Cavaliers Run-Rule Richmond in Home Finale

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – In the final regular home game at Disharoon Park, the Virginia baseball team (34-18) dispatched the Richmond Spiders (30-22) 18-6 in eight innings on Tuesday afternoon (May 12).

 

After falling behind in the first inning, Virginia plated the next six runs of the contest to take a commanding 6-1 lead after the opening three frames. The Cavalier offense later exploded for six runs in the fourth and five more in the eighth to secure the run-rule victory.

 

Harrison Didawick paced the UVA offense by going 3-for-6 with a double and four RBIs. AJ Gracia and Antiono Perrotta each tallied homers on the day in the rout. Lucas Hartman picked up his 10th win of the season on Tuesday after tossing the final 1.2 innings in relief.

HOW IT HAPPENED

• The visiting Spiders struck first on Tuesday by taking advantage of a UVA throwing error that resulted in a run being scored in the top of the first.
• For the second time in three games, UVA scored on a dropped third strike play when Perrotta scampered home in the bottom of the first. Later in the frame, RJ Holmes was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded to plate Joe Tiroly before Thomas O’Connell singled home a pair of runs to put the Cavaliers up 4-1 after an inning played.
• AJ Gracia pushed the Virginia lead to 6-1 with a two-run blast in the second inning. The homer that landed in the UVA Bullpen was Gracia’s team-leading 14th dinger in the year.
• Richmond’s Trevor Dosenbach snuck a two-out two-run double down the line in left to cut the deficit to 6-3 after three innings played.
• Virginia blew the game wide open with a sixth-run fourth inning that was highlighted by a two-run Perrotta homer to right and a two-run double off the bat of Holmes.
• The Spider’s final three runs of the contest came in the fifth on a Dosenbach home run that landed in the left field bleachers, which made it a 12-6 contest.
• Following the home run, the UVA bullpen duo of Noah Yoder and Hartman sealed the victory with a combined three scoreless innings.
• In possibly his final two at-bats at Disharoon Park of his collegiate career, Didawick drove in Gracia with a double in the seventh before clearing the bases with a three-run triple an inning later to finalize the 18-6 Virginia victory.

ADDITIONAL NOTES

• With the win, Virginia improves to 91-60-2 all-time against Richmond and has bested the Spiders in 21 of the last 22 meetings dating back to the start of the 2004 season.
• UVA will close out the 2026 regular season with a 23-8 record at home. Since the start of the 2021 season, Virginia is 156-45 at Disharoon Park.
• Virginia moves to 17-7 on the year when hitting two or more home runs in a game and 16-0 when scoring 10 or more runs.
• Tuesday’s win was Virginia’s 19th comeback victory of the season.
• Sam Harris extended his team-best reached base streak to 17 games in the first inning on a dropped third strike.
• With his late-inning offensive eruption, Harrison Didawick ranks top 10 all-time in program history in games played (213/10th), runs (193/3rd), RBIs (181/3rd), home runs (41/2nd), total bases (389/6th) and triples (12/3rd).

FROM COACH CHRIS POLLARD:

"We did a great job of taking advantage of free offense. We had more good swings than we had hits to show for it and I was really pleased. It wasn’t an easy game to play by any stretch. People for the last 48 hours have been saying that we should have canceled this game, like teams are doing around the country, for RPI reasons. I feel strongly that our guys deserve the opportunity to be out here today. They deserve the chance to compete. I think the fact that Harrison Didawick comes up in the bottom of the eighth and walks it off with the incredible career he has here. I couldn’t be prouder of him.”

UP NEXT

For the final weekend of the regular season, Virginia will travel to Louisville for a three-game series with the Cardinals. Thursday’s (May 14) series opener is slated for a 6 p.m. first pitch while being carried on ACCNX and WINA (98.9 FM/1070 AM).