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Baseball
Virginia Falls to Miami in Series Finale
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – Miami (25-12, 10-8 ACC) completed the series sweep with a 3-1 victory over Virginia (21-16, 8-10 ACC) on Sunday (April 14) at Disharoon Park. The Hurricanes took both games of a doubleheader on Saturday and now have won six-straight against the Cavaliers.
Miami used a pair of home runs, a solo shot in the top of the fourth by JP Gates and a two-run job by Michael Amditis in the top of the sixth to secure its seventh-straight win. The Hurricanes hit five home runs in the three-game series.
Virginia got on the board in the bottom of the seventh inning when Nic Kent (Charlottesville, Va.) tripled into the right centerfield gap and scored Cayman Richardson (Mechanicsville, Va.). The three-bagger was his team-leading, third of the season.
The two teams endured a 17-minute rain delay after the final out of the eighth inning. Senior Chesdin Harrington (Montpelier, Va.) came on to pitch the top of the ninth after the brief pause in action and stranded two Hurrican runners in scoring position. The inning ended on a lined shot by Adrian Del Castillo that was snagged by a leaping Nate Eikhoff (Bristow, Va.) at first base.
Defensive 💎 from Sunday #GoHoos
A post shared by Virginia Baseball (@uvabaseball) on Apr 14, 2019 at 5:13pm PDT
Sophomore Alex Tappen (Lower Gwynedd, Pa.) singled to lead off the bottom of the ninth inning but Miami closer Greg Veliz recorded the final three outs of the game for his second save of the series and fifth of the season.
“I thought our guys competed but just didn’t execute enough,” head coach Brian O’Connor said. “We lost two close ball games and couldn’t come up with a hit here and a hit there. Credit Miami, they have a good offensive ball club and the pitched it really well this weekend. For them to come in here and sweep the series is impressive and I tip my cap to them.”
Virginia used six pitchers and limited the Hurricanes to six hits. Sophomore Kyle Whitten (Manassas, Va.) did the bulk of the work, logging four innings. His lone mistake came on the home run to Amditis. Classmate Andrew Abbott (Halifax, Va.) made his first start of the season and pitched to the first four batters of the game after seeing 2.1 innings in game two.
Senior Evan Sperling (Poquoson, Va.) worked a scoreless second inning. He came in after a lead-off double to Freddy Zamora. He ended up striking out three batters in the frame and stranded a pair of runners including one in scoring position.
Virginia will continue its home stand on Tuesday (April 16) when it hosts in-state foe Radford at Disharoon Park. First pitch for the midweek contest will be at 6 p.m.
Additional Notes
• Eight of the nine Cavalier starters recorded a hit in the contest.
• Sunday’s loss was only the second time this season Virginia out-hit an opponent and lost.
• Miami takes a 31-28 lead in the all-time series and has won six-straight games against Virginia, the longest win streak by the Hurricanes in series history.
• Tanner Morris went 1-for-4 with a walk and has now reached base safely in 14-straight games. His second reached bases streak of 14 or more this season.
• Miami left 10 runners on base, six in scoring position.