No. 23 Virginia Falls to Duke in Weekend Finale

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va.  – The No. 23 Virginia baseball team (12-10, 3-6 ACC) dropped the weekend finale on Sunday (March 23) to the Duke Blue Devils by a score of 13-6 at Disharoon Park.

After each team scored a pair of runs in the first inning, Duke plated the next four runs of the game to take a 6-2 lead into the middle frames. Virginia clawed its way back to within a run by scoring two runs in the fifth and one in the sixth before the Blue Devils took command of the finale with a six-run seventh.

On an afternoon when the Cavalier offense amassed 14 hits, Henry Ford led the way with a 4-for-5 day to tie his career-high for hits in a contest. Chone James added three more hits of his own, while the duo of Chris Arroyo and Trey Wells each drove in a pair of runs.

HOW IT HAPPENED

• The opening frame on Sunday saw each team scratch across a pair of runs. Duke opened the scoring with a bases-loaded walk and an RBI sacrifice fly before a Wells single through the left side scored Ford and Eric Becker to tie the game in the bottom half of the inning.
• Duke regained the lead in the second with a two-out two-run double down the line in left, making it a 4-2 game.
• The visiting Blue Devils added a run in each of the next two innings to extend their advantage to 6-2.
• Virginia made it a 6-4 game after five innings when a Ford single through the right side to scored Becker. One at-bat later, a sacrifice fly of the bat of Arroyo plated Henry Godbout.
• In the sixth, Harrison Didawick reached on a Duke error to open the inning before coming home to score on an Arroyo infield single. The RBI base knock brought the Cavaliers to within a run at 6-5.
• Duke broke the game open in the top of the sixth by scoring six runs in the frame that included a three-run bases-clearing double by Wallace Clark.
• In the final inning, Duke’s Macon Winslow added to the Blue Devil total with a solo home run.
• UVA’s final run of the game came with two outs in the bottom of the ninth when Aidan Teel rushed home on a Didawick sac fly to make the final 13-6.

ADDITIONAL NOTES

• Teel tied the school record for hit-by-pitches in a single game with three. Teel is the seventh Cavalier to be plunked three times in a game and the second this season.
• With his two runs driven in on the day, Arroyo is the first Cavalier this season to reach the 20 RBI mark.
• Duke is the first ACC team to sweep Virginia at home since Notre Dame in 2021.
• The Blue Devil’s sixth-run seventh is only the second time this season the UVA pitching staff has allowed five or more runs in a single inning.
• Despite the sweep, Virginia still leads the all-time series 110-73-1 over Duke.

UP NEXT

UVA will make the trip to Lynchburg, Va., on Tuesday (March 25) for a midweek contest against Liberty before returning to Disharoon Park on Thursday (March 27) to open a three-game series with No. 14 Stanford. The midweek matchup against Liberty is slated for a 4 p.m. first pitch with broadcasts on ESPN+ and WINA (98.9 FM/1070 AM).