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Baseball
Virginia Baseball Sweeps Series Against Central Connecticut State With 9-4 Victory
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March 7, 2004
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – The University of Virginia baseball team defeated the Central Connecticut State Blue Devils by the score of 9-4 in the third and final contest of a three-game, non-conference series in front of 874 spectators at Davenport Field at the UVa Baseball Stadium. The Cavaliers found themselves behind for the first time all series and trailed by as much as 4-0 at the start of the bottom of the third inning, before Virginia rallied to score the last nine runs of the game to post a five-run victory.
Central Connecticut State scored a run in the top of the second inning to take a 1-0 lead when Brad Muldoon singled before scoring a run on a RBI-single by teammate Keith Stegbauer. The run equaled CCSU’s combined total from the first two games, and also gave the Blue Devils their first lead of the series. Central Connecticut State then extended its lead to 4-0 in the top of the second inning when the Blue Devils scored three runs in an inning when they had no hits and benefited from four Cavalier errors.
However, CCSU could not hold on to its lead for long, as Virginia came right back in the bottom of the third inning and took the lead for good by scoring seven runs to build a 7-4 lead. UVa’s decisive third inning scoring outburst was keyed by RBI-singles by Mark Reynolds, Joe Koshansky and Kyle Werman, while Tom Hagan drove in a run with a RBI sacrifice fly. The Cavaliers’ Tim Henry did his part at the plate as well and connected on a two-run, RBI-double to score a pair of runs. Reynolds also scored a run from third base on a balk to account for the scoring in the inning for UVa. CCSU committed two errors in the inning to keep UVa’s rally going.
Virginia made it an 8-4 ballgame in the bottom of the fourth inning when Ryan Zimmerman singled and scored a run two batters later on a RBI-single to center field by Matt Dunn.
The score would remain 8-4 in favor of UVa until the bottom of the eighth inning. That’s when Koshansky gave the Cavaliers a 9-4 lead with one swift swing of the bat as he belted a solo home run to deep center field over the 32 foot high wall standing 408 feet away from home plate. Koshansky’s home run, his sixth of the season, was only the second home run ever to clear the “Blue Monster” in center field at Davenport Field at the UVa Baseball Stadium. Nearly one year ago, on March 9th, 2003, Virginia’s Mark Reynolds hit the first ever home run for any player (Virginia or its opponent) over the wall in UVa’s 11-5 victory over Charlotte.
Aside from doing damage with his bat to CCSU, UVa’s Koshansky also picked up the win on the mound as the LHP improved his record to 3-0 on the season after going 5.0 innings. He allowed just one earned run on four hits to go along with a game-high four strikeouts. The Blue Devils Mark Peterson took the loss after allowing seven runs (two earned) on six hits and struck out one batter.
With the victory, Virginia’s record improves to 13-1 overall. The loss drops Central Connecticut State to 1-3-1 on the season. UVa swept the three-game series with CCSU, three games to none and Virginia is now a perfect 9-0 in contests played during a three-game series this season.
The Cavaliers will return to home action on Monday, March 8th when Virginia hosts the Quinnipiac Bobcats in a non-conference game. First pitch is scheduled for 2:00 PM at Davenport Field at the UVa Baseball Stadium.
— UVa —