Clemsontook an 8-1 lead in the top of the fourth inning when Russell Triplettstarted off the inning with a doubled and later scored a run on a balk beforeGreene (hit by pitch) and Michael Johnson (single) each scored a run. Greenescored his run on a RBI-single by Johnson before Johnson crossed the platehimself on David Slevins’ RBI-double.
The Tigers added two more runs in the top of the sixth inning and took a 10-1lead when Greene (single) and Baker (walk) each scored a run. Greene scoredon a RBI-single by Schmidt before Baker scored on a wild pitch.
Virginia cut Clemson’s lead to 10-2 in the bottom of the sixth inning whenRobert Word connected on his second home run of the series (tenth of theseason) with a solo shot to left field to pull the Cavaliers within eightruns of the Tigers. But Clemson got the run right back after scoring a runof its own in the top of the eighth inning when Zane Green connected with aRBI-single to right field to drive in Schmidt, making it an 11-2 contest.
The Tigers extended their lead to 15-2 in the top of the ninth inning whenBaker hit his second home run of the game (a three-run shot to deep leftfield) to drive in Garrick Evans (hit by pitch) and Greene (single) beforeSlevin scored his second run of the game. Greene reached base afterrecording his third hit of the contest (a single to left field) to become theACC’s all-time leader with 367 career hits.
The Tigers’ starting pitcher Matt Henrie (10-2) pitched an outstanding gameafter going seven strong innings and allowed just two runs on five hits witha career-high eight strikeouts. The Cavaliers’ Joe Koshansky (2-5) took theloss after lasting four innings and surrendered eight runs (seven earned) onnine hits with two strikeouts.
With the loss, Virginia’s record falls to 24-25 overall, 8-12 in the ACC.The win improves Clemson’s record to 42-9 overall, 15-5 in the conference.
The Cavaliers and Tigers will return to action on Monday, May 13th to playthe final game of the three-game series. First pitch is scheduled for 1:00p.m. at the UVa Baseball Stadium, home of Davenport Field.
— UVa —