Blue Takes Orange & Blue World Series with 10-7 Game 5 Win

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CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – The Blue team scored in six of its nine trips to the plate in earning a 10-7 victory Sunday afternoon in the deciding Game 5 of the Orange and Blue World Series at Davenport Field. The Blue won the World Series championship and took four of five games in the series. Four of the games were decided by three runs or fewer.

“I thought it was a very good, competitive series,” Virginia head coach Brian O’Connor said. “We got out of it what we wanted to get out of it. We grew as a team and got better throughout the fall and this series.”

Both teams racked up 14 hits in the game as the offenses dominated. Five Blue players finished with a pair of hits each, while six drove in at least one run. Derek Fisher swatted a two-run home run in the first inning for the Blue.

Reed Gragnani went 3-for-5 with three RBI for the Orange. He finished as the series’ top hitter, going 10-for-20 (.500) with seven RBI in the five-game series. Colin Harrington, Jared King and Thomas Woodruff each had a pair of hits, while Mike Papi added a two-run home run for the Orange squad.

Shane Halley earned the win with 2.1 scoreless innings of relief as he notched his second win of the series. Justin Thompson fired three scoreless innings to pick up the save. Nathaniel Abel took the loss for the Orange after giving up two runs in the sixth inning.

The teams went back and forth early, with the Blue scoring two in the first on Fisher’s long home run that cleared the right-field bleachers. The Orange answered with a run in its half of the first on a Gragnani single to plate Colin Harrington, then moved ahead with three in the second on a Mitchell Shifflett RBI single and a two-run single by Gragnani.

The Blue tied the game in the fourth, with Nick Howard scoring on a throwing error and Mark Podlas doubling home a run. The Orange grabbed the lead right back in the bottom of the inning on a Stephen Bruno sacrifice fly.

The Blue tied the game again in the fifth on Howard’s sacrifice fly to plate Keith Werman, who tripled to lead off the inning. Howard drove in eight runs in the series, most of any player. The Blue moved ahead for good in the sixth as Werman was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded and Brandon Downes walked with the bases full.

The Blue added a seventh-inning run on a Kenny Towns RBI single, but the Orange got two back on Papi’s line drive home run into the right-field bleachers in the bottom of the inning.

The Blue then tacked on two insurance runs in the ninth on a Towns double as well as an Orange throwing error.

2011 Orange and Blue World Series
Game 1: Blue 8, Orange 7 (10 innings)
Game 2: Blue 4, Orange 1
Game 3: Blue 3, Orange 2 (11 innings)
Game 4: Orange 6, Blue 1
Game 5: Blue 10, Orange 7