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Baseball
No. 10 Virginia Downs Florida State, 7-5, to Win Series
April 30, 2017
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TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — The No. 10 Virginia baseball team finished off an ACC series victory with a 7-5 win at Florida State Sunday afternoon in the rubber game of the series at Dick Howser Stadium. Virginia (35-11, 14-10 ACC) bolted to an early 6-0 lead as it won the final two games of the three-game series while claiming its fourth straight ACC series win. The Cavaliers finished 15-4 in the month of April.
“Certainly to come down here and get a series win on the road is big for us,” Virginia head coach Brian O’Connor said. “We came out of the shoot swinging the bat aggressively and scoring four runs in the first inning and single runs in the second and third. It was big to get up there, and we knew we would have Adam Haseley for the first half of the game and our plan was to use Tommy Doyle for extended work. We played great defense again today and were able to hold on.”
Virginia finished with 13 hits, with five Cavaliers picking up two hits each. Cameron Simmons (So., Royersford, Pa.) went 2-for-4 and scored twice, while Robbie Coman (Gr., Lake Worth, Fla.) had a pair of hits and two RBI. Nate Eikhoff (So., Bristow, Va.) and Pavin Smith (Jr., Jupiter, Fla.) each added two hits.
Adam Haseley (Jr., Windermere, Fla.) went 2-for-5 and scored a pair of runs to extend his hit streak to 13 games. Haseley (7-1) also pitched five-plus innings and earned the win, giving up four earned runs, four hits and three walks while striking out two. Tommy Doyle (Jr., Vienna, Va.) worked the final four innings to earn his 12th save.
FSU starter Andrew Karp (0-3) did not retire any of the five batters he faced. He gave up four runs, four hits and a walk in taking the loss. The Seminoles’ bullpen of Drew Parrish, Alec Byrd and Drew Carlton limited UVA to three runs and nine hits in nine innings of work.
Virginia pounced on FSU (27-18, 11-12) early as its first five batters reached base in the first inning, with UVA batting around and scoring four runs. Simmons led off with a double off the right-field wall and moved to third on a single to center from Andy Weber (So., Aurora, Ohio). Haseley and Smith followed with consecutive RBI singles before Coman walked to load the bases. FSU turned to Parrish, who got out of the inning after allowing sac flies to Caleb Knight (Jr., Checotah, Okla.) and Ernie Clement (Jr., Rochester, N.Y.).
UVA used a pair of key, two-out hits to add runs in the second and third innings to push its lead to 6-0. In the second, Coman singled home Simmons with two outs, and Simmons drove home Clement with a single to right with two outs in the third.
FSU snapped a streak of 14 straight scoreless innings against UVA pitching by scoring three runs in the fourth inning off a solo homer from Dylan Busby and a two-run blast from Drew Mendoza.
Virginia added an insurance run in the sixth inning, parlaying a leadoff Haseley double into a run on a Coman sac fly.
FSU got a two-run homer to center from Quincy Nieporte off Doyle in the sixth inning to cut its deficit to 7-5. After stranding runners at second and third to end the sixth, Doyle settled down and retired seven straight before and 10 of the last 11. Doyle issued a leadoff walk in the ninth inning. He rebounded to set down the next three batters to cap off the victory.
Virginia returns to action at 6 p.m. Tuesday (May 2) at home against Liberty before taking a nine-day break for final exams.