Virginia Drops Friday Night Contest at Louisville; Rubber Match Set for Regular Season Finale

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – In the penultimate game of the regular season, the Virginia baseball team (35-19, 14-15 ACC) fell 12-2 in eight innings to the Louisville Cardinals (29-26, 12-17 ACC) at Jim Patterson Stadium on Friday evening (May 15).

 

The Cardinal scored three runs in each of the first three innings and held the Cavaliers off the board until the top of the seventh, when Zach Jackson clobbered a two-out home run that cleared the trees beyond the wall in right-center.

 

Jackson and AJ Gracia combined for four of the six UVA hits on the day, while Virginia starter John Paone was tagged with the loss after allowing six runs in 1.2 innings pitched.

HOW IT HAPPENED

• The homestanding Cardinals pushed across three runs in the bottom of the first with a pair of RBI doubles and an RBI single.
• Louisville added on three more runs in the second, including a two-out RBI triple down the line in right field.
• An inning later, the Cardinals extended their lead to 9-0 with another three-spot in the third.
• In relief, Christian Lucarelli kept the Louisville bats at bay by tossing two scoreless innings with a strikeout.
• Virginia got on the board in the seventh when Zach Jackson crushed a two-out solo homer to right-center. The blast was his eighth of the season.
• Louisville answered back in the bottom of the frame with an RBI single that made it a 10-1 contest.
• Eric Becker worked a walk to open the seventh and later came around to score when Gracia poked a double over the head of the Cardinal fielder in right field.
• The Cardinals ended the game in the bottom of the eighth with back-to-back RBI singles.

 

ADDITIONAL NOTES

• Zach Jackson’s home run in the sixth inning was the squad’s 91st long ball of the year. UVA’s 91 homers on the year are the second most in program history behind the 2024 squad, which hit 116.
• AJ Gracia’s RBI double in the seventh was his team-leading 26th extra base hit of the season.
• With his two shutout innings on Saturday, Christian Lucarelli has only allowed a pair of runs in 17.1 innings pitched this season.
• Sam Harris extended his team-best reached base streak to 20 games with a walk in the seventh inning.

FROM COACH CHRIS POLLARD:

"First off, credit to Louisville. They did a much better job today of selling out to their offensive approach. They came in to take away the best pitch from whatever guy we had in the ballgame and they did a nice job with that. We made mental mistakes on the basepaths, we made mental mistakes in the infield defense and we did not do a job against Hartman of taking away the fastball, which was our game plan. You do all of those things together and it is a recipe for the scoreboard. We have to play a lot better.” 

UP NEXT

Virginia and Louisville will close out the three-game series on Saturday. The Cavaliers will throw Kyle Johson (1-2) in the regular season finale, which has been moved up to 12:30 p.m. Saturday’s contest will be carried on ACCNX and WINA (98.9 FM/1070 AM).