Baseball Sweeps DH with Bucknell

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. The Virginia baseball team swept a doubleheader with Bucknell Saturday afternoon at Davenport Field, winning the first game, 7-0, and taking the nightcap, 6-1. UVa pitchers continued to shine, allowing just 10 hits in the doubleheader with only two Bison baserunners advancing past second base.

Combined with the 12-0 win Friday, it marked Virginia’s first consecutive shutouts since the Cavaliers recorded three straight shutouts over Coppin State (12-0) and Bucknell (2-0, 3-0) in 2007.

Game 1
In the opener, Virginia pitchers Danny Hultzen (Fr., Bethesda, Md.), Will Roberts (Fr., Richmond, Va.) and Kevin Arico (So., Flemington, N.J.) combined to blank the Bison on seven hits, while catcher Franco Valdes (Jr., Miami, Fla.) and third baseman Steven Proscia (Fr., Suffern, N.Y.) each had three hits at the plate.

Valdes finished with three hits including two singles and a home run while driving in two runs. Proscia hit two singles and a double in four appearances at the plate.

Hultzen earned his first career win with six innings of scoreless baseball, allowing only six hits while striking out five. Roberts and Arico finished the game, combining for six strikeouts (three each) in three innings. Roberts pitched the seventh and eighth innings before Arico struck out the side in the ninth to finish matters.

Trey Frahler took the loss for the Bison after starting and pitching 4.1 innings while allowing five runs (four earned) on nine hits and two walks.

The teams battled through three scoreless innings before the Cavaliers tallied three runs in the fourth inning. After Dan Grovatt (So., Tabernacle, N.J.) and Proscia reached to start the inning, Scott Silverstein (Fr., Olney, Md.) singled to left-center to give UVa a 2-0 lead. One batter later, Valdes plated Silverstein with a single to right.

Virginia tacked on two runs in the fifth inning on back-to-back RBI singles by Grovatt and Proscia. In the sixth, UVa added a pair of runs on a Valdes solo home run and a Daniel Hart wild pitch to score Jarrett Parker (So., Stafford, Va.).

Game 2
In the second game, Proscia hit a three-run home run to support starting pitcher Neal Davis (Jr., Baltimore, Md.), who went six solid innings and did not allow an earned run in earning the victory. He surrendered just two hits and a walk while striking out two.

UVa scored in just one inning, but made its six-run fourth inning stand up for the win.

Robert Poutier (Sr., Yorktown, Va.) and Tyler Wilson (So., Midlothian, Va.) combined to shut the Bison out over the final three frames. Davis, Poutier and Wilson combined to hold the Bison to three hits. Bucknell’s Sean Driscoll took the loss after giving up six earned runs, seven hits and two walks in 3.2 innings.

John Hicks (Fr., Sandy Hook, Va.) had three hits for Virginia, while Tyler Cannon (Jr., Pigeon Forge, Tenn.) racked up two hits and Parker had two RBI.

Bucknell broke an 18-inning scoring drought against Virginia by breaking through in the first inning on an RBI triple by Andy Brouse.

After going hitless through the first three innings, Virginia erupted in the fourth inning with seven hits and six runs while sending 11 batters to the plate. Proscia hit a three-run home run early in the inning, while Jared King (Fr., Radford, Va.) added an RBI single and Parker had a two-run single. The long ball was Proscia’s second in as many days.

After the Cavaliers’ outburst, the pitching staff made it hold up by retiring 15 of the final 17 batters and not allowing a baserunner past second base.

The teams finish the four-game series at 1 p.m. Sunday.