No. 9 Virginia Cages Boston College in Series Finale, 3-1No. 9 Virginia Cages Boston College in Series Finale, 3-1

No. 9 Virginia Cages Boston College in Series Finale, 3-1

Hoos ride strong pitching performance in series finale

Box Score

BRIGHTON, Mass. – To salvage the weekend, the No. 9 Virginia baseball team (22-7, 7-5 ACC) tallied its 10th comeback victory on the season with a 3-1 win over Boston College (20-9, 8-4 ACC) at Brighton Baseball Field on Sunday (March 29).

 

Boston College struck first in the bottom of the second on a sacrifice fly before the UVA pitching trio of John Paone, Lucas Hartman and Tyler Kapa held the Eagles off the board for the final seven innings. Virginia scored three runs in the top of the eighth to secure the 3-1 victory.

 

In relief, Hartman picked up his team-leading fifth win of the season, while Harrison Didawick, AJ Gracia and Noah Jouras tallied Virginia’s three hits on the day.

  

HOW IT HAPPENED

  • In what proved to be a pitchers’ duel, Boston College scratched across its only run of the game in the second inning with a bases-loaded sac fly.
  • Overall, Paone tossed 4.2 innings of one-run ball while striking out six Eagle batters and surrendering one hit.
  • Out of the Virginia bullpen, Hartman only allowed one hit over 2.1 scoreless innings of work. The scoreless outing was his eighth of the season.
  • All three of the Cavalier runs came in the top of the eighth when the first UVA batters reached base via walks to tie the game. A Gracia sacrifice fly to center plated Noah Murray to give Virginia its first lead of the weekend, before a Didawick bloop single scored Jouras for the final run of the contest.
  • To tie a bow on an outstanding team pitching performance, Tyler Kapa picked up his sixth save of the year by not allowing an Eagle to reach base over the final two innings of play. 

ADDITIONAL NOTES

  • With the win, Virginia moves to 30-13 all-time against the Boston College Eagles.
  • Harrison Didawick extended his reached base streak to 17 games on Sunday with his RBI single in the eighth inning.
  • Noah Murray reached base in the eighth with a walk to extend his reached base streak to 16 games.

FROM HEAD COACH CHRIS POLLARD

“I told our guys in the pregame meeting at the hotel that one of the best feelings in my 34 years of college baseball is to drop the first two of the series and you have to have a great response and win it. Just that feeling of having an answer and flipping the narrative of the weekend. We had to win this one in a fashion that has been atypical for us. We didn’t score a lot of runs and we had to grind out a pitchers’ duel. Credit to John Paone, the freshman, for being really tough for us and giving us a great start. The bullpen was eclectic behind him.”

UP NEXT

No. 9 Virginia returns to the friendly confines of Disharoon Park on Tuesday to open a five-game homestand against the Old Dominion Monarchs. First pitch is slated for 6 p.m. and will be carried on ACCNX and WINA (98.9 FM/1070 AM).