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No. 8 Baseball Fights Off Towson, 7-5
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CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. The No. 8 Virginia baseball team held off a late Towson surge to post a 7-5 win Wednesday in a soggy contest at Davenport Field. Eight of the nine Virginia starters notched hits in the game as the Cavaliers improved on the best record in the nation (21-2).
Four Cavaliers recorded a pair of hits David Coleman (So., Richmond, Va.), John Hicks (Fr., Sandy Hook, Va.) and Jarrett Parker (So., Stafford, Va.) and Steven Proscia (Fr., Suffern, N.Y.). UVa had a dozen hits as a team.
Tyler Wilson (So., Midlothian, Va.) earned the win for Virginia and improved to 4-1 this year after firing 1.1 scoreless innings out of the bullpen. UVa starting pitcher Jeff Lorick (Jr., Duluth, Ga.) tossed 4.2 innings, allowing two earned runs, four hits and two walks while striking out two.
Towson starting pitcher Ben Winter (1-1) took the loss and went 2.2 innings, giving up five earned runs, seven hits and a walk.
Towson (12-12) drew first blood with a run in the third inning. With two out, Kevin Collins hit a bloop single to center field to score Gary Helmick.
Virginia struck back by sending 10 batters to the plate in a five-run third inning. Valdes doubled to center to lead off and scored on a single up the middle by Coleman. One out later, Parker tripled to center, and after a walk and stolen base by Tyler Cannon (Jr., Pigeon Forge, Tenn.), Parker scored on a Phil Gosselin (So., West Chester, Pa.) infield single. Two batters later, Cannon came home on a Hicks infield single. John Barr (So., Ivyland, Pa.) followed with a single to score Gosselin and give the Cavaliers a 5-1 advantage.
Towson tallied a run in the fifth inning on a two-out single by Kevin Collins which scored Helmick. The Cavaliers responded with a run of their own in the bottom of the fifth when Valdes hit a sacrifice fly to center field.
The Cavaliers added to their lead in the seventh inning. Gosselin reached on an error to lead off and moved to second on a balk. He scored on a hit-and-run single by Steven Proscia (Fr., Suffern, N.Y.).
The Tigers got that run back in the eighth inning on a Spencer Patton double to score Chris Wychock. Towson made things even more interesting in the ninth, scoring a one-out run on an RBI grounder by Matt Collins that was booted by Proscia and adding a two-out tally on a wild pitch. The Tigers twice had the tying run at the plate, but Matt Packer (Jr., Germantown, Tenn.) struck out the last two batters to finish the game.
Virginia heads to Chapel Hill, N.C., this weekend for a three-game ACC set with fifth-ranked North Carolina. Game one is at 7 p.m. Friday, with game two set for 3 p.m. Saturday. The final game will be at 1 p.m. Sunday. All three games will be broadcast by WINA 1070-AM, while ACC Select will have the webcast of the Saturday contest.