East Carolina Defeats Virginia Baseball, 6-1
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Feb. 27, 2016
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CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — East Carolina scored a 6-1 victory over the No. 4 Virginia baseball team Saturday afternoon in Game 2 of a three-game series at Davenport Field. The Pirates (6-0) have won the first two games of the series after losing their previous nine games against Virginia (3-3).
“We just need to keep grinding and get better,” Virginia head coach Brian O’Connor said. “We have to come out tomorrow, play tough and try and get one for the weekend. They’re a good team and were an NCAA tournament team last year for a reason. (Jacob) Wolfe did a nice job of pitching down in the zone and throwing his changeup in there. He had us tied in knots. We didn’t get a lot of good swings against him.”
Virginia starting pitcher Daniel Lynch (Fr., Henrico, Va.) worked 5 1/3 innings, giving up six earned runs, seven hits and two walks while striking out two. He took the loss and dropped to 1-1 on the year. ECU starter Jacob Wolfe (2-0) allowed just an unearned run, four hits and two walks in six solid innings of work to earn the win. Nick Durazo worked the last three innings to claim his first save.
UVA was limited to six hits, with two each coming from the top of the batting order, Adam Haseley (So., Windermere, Fla.) and Ernie Clement (So., Rochester, N.Y.). Dwanya Williams-Sutton tripled twice and scored three runs for ECU, while Luke Bolka hit a three-run homer and drove in four.
ECU bolted to a 3-0 lead in the second inning when Bolka cranked a two-out, three-run home run just over the left-field wall. It was his second home run of the series.
The Pirates tacked on a run in the fourth as Williams-Sutton tripled with one out and scored on a slow Bolka groundout to third base.
Williams-Sutton hit his second triple of the game in the sixth inning, scoring Eric Tyler. Wes Phillips followed with a sacrifice fly against UVA reliever Jack Roberts (R-So., Richmond, Va.) to give ECU a 6-0 advantage.
The Cavaliers scored in their half of the sixth inning as Pavin Smith (So., Jupiter, Fla.) hit a two-out grounder to shortstop, with Phillips errantly throwing to first to allow Smith to reach. Haseley scored from third on the play.
ECU goes for the series sweep at 1 p.m. Saturday. Parking is available in the University Hall, John Paul Jones Arena and McCue Center parking lots. An audio broadcast is available through a Cavaliers Live subscription on VirginiaSports.com. A link to live statistics also can be found on VirginiaSports.com.