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Baseball Holds Off Wake Forest, 8-6
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WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. The Virginia baseball team jumped out to a 7-2 lead through five and a half innings, then held on for an 8-6 win over Wake Forest Saturday night at Wake Forest Baseball Park. Virginia pushed its record to 11-0 this season (2-0 ACC) as it clinched a series win against the Demon Deacons. The 11-game winning streak is tied with Georgia for the longest current winning streak in the nation.
Virginia withstood a home run barrage from the Demon Deacons, who swatted four homers in the contest. UVa got one of its own from Jarrett Parker (So., Stafford, Va.), who went 2-for-4 with three runs scored and two stolen bases. For the second straight night, every Virginia starter recorded at least one hit. UVa had 16 hits in the contest and now has 36 in the two games of the series.
Phil Gosselin (So., West Chester, Pa.) and John Hicks (Fr., Sandy Hook, Va.) each had three hits for Virginia. Hicks also added three RBI. Tyler Cannon (Jr., Pigeon Forge, Tenn.) followed up his 5-for-5 effort on Friday night with two hits on Saturday.
On the mound, Andrew Carraway (Sr., Marietta, Ga.) went five innings to earn the win and improve to 3-0 this year. He allowed two earned runs, four hits and three walks while striking out three. Matt Packer (Jr., Germantown, Tenn.) got out of jams in the eighth and ninth innings to preserve the lead and notch his first save of 2009.
Wake Forest (6-3, 0-2 ACC) put a run up in the first inning, taking advantage of a leadoff walk to Dustin Hood. Shane Kroker bunted Hood to second, and Mike Murray brought the run in with a single to center.
Virginia got on the scoreboard in the third inning. Parker led off with a single, stole second and moved to third on a Gosselin single. Danny Hultzen (Fr., Bethesda, Md.) followed with a sacrifice fly to left to tie the game.
UVa forged ahead with a three-run fourth inning. Cannon and Hicks led off with consecutive doubles to give the Wahoos the lead. After a David Coleman (So., Richmond, Va.) sacrifice, Corey Hunt (R-So., Charlottesville, Va.) hit a sacrifice fly to score Coleman. Parker then followed with a colossal blast to right field which cleared a retaining fence well past the right-field wall. The home run was Parker’s third of the season.
The Demon Deacons sliced a run off the lead in the fifth inning when Ryan Semeniuk hit a solo home run to left field to lead off the inning. Virginia responded in the sixth with a Gosselin single to score Parker, who walked and stole second to start the frame.
Wake used the long ball to score three in the sixth inning against reliever Neal Davis (Jr., Baltimore, Md.). Evan Ocheltree hit a solo home run to left field to lead off the inning. Weldon Woodall then singled before Davis struck out Austin Stadler. Carlos Lopez followed with a long homer to left field to bring Wake to within 7-5.
The Demon Deacons pulled to 7-6 in the seventh inning when Murray launched a solo home run to left field against UVa’s Kevin Arico (So., Flemington, N.J.).
UVa scored an insurance run in the ninth on a Hicks infield single to plate Hultzen, who led off the inning with a single.
Wake posted big threats in the eighth and ninth innings against Packer, getting leadoff doubles in each frame. In both instances, Packer wiggled out of trouble. In the eighth, the Deacs had a runner at third with one out, but Packer fanned Lopez and Bentley Heyman to end the inning. In the ninth, Wake had runners at first and second with two out. The Demon Deacons attempted a double steal, but Hicks gunned out Seminiuk at third base to end the game.
Virginia goes for the series sweep at 1 p.m. Sunday.