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Virginia Baseball Earns First Win of the Season With 15-5 Victory Over Liberty
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Feb. 24, 2003
LYNCHBURG, Va. – The Virginia Cavaliers broke open a close game with eight runs in the third, fourth and fifth innings on their way to a 15-5 victory over the Liberty baseball team at Worthington Stadium on Monday afternoon. The victory was UVa’s first of the season and its first road win of the year in Liberty’s season/home opener.
Liberty (0-1) jumped on top early with two first inning runs. Phillip Laurent singled to drive in Larry Wayne York who had earlier singled, for the game’s first run. The Flames extended their lead to 2-0 when David Bechtold reached on a fielder’s choice to score Michael Just.
After Virginia (1-3) scored a run in the top of the second inning, the Cavaliers took the lead for good when they plated three runs in the top of the third. Matt Street scored on a Liberty error for the inning’s first run. Joe Koshansky hit a sacrifice fly to center field to score Chris Sweet tomake the score 3-2. The inning’s final run was scored when Ryan Zimmerman grounded out to second base to bring in Mark Reynolds to give the Cavaliers a 4-2 lead.
After Liberty cut the lead to 4-3 on an Erich Cloninger home run in the bottom of the third inning, Virginia took a commanding lead with three runs in the fourth inning and two in the fifth, and then put the game away with six runs in the final three innings. Liberty plated a runin the eighth and another in the ninth to make the final score 15-5.
Virginia was led by Zimmerman, who went 3-for-6 with two doubles and four RBI. Matt Street went 3-for-4 with an RBI for the Cavaliers.
For Liberty, Cloninger went 2-for-3 with a home run and an RBI. York was 2-for-5 with an RBI, while Joshua Butcher also homered in a 1-for-2 performance at the plate.
UVa starting pitcher Andrew Dobies (1-0) picked up the win after pitching 7.0 innings and allowed only three runs (two earned) on six hits with two strikeouts. The Cavaliers’ Alan Zimmerer and Canon Hickman also pitched an inning in relief duty.
Virginia will return to home action for a three-games series on February 28 – March 2 when the Cavaliers host the Seton Hall Pirates in UVa’s home-opener. Virginia will face Seton Hall on Friday, February 28th at 3:00 PM; Saturday, March 1st at 1:00 PM and Sunday, February 2nd at 1:00 PM. All three games will be played on Davenport Field at the UVa Baseball Stadium.
Liberty will return to action on Tuesday, February 25, when the Flames play host to the William & Mary Tribe. The first pitch is set for 2:30 p.m. at Worthington Stadium.
— UVa —