Virginia Eliminates South Carolina, Advances to Regional Finals

COLUMBIA, S.C. – Virginia (31-24) scored the first three runs and held on for a 3-2 win over host South Carolina (35-22) on Sunday (June 6) at Founders Park. The win places the Cavaliers in the regional finals on Sunday night against top-seeded Old Dominion.

Virginia would need to win Sunday night and again Monday to advance to the NCAA Super Regionals next weekend while the Monarchs who are 2-0 in the Columbia Regional need one win to advance to the program’s first Super Regional.

Making only his second start of the season, sophomore Matt Wyatt (Towson, Md.) set the tone for the day with five shutout innings. The righthander struck out a career-high eight batters and issued one walk in his longest outing of his career.

He was supported on the offensive front with a run in each of the first three innings. Senior Devin Ortiz (Nutley, N.J.), the catalyst in Saturday’s big offensive day against Jacksonville, plated the first UVA run with a one-out RBI single that scored Max Cotier (New Milford, Conn.).

Senior Alex Tappen (Lower Gwynedd, Pa.) homered for the fourth time this season and the third time in his last four games played to put Virginia up 2-0 in the second inning. The eventual game-deciding run came around on a two-out double by Nick Kent (Charlottesville, Va.) in the third that plated Kyle Teel (Mahwah, N.J.).

The Gamecocks crept back in the ball game beginning with a run in the sixth and another in the seventh. Brennan Milone made it a one-run game with a solo homer in the seventh, his second long ball of the season.

The Cavaliers turned the ball over to closer Stephen Schoch (Laurel, Md.) with two outs in the seventh and the graduate student delivered. He fanned Brady Allen with runners on first and third to end the seventh and pitched the next two innings allowing only one baserunner. Schoch fanned five including the final batter of the game with the tying run on first base. He was credited with his eighth save and the 13^th of his UVA career tying him for the ninth most in program history.

Virginia finds itself in the regional finals for the 10^th time and the first time since 2015.

Additional Notes

• Kyle Teel was the only multi-hit performer for the Cavaliers and finished 2-for-4 with a run scored. He extended his reached base streak to 18 games, the longest by a Virginia player this season.
• The win snapped an 11-game losing streak to South Carolina, a streak that included four NCAA Tournament losses.
• The Cavaliers improve to 12-6 in one run games this season and have won eight of the last nine decided by one run.