Virginia Wins Second-Straight ACC Road Series

CLEMSON, S.C. – Virginia (16-15, 8-13 ACC) won its second-straight ACC road series with a 6-5 win over Clemson (15-13, 9-9 ACC) at Doug Kingsmore Stadium on Sunday (April 11). The Cavaliers erased a 4-3 Tiger lead in the seventh to record their fourth come-from-behind win of the season.

Virginia rallied for three runs in the seventh inning, all with two outs. Senior Brendan Rivoli (Douglassville, Pa.) tied the game at four with an opposite field single to left and freshman Kyle Teel (Mahwah, N.J.) capped a monster afternoon with a two-RBI single to left center to put the Cavaliers ahead for good. Going into the contest, Virginia had been 0-14 when trailing after six innings.

Closer Stephen Schoch (Laurel Md.) preserved the win with his sixth save. The righthander came on with no outs in the eighth and allowed an inherited runner to score but stranded the tying runs in scoring position in both the eighth and ninth innings. The save was Schoch’s 11^th in a Cavalier uniform and 24^th of his collegiate career.

Teel tied the game at two in the fourth inning with his fourth home run of the year, a opposite field shot that tucked inside the left field foul pole. The first year went 2-for-4 on the day and drove in a season-high four runs.

The Cavalier offense produced 12 hits and eight of the nine batters in the starting lineup had a hit in the contest. Rivoli went 2-for-5 with an RBI, his team-best 11^th multi-hit effort of the season. Devin Ortiz (Nutley, N.J.) extended his hit streak to 11 games and also went 2-for-5 in the contest. For the second-straight day, Zack Gelof (Rehoboth Beach, Del.) had a two-hit performance and stole second base before scoring the game-tying run in the seventh on Rivoli’s opposite field single.

Junior Blake Bales (Schoolcraft, Mich.) was credited with his second win of the season and was one of six pitchers to see action on the mound. Bales was not charged with a run in 2.2 innings and struck out three batters. The righthander pitched 5.2 innings of scoreless baseball in the series and has yet to allow a run to score in 27 innings pitched this season.

The Cavaliers return home on Wednesday (April 14) to host Old Dominion at 5 p.m. Virginia will play eight of the next nine games at Disharoon Park including ACC series against Louisville and Duke.

Additional Notes

• Two of the four Cavalier comeback wins have come in the last four games.
• The one-run affair was Virginia’s seventh in ACC play and the Cavaliers improve to 3-4 in one-run games against ACC opponents. A total of 10 of Virginia’s 21 conference games have been decided by one or two runs.
• Virginia has now won four of the last five series at Clemson.