Hultzen Fires Gem as No. 2 Cavaliers Down Maryland in Game One of DH

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COLLEGE PARK, Md. – Danny Hultzen (So., Bethesda, Md.) scattered six hits over 7.2 innings to lead the second-ranked Virginia baseball team to a 5-1 win over Maryland Friday in the first game of a doubleheader at Shipley Field.

Hultzen (6-1) allowed a run and a walk with five strikeouts as he improved to 4-0 in ACC games this season. Tyler Wilson (Jr., Midlothian, Va.) pitched the final 1.1 innings to notch his third save. Maryland starter Brett Harman (4-6) pitched eight innings and allowed three earned runs, seven hits and three walks while striking out eight in taking the loss.

Kenny Swab (Jr., Kernersville, N.C.) and Reed Gragnani (Fr., Richmond, Va.) each had two hits for Virginia (32-9, 13-6 ACC). Gragnani drove in two, while Swab scored twice.

The bottom third of the batting order got Virginia rolling in the second inning. With one out John Hicks (So., Sandy Hook, Va.) singled up the middle. Swab followed with a double to right to move Hicks to third, and Gragnani then doubled high off the center-field fence to plate both runs and give UVa a 2-0 lead.

Jarrett Parker (Jr., Stafford, Va.) tacked a run on in the third inning when he crushed a monster home run to right-center field. Parker’s fourth home run of the season landed near the goal posts on the adjacent football practice field.

The Terrapins used a long ball of their own to get a run back in the third, as Brandon Padula smacked a solo home run which just cleared the right-center field fence.

Neither team had a hit from the fifth through seventh innings as Hultzen and Harman were locked in – the only baserunner in that span was UVa’s Dan Grovatt (Jr., Bethesda, Md.), who drew a fifth-inning walk.

Hultzen retired 13 in a row from the fourth through seventh innings after the Padula home run. He gave up a leadoff single in the eighth to Matthew Murakami but quickly erased him with a double-play grounder from . After walking his first batter of the game, Hultzen was lifted in favor of Wilson, who then retired the final four Terrapin hitters to earn the save.

UVa added a pair of insurance runs in the ninth, getting a run-scoring fielder’s choice from Phil Gosselin (Jr., West Chester, Pa.) and an RBI double from Grovatt.