No. 1 Virginia Baseball Topples Georgetown, 10-5
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CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – The No. 1-ranked Virginia baseball team matched a season best with its seventh straight win Wednesday, as the Cavaliers recorded a 10-5 victory over Georgetown at Davenport Field.
Phil Gosselin (Jr., West Chester, Pa.) recorded his third career four-hit game, going 4-for-5 with three RBI. Reed Gragnani (Fr., Richmond, Va.) added two hits and two stolen bases. Eight of the nine Cavalier starters posted at least one hit as UVa finished with 13 hits in the game.
Justin Thompson (So., Danville, Va.) worked 3.1 innings of scoreless relief to pick up the win and improve to 3-0 this season. He allowed two hits and a walk while striking out three. UVa’s six pitchers combined to strike out 13 batters. Georgetown starter Jared Cohen (1-1), the first of seven Hoya pitchers, allowed two earned runs and two hits in two innings in taking the loss.
After squandering a bases-loaded, no-outs opportunity against UVa starter Whit Mayberry (Fr., Alexandria, Va.) in the first inning, Georgetown (19-22) drew first blood when Kevin Johnson doubled to score Chip Malt in the second inning.
Virginia (36-9) countered with a pair of runs in its half of the second. With one out Gragnani drilled a single up the middle and then stole second base. He moved to third on a wild pitch. Danny Hultzen (So., Bethesda, Md.) followed with a walk. Kenny Swab (Jr., Kernersville, N.C.) then lifted a sacrifice fly to left field to tie the game. David Coleman (Jr., Richmond, Va.) singled to right, and Hultzen aggressively advanced to third, which proved key when Cohen uncorked another wild pitch, allowing Hultzen to score.
UVa added three runs in the third inning. Gosselin tripled to lead off the inning, and Chris Taylor (Fr., Virginia Beach, Va.) followed with a walk. One out later Steven Proscia (So., Suffern, N.Y.) doubled to left to plate Gosselin and move Taylor to third. Taylor scored on a wild pitch, and Proscia came home when Gragnani lined a single over the drawn-in infield, pushing the lead to 5-1.
The Cavaliers posted two more runs in the fourth inning against reliever Cary Piligian. Coleman hit the first pitch down the left-field line for a double. Keith Werman (So., Vienna, Va.) singled to right to move Coleman to third base, and Gosselin followed with a double to left-center to score both runners and give UVa a 7-1 lead.
UVa needed just two pitches to add another run in the fifth. Hultzen hit reliever Bobby Kirby’s first pitch to left field for a double, and Swab drilled the next offering to right field to score Hultzen. The Cavaliers added two more runs in the inning, as Gosselin singled to score Swab and later came home on a throwing error by shortstop Tom Elliott.
The Hoyas scored a run in the sixth inning, as Malt and Johnson drew back-to-back one-out walks before pinch hitter Dan Godefroi singled to score Malt. Georgetown then scored three in the seventh inning when Sean Lamont drilled a three-run home run to left-center.
Virginia travels to Duke this weekend for a three-game ACC series. All three games will be played at Durham Bulls Athletic Park, home of the triple-A Durham Bulls. The series begins at 6 p.m. Friday, with 2 p.m. Saturday and 1 p.m. Sunday contests to follow.