HOW IT HAPPENED
- Virginia opened the scoring on Tuesday in the bottom of the first when Becker scampered home on a Tiroly RBI groundout.
- With the 1-0 lead, Zatkowski retired nine of the last 10 batters he faced to conclude his four-shutout innings. The lone Duke to reach was a leadoff double in the fourth.
- UVA extended its advantage in the fourth to 4-0 with a three-run blast off the bat of Murray. The home run that landed in the left field bleachers was his fifth of the year and first since March 13 against Virginia Tech.
- James Madison scratched across three runs in the fifth thanks to five free passes from a trio of Virginia pitchers and a Cavalier fielding error.
- After a quiet sixth inning, the Dukes took a 7-4 lead in the seventh by scoring four runs on five hits. The JMU four runs in the frame were also aided by two more Virginia fielding errors.
- Virginia got one run back and an inning later, when Weatherspoon singled home Bryce Neely, who was pinch running for Antonio Perrotta.
- Down to the final three outs of the contest, Becker worked a leadoff before Tiroly sent a 1-2 pitch into the UVA bullpen beyond left field to tie the game at 7-7. The Tiroly game-tying home run was his fifth of the season.
- With bases loaded and two away in the top of the seventh, Tyler Kapa threw a wild pitch that allowed JMU’s Clay Thompson to score from third and put the Dukes out front 8-7.
- In the home half of the tenth, Virginia loaded the bases with one out before JMU’s Griffin Madden ended the contest with a strikeout and a long flyout to deep right-center field.
ADDITIONAL NOTES
- Despite the loss on Tuesday, Virginia still leads the all-time series with James Madison 47-26-1.
- Tuesday snapped a 10-game home midweek win streak and a 13-game win streak over the Dukes that dated back to 2012.
- As a pitching staff, Virginia struck out 18 batters on Tuesday night for the second-highest strikeout total of the season.
- Joe Tiroly drove in three runs on Tuesday for his team-best 11th multi-RBI game of the season.
FROM HEAD COACH CHRIS POLLARD
“Bottom line is that we gave them offense throughout the course of the game. We gave them three runs in the fifth without the courtesy of a base hit. We gave away a run there in the 10th. In the seventh, there was some soft contact, but that is a play we should make at third base that extended the inning. Just too many free opportunities for them to extend the game; they didn’t hit a lot of balls hard tonight. Even their singles were not well struck balls, but when you allow innings to be kept alive, either by not making a play or giving a free pass, you put yourself in a position that can happen, and that’s what happened tonight. We went through a stretch there in the fifth, sixth, and seventh innings where we couldn’t muster anything offensively to even try to get back in it or create some separation.
UP NEXT
No. 13 Virginia returns to ACC play on Friday (April 10) as the Cavaliers head to South Bend for a three-game weekend series with the Notre Dame Fighting Irish. Friday’s series opener is slated for a 5:30 p.m. first pitch on ACCNX and WINA (98.9 FM/1070 AM).
