Blue Team Defeats Orange Team In Game One Of Virginia's Orange vs. Blue World Series, 3-2

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Oct. 21, 2003

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – The University of Virginia baseball team conducted its first contest of the “Orange vs. Blue World Series” at Davenport Field at the UVa Baseball Stadium on Monday. The Blue Team, coached by Virginia assistant coach Kevin McMullan, pulled out a 3-2 decision over the Orange Team, which was coached by UVa assistant coach Karl Kuhn, in a seven inning contest. The Blue Team did most of its damage in a decisive sixth-inning run where it scored three runs and then held one for the one-run victory. The Blue Team now leads the best-of-three series, one game to none.

In Game One of the series, both squads played through a scoreless ballgame through five complete innings of play before the Blue Team (visitors) scored three runs in the top of the sixth inning to pull out to a 3-0 lead. Fourth-year Paul Gillispie (Danville, Va./George Washington) got things started for the Blue Team by walking to reach base before he scored a run two batters later on a RBI ground-out by first-year teammate Sean Slaughter (Virginia Beach, Va.) to make the score 1-0. The Cavaliers’ Adam Laird (Bellaire, Texas/Bellaire), who is a pitcher on Virginia’s roster but played third base and went 2-4 at the plate on the afternoon, recorded his second single of the day and eventually scored a run himself after crossing the plate on a wild pitch to make it a 2-0 contest. Later in the inning, fourth-year Matt Street (Purcellville, Va./Loudoun Valley) scored the eventual game-winning run on a RBI-single by Kyle Werman (Vienna, Va./James Madison) to give the Blue Team its 3-0 advantage. Werman’s hit, the game-winner, was his second hit of the game.

The Orange Team chipped away at the Blue Team’s lead and made it a 3-1 contest in the bottom half of the sixth inning when Tim Henry (Fairfield, Conn./Fairfield) doubled to reach base before he came around to score his team’s first run on the game on a RBI-single by Scott Headd (Phoenix, Md./Dulaney).

Trailing by two runs (3-1) in the bottom of the seventh and final inning, the Orange Team put together a late rally beginning with a lead-off triple by third-year Jordan Ghrist (Reston, Va./Herndon) to put a runner on third base with no outs. In the Orange squad’s next at-bat, first-year Kye Kolar (Austin, Texas) drove in Ghrist to score a run on a RBI ground-out to third to make it a one-run game at 3-2. However, the Blue Team closed out the game on closing pitcher Josh Myers’ (Chesapeake, Va./Western Branch) arm and held on to secure a 3-2 victory.

The Blue Team’s Myers tossed 2.0 innings in relief and allowed two runs on three hits with one strikeout. The Blue squad’s starting pitcher Casey Lambert (Harrisonburg, Va./St. Anne’s Belfield) tossed an impressive 5.0 scoreless innings and allowed just one hit while striking out one batter. The Orange Team’s starting pitcher, Andrew Dobies (Wexford, Pa./North Allegheny) matched Lambert’s efforts and also pitched 5.0 scoreless inning while surrendering five runs to go along with a game-high two strikeouts. The Orange squad’s Scott Morgenthaler (Springfield, Va./Annandale) went 0.1 inning and allowed two runs on one hit while Canon Hickman (Mechanicsville, Va./Atlee) closed out the game by tossing 1.2 innings and allowed just one run on two hits with one strikeout.

With the victory, the Blue Team improves its record to 1-0. The loss drops the Orange Team’s record to 0-1. The Blue and Orange squads will return to action on Tuesday, October 21st for Game Two of the Orange vs. Blue World Series. First pitch is scheduled for 4:30 PM at Davenport Field at the UVa Baseball Stadium.

Match		Date					Result/TimeGame #1:	Monday, October 20th		Blue 3, Orange 2Game #2:	Tuesday, October 21st		4:30pmGame #3:   	Wednesday, October 22nd 		7:00pm

ORANGE TEAMManager:  Karl Kuhn1.  Matt Avery #352.  Andrew Dobies #173.  Jordan Ghrist #254.  Ty Grisham #325.  Scott Head #236.  Tim Henry #67.  Cannon Hickman #78.  Kye Kolar #199.  Kent Krekorian (no # on jersey)10. Matt Lucido #511. Mike Mitchell #812. Scott Morgenthaler #3013. Rich Prall #2714. Shawn Roe (no # on jersey)15. Ryan Sandefur #3816. Ryan Zimmerman #11

BLUE TEAMManager: Kevin McMullan1.  John Arseneau (no # on jersey)2.  Greg Davis #403.  Matt Dunn #14.  Chad Fisher (no # on jersey)5.  Paul Gillispie #286.  Joe Koshansky #217.  Adam Laird #108.  Casey Lambert #49.  Josh Meyers #2910. Mark Reynolds #1211. Sean Slaughter #3812. Alex Smith #3313. Matt Street #914. Shooter Starr #1415. Kyle Werman #216. Alan Zimmerer #3

— UVa —