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No. 14 Baseball Downs Towson, 9-8
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CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. The Virginia baseball team earned its fourth straight win with a 9-8 victory over Towson Tuesday night at Davenport Field. Greg Miclat’s safety squeeze in the eighth inning scored Patrick Wingfield (Sr., Winchester, Va.) with the eventual winning run.
Virginia (24-5) jumped to a 4-0 lead after one inning, only to see the Tigers rally with six of their own in the second inning. From there, the Cavaliers’ bullpen allowed just two unearned runs and four hits in the final 7.1 innings.
Matt Packer (So., Germantown, Tenn.) pitched two-thirds of an inning to earn the win and move to a team-best 5-0 on the season. Michael Schwimer (Sr., Alexandria, Va.), tied for the national lead in saves, earned his ninth save by firing a perfect ninth inning.
Neal Davis (So., Baltimore, Md.) was sensational out of the bullpen, as he tossed a career-high 5.1 innings and gave up just two hits while striking out four. He allowed just three baserunners in his relief stint. UVa starter Robert Poutier (Sr., Yorktown, Va.) had a rough outing, going 1.2 innings and allowing six earned runs, five hits and three walks while fanning three.
Jon Dupski (0-6) took the loss for Towson after giving up a run in 1.2 innings of relief. Towson starting pitcher Austin Hurd had a tough night as well, allowing five earned runs, seven hits and a walk in 3.2 innings. He struck out four.
Dan Grovatt (Fr., Tabernacle, N.J.) had another strong night at the plate, going 3-for-3 with two RBI and two runs. Wingfield and David Coleman (Fr., Richmond, Va.) each added two hits and two stolen bases. The Cavaliers stole eight bases, their most since swiping nine at Clemson on April 20, 2008.
Virginia started strong with four runs in the first. With one out, David Adams (Jr., Margate, Fla.) and Grovatt hit consecutive run-scoring doubles. One batter later, Coleman and Ryan Smith (So., Waldorf, Md.) hit back-to-back RBI singles to give Virginia a 4-0 lead.
Towson (11-15) wasted no time in responding as it scored six in the second. Kevin Collins and Nick Natoli hit back-to-back run-scoring singles to cut the lead in half and one out later, Brian Conley cracked an RBI single. Matt Collins followed with a three-run blast to left-center for his fifth home run of the season to give the Tigers a 6-4 lead and end the night for Poutier.
Virginia chipped away with a run in the fourth inning on a two-out Tyler Cannon (So., Pigeon Forge, Tenn.) RBI single to score Miclat. The Cavaliers then forged ahead with two in the fifth on an RBI groundout by Coleman and a run-scoring single from Wingfield.
UVa added a run in the sixth on a two-out Grovatt single to score Cannon. Towson rallied to tie the game in the eighth inning on a two-run single by Natoli.
Virginia scored the game’s final run in the eighth as Wingfield led off with a double and stole third. After a walk to Jarrett Parker (Fr., Stafford, Va.), Miclat laid down a perfect bunt down the first-base line to allow Wingfield to cross the plate with the go-ahead run.
Virginia wraps up its 12-game homestand at 5 p.m. Wednesday with another matchup with Towson.