No. 11 Baseball Rallies from Six Down, Tops Duke 10-9
Story Links
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. John Barr (So., Ivyland, Pa.) hit a bases-loaded single with one out in the ninth inning to cap a seven-run rally as the No. 11 Virginia baseball team defeated Duke, 10-9, Saturday afternoon at Davenport Field. The Cavaliers trailed 9-3 with one out in the eighth inning but scored five in the eighth and then tied the game on the first pitch in the ninth inning on a home run by Danny Hultzen (Fr., Bethesda, Md.) before Barr’s heroics.
The big rally was UVa’s second such comeback this year. The Cavaliers scored six runs in the ninth inning April 11 at Georgia Tech to win 11-10.
Steven Proscia (Fr., Suffern, N.Y.) homered for the second straight day for the Cavaliers. He reached base four times and finished 2-for-3 with two RBI and three runs. Phil Gosselin (So., West Chester, Pa.) also had two hits and scored twice, while John Hicks (Fr., Sandy Hook, Va.) had a pair of hits and two RBI and Dan Grovatt (So., Tabernacle, N.J.) nabbed two hits and scored twice.
The Virginia bullpen was stellar with 4.2 innings of one-run, five hit relief. Tyler Wilson (So., Midlothian, Va.) threw two-thirds of an inning before Matt Packer (Jr., Germantown, Tenn.) went 3.1 innings while allowing only Piwnica-Worms’ home run. Kevin Arico (So., Flemington, N.J.) worked the final two-thirds of an inning to earn the win and improve to 2-2 this year.
Virginia starting pitcher Andrew Carraway (Sr., Marietta, Ga.) had his first rough outing of the year. Carraway pitched 4.1 innings and gave up eight earned runs and eight hits while striking out six. With his six strikeouts, Carraway moved into eighth place all-time at Virginia with 215 strikeouts. He also made his 67th career appearance, which is tied for ninth all-time at UVa.
Andrew Wolcott gave Duke its second consecutive strong starting pitching performance of the series, going 7.1 innings and allowing four earned runs, six hits and one walk while striking out five. Dennis O’Grady (1-1) took the loss after allowing six runs (four earned) in one inning.
Duke jumped out to an early 5-0 lead, then bumped it to 9-3 in the seventh on a solo home run by Will Piwnica-Worms before the Cavaliers’ big comeback.
With Virginia trailing 9-8, Hultzen led off the ninth with a home run to left-center, his third homer of the year and first at Davenport Field. Grovatt then ripped a triple the got just past an out-stretched Piwnica-Worms in center field. O’Grady intentionally walked Proscia, then struck out Hicks looking. After an intentional walk to Cannon to load the bases, Barr pulled a base hit just inside third base and down the left-field line to score Grovatt with the winning run and set off a massive celebration.
Duke (32-19, 13-13 ACC) grabbed an early lead with a five-run the second inning. Joe Pedevillano and Ryan McCurdy each hit RBI singles before Matt Williams launched a three-run home run to left-center to give the Blue Devils a 5-0 lead.
The Cavaliers (36-10-1, 14-9-1) got a run back in the second inning on a solo home run by Proscia, his seventh homer of the season and second in as many games.
In the fourth inning, UVa sliced two runs off the lead. Gosselin led off with a single and advanced on a groundout. With two out, Proscia was hit by a pitch. Gosselin scored on a Hicks single, which also moved Proscia to third. On the next pitch, Wolcott committed a balk, allowing Proscia to score.
Duke got the runs right back in the fifth on a two-run home run by Nate Freiman, his league-leading 17th of the season. The Blue Devils later got an RBI single from Alex Hassan to push the lead back to five, 8-3.
UVa staged a five-run rally in the eighth inning to close within one. Proscia started the scoring by hitting an RBI single to plate Gosselin. Hicks followed with an RBI single and after Tyler Cannon (Jr., Pigeon Forge, Tenn.) singled to load the bases, pinch hitter Scott Silverstein (Fr., Olney, Md.) walked to force in a run. One out later, O’Grady made an errant pickoff throw to first, allowing Cannon and Hicks to score and close the lead to 9-8.
The teams play the rubber game of the three-game series at 1 p.m. Sunday.