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GREENSBORO, N.C. – The top-seeded Virginia baseball team dropped an 11-4 decision to No. 5 seed Florida State Thursday at the 2010 ACC Baseball Championship at NewBridge Bank Park in Greensboro, N.C. Led by a three-home run performance from Stephen Cardullo, Florida State jumped out to an early lead and never trailed in earning the win.

Virginia (46-11) has Friday off, then plays No. 4 seed Miami at noon Saturday. In order for the Cavaliers to advance to the championship game, they must defeat Miami Saturday, and Boston College has to beat Florida State Friday.

UVa starting pitcher Robert Morey (Jr., Virginia Beach, Va.) saw his streak of five-consecutive wins come to an end. Morey (9-3) struggled with his control and lasted a season-low four innings after racking up 113 pitches. He allowed six earned runs, seven hits and four walks while striking out seven. He also tossed four wild pitches. Virginia pitchers surrendered a season-high five home runs in the defeat.

Geoff Parker (4-1) earned the win for Florida State after working 3.2 innings of relief while allowing just one run. FSU starter Brian Busch worked 4.1 innings, allowing three earned runs, two hits and three walks while striking out one.

Florida State (40-17) stormed to an early 6-1 lead. In the first, Mike McGee hit a line drive which stayed just inside the right-field foul pole for a solo home run. UVa countered with a Steven Proscia (So., Suffern, N.Y.) home run in the top of the second – his team-high ninth homer of the season. In their half of the second, the Seminoles scored three times, getting a solo home run by Cardullo and a two-run single from Sherman Johnson.

In the fourth, Florida State tacked on a pair of runs despite only posting one hit. With one out, Jayce Boyd and Tyler Holt drew consecutive walks. One out later McGee singled to right to score Boyd and move Holt to third. Holt then scored on a Morey wild pitch to push the lead to 6-1.

Virginia got those two runs back in the fifth inning. John Hicks (So., Sandy Hook, Va.) walked to lead off but was erased on a John Barr (Jr., Ivyland, Pa.) fielder’s choice. Kenny Swab (Jr., Kernersville, N.C.) was then hit by a pitch. Chris Taylor (Fr., Virginia Beach, Va.) doubled to right field to plate Barr and move Swab to third. Geoff Parker entered in relief and Phil Gosselin (Jr., West Chester, Pa.) hit a sacrifice fly to score Swab and cut the FSU lead to 6-3.

The Seminoles added a run in the seventh on Cardullo’s second solo home run of the day, with this blast coming off UVa reliever Justin Thompson (So., Danville, Va.). The Cavaliers scored in the eighth when Tyler Cannon (Sr., Pigeon Forge, Tenn.) singled with one out and scored on a Dan Grovatt (Jr., Tabernacle, N.J.) double to left-center.

The Seminoles added four insurance runs in the eighth. Holt doubled to lead off, moved to third on a groundout and slid in safely at the plate on a Tyler Wilson (Jr., Midlothian, Va.) wild pitch. Cardullo then launched his third homer of the day, a two-run shot off the scoreboard in right-center off reliever Whit Mayberry (Fr., Alexandria, Va.).

Fox Sports South, Comcast SportsNet Mid-Atlantic and NESN will have live television coverage of the Cavaliers’ noon Saturday game with No. 4 seed Miami. For satellite subscribers, the game will air on DirecTV channel 654 and Dish Network channel 423

Locally, WINA 1070-AM will have radio coverage of all of Virginia’s tournament action. The game also will be streamed online at VirginiaSports.com (with V Pass subscription). All tournament games will also air on satellite radio on Sirius 215 and XM 190.

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Tickets remain available for potential NCAA Regional and Super Regional tournaments at Davenport Field. Regional all-session ticket books will be sold for $60 for Reserved seating and $45 for General Admission seating, while Super Regional all-session ticket books may be purchased for $36 for Reserved seating and $24 for General Admission seating. As of Thursday evening, nearly 3,000 tickets have been sold for the potential regional as well as a potential super regional.

Tickets may be ordered online at VirginiaSports.com, in person at the Virginia Athletics Ticket Office in Bryant Hall at Scott Stadium or by phone at (800) 542-UVA1.

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