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Virginia Fights Back To Defeat William & Mary, 11-9
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April 6, 2004
WILLIAMSBURG, Va. – The University of Virginia baseball team took full advantage of several key and costly errors by the William & Mary Tribe to post an 11-9 victory in a non-conference game at Plumeri Park. Trailing 7-4 late in the ball game, the Cavaliers battled back and made the Tribe pay for their mistakes and scored seven of the contest’s last nine runs to post the win. UVa scored its 11 runs on just five hits thanks in part to five William & Mary errors. Virginia’s win was its sixth consecutive as the Cavaliers improved to 14-3 on the road.
UVa got on the board in the first, as Mark Reynolds reached on an error, moved to second on a passed ball, and after a walk to Matt Dunn, both men moved up on a balk. Reynolds scored on a groundout by Ryan Zimmerman to give the Cavaliers the early 1-0 lead. The lead grew to 4-0 after the Cavaliers plated two more in the third to widen the lead to 4-0. But William & Mary answered with three runs in the second, as Yancey Jones drew a lead-off walk, and scored on Will Rhymes’s double off of the wall in left to trim the lead to 4-1. After a walk to Terry Revere, both he and Rhymes scored on Ben Keeton’s triple to the gap in right center to shave the lead to one at 4-3.
Keeton struck again to tie the game at four in the fifth. Rhymes blasted a one-out double down the right field line, and scored on Keeton’s single to left, his third RBI of the game, and it knotted the game at four. The game was not tied for long, as Keeton came around to score on the next pitch when Jon Rhymes hit a single back through the box to give W&M its first lead of the game at 5-4.
W&M widened the lead to 6-4 in the fifth after Sexton led off with a double off the wall in left, moved to second on a single to left by Mike DeCarlo and scored on Jones’s infield single to up the lead to 6-4, but the Tribe was not finished. After an intentional walk to Will Rhymes that loaded the bases, Revere lifted the first pitch to center field for a sacrifice fly that scored DeCarlo to extend the lead to 7-4.
Down 7-4 in the seventh, Virginia took advantage of three Tribe errors in the inning to tie the game at seven. Tim Henry led off when his fly ball was dropped by Jon Rhymes, which allowed him to advance to second. After Reynolds walked, Dunn hit a grounder to Lentz at third, but his throw sailed into right field, scoring Reynolds and Henry. Dunn advanced all the way to third on the play, and he scored on the next pitch when Zimmerman’s grounder to second was bobbled by Will Rhymes, to knot the game at 7-7.
The Tribe regained the lead in the eighth, as Will Rhymes singled to center, followed by a Revere walk. Keeton dropped a sacrifice bunt that moved both men over, and they scored on Sexton’s single up the middle to give W&M a 9-7 lead.
In the top of the ninth, UVa pieced together a bunt single followed by a walk and another single that trimmed the lead to one at 9-8. With the tying run at third Bray got Joe Koshansky to strike out for the first out. After a stolen base, Bray got Paul Gillispie to strike out, but the pitch got away from Joe Mante, allowing the tying run to score easily. After a pop-out for the second out of the inning, designated hitter Josh Darby hit a chopper to Lentz, but his throw sailed wide, allowing two runs to runs to score, giving UVA an 11-9 lead. Hickman retired the side in order in the ninth to preserve the win.
UVa’s Canon Hickman (4-2) picked up the win while teammate Casey Lambert closed out the game to post his fourth save of the season. William & Mary’s Bill Bray (3-2) took the loss for the Tribe.
With the victory, Virginia’s record improves to 26-7 overall. The loss drops William & Mary’s record to 21-9 on the year.
Virginia will return to home action on April 9-11 when the Cavaliers host the Clemson Tigers in a three-game Atlantic Coast Conference series. UVa and Clemson are scheduled to meet on Friday, April 9th at 7:00 PM, Saturday, April 10th at 7:00 PM and Sunday, April 11th at 1:00 PM. All three games will be played at Davenport Field at the UVa Baseball Stadium.
— UVa —