Baseball Wallops Wake Forest, 18-2
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WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. Led by a 5-for-5 effort from Tyler Cannon (Jr., Pigeon Forge, Tenn.), the Virginia baseball team rolled to an 18-2 triumph Friday night at Wake Forest Baseball Park. UVa piled up a season-best 18 runs and had 20 hits for the second straight game. The Cavaliers scored the program’s most runs in an ACC road game since a 29-run outburst at Maryland on April 28, 1990.
Cannon set a career high with his five-hit effort. He became the first Virginia player to rack up five hits in a game since David Adams had a quintet March 10, 2007, at Wake Forest. Cannon also had a career-high five runs scored and added four RBI. He doubled three times and homered once as he fell a triple shy of the cycle.
Phil Gosselin (So., West Chester, Pa.) went 2-for-4 with a career-best four runs and four RBI. Steven Proscia (Fr., Suffern, N.Y.) added three hits and three RBI as every Cavalier starter had at least one hit.
UVa (10-0, 1-0 ACC) was impressive on the mound too, with Danny Hultzen (Fr., Bethesda, Md.) going seven strong innings and allowing two earned runs, five hits and two walks while striking out nine. He improved to 3-0 this season. Robert Poutier (Sr., Yorktown, Va.) tossed the final two innings. Austin Stadler (2-1) took the loss for Wake and lasted four innings, giving up nine runs (six earned), nine hits and a walk while fanning four.
The Cavaliers set the tone for the evening with a four-run first inning. Jarrett Parker (So., Stafford, Va.) and Cannon led things off with consecutive singles and moved up when Gosselin was hit by a pitch. Dan Grovatt (So., Tabernacle, N.J.) then went to the opposite field and slapped a double into left field to score Parker and Cannon and give UVa a 2-0 lead.
A Mike Murray passed ball allowed Gosselin to score. One out later, John Barr (So., Ivyland, Pa.) lined out to first, but Evan Ocheltree attempted to nail Grovatt at third and the throw sailed wide, allowing Grovatt to come home and give UVa a 4-0 advantage.
The Cavaliers pushed their lead to 6-0 in the third inning. Cannon led off with a home run, which sailed just to the right of the high fence in center field. It marked his first home run of 2009 and his third career long ball. Gosselin followed with a walk and scored three batters later on a Carlos Lopez error at third base.
Wake Forest (6-2, 0-1) matched the Cavaliers with two runs in its half of the third. With one out, Ryan Semeniuk singled. He moved up on a walk and scored on a Shane Kroker single. Kroker then scored on a Murray single.
UVa tacked on three runs in the fourth inning. With one out, Parker singled and then scored on a Cannon double. Cannon came home when Gosselin crushed a hanging curveball over the left-center field wall for his first homer of the year.
The lead ballooned to a dozen, 14-2, in the fifth inning when UVa scored five times against relief pitcher Gabriel Feldman. After Barr walked and John Hicks (Fr., Sandy Hook, Va.) doubled off the wall, Franco Valdes (Jr., Miami, Fla.) ripped a double down the right-field line to score two. Two outs later, Cannon doubled to left to score Valdes, and Gosselin singled to plate Cannon. Proscia then hit a double to score Gosselin, and he now has at least one RBI in all 10 games this season.
In the sixth, the Cavaliers added another run on a Cannon sacrifice fly.
Virginia posted its final three runs in the eighth inning. Pinch hitter Tyler Biddix (So., Richmond, Va.) led off with a walk and moved up on Cannon double his fifth hit of the evening. Biddix scored on a Gosselin groundout and after a walk to Grovatt, both runners scored on a Proscia double.
The teams play game two of the series at 6 p.m. Saturday.