HATTIESBURG, Miss. – The Virginia baseball team (36-22) was downed 15-7 by the Jacksonville State Gamecocks (47-13) on Friday night (May 29) in an opening round game of the NCAA Hattiesburg Regional at Pete Taylor Field.
The Gamecocks plated nine runs in the game before Virginia scratched across its first two runs in the bottom of the fifth. UVA pulled within striking range at 10-5 after innings before Jacksonville State scored five of the final seven runs to advance to the winner’s bracket.
Joe Tiroly led the Virginia offense on Friday by going 3-for-5 with four RBIs and a home run. The Cavalier trio of Jake Weatherspoon, AJ Gracia and RJ Holmes each collected multi-hit games in the regional opener.
UVA starter Henry Zatkowski was tagged with the loss after surrendering seven runs in 4.1 innings of work.
HOW IT HAPPENED
- Jacksonville State struck first in the top of the second with a two-run home run off the bat of Cooper Blauser that landed over the wall in right-center.
- The Gamecocks capitalized on a pair of fielding errors and scratched across two more runs to lead 4-0 after the opening three frames.
- In the top of the fifth, Jacksonville State took control of the game with a five-run outburst that was capped off with an RBI triple down the line in right.
- Holmes opened the home half of the inning with a double to right center and became UVA’s first run two batters later on a Tiroly base knock. Gracia scampered home on a Weatherspoon sacrifice fly to cap off the two-run inning for Virginia.
- Jacksonville State tacked on a run in the top of the sixth with an RBI double that extended its lead to 10-2.
- Following back-to-back doubles from Holmes and Gracia that made it a 10-3 contest, Tiroly crushed a 0-2 pitch off the scoreboard in left field to bring Virginia back to within striking distance at 10-5. The two-run mammoth shot was Tiroly’s 15th long ball of the season.
- The Gamecocks added three more runs before the seventh-inning stretch to make it a 13-5 ballgame.
- Tiroly collected his third RBI of the evening in the bottom of the eighth with a double that drove in Holmes. One at-bat later, Harrison Didawick drove in Tiroly with a base hit down the line in right.
- Jacksonville State plated its final two runs in the ninth with a two-run home run off the bat of Caleb Johnson to make it a 15-7 final.
ADDITIONAL NOTES
- Virginia falls to 72-50 all-time in NCAA Tournament games.
- Friday’s contest was the first meeting between UVA and Jacksonville State.
- Harrison Didawick’s RBI in the eighth inning was the 182nd of his career, which ties him with Steven Proscia (2009-11) for second all-time.
- With his 3-for-4 performance on Friday, Joe Tiroly is batting .386 (44-for-114) with 12 home runs and 33 RBIs.
- Jake Weatherspoon extended his team-high reached base streak to 13 games with his single in the second inning.
- Eric Becker exited the game in the top of the fourth after being hit by a pitch to open the bottom of the first.
UP NEXT
Virginia will play No.9 Southern Miss in the elimination game on Saturday at 2 p.m. ET. Lefty Kyle Johnson (1-3) will take the ball for UVA against the Golden Eagles’ Grayden Harris (8-1). The contest will be carried on ESPN+ and WINA (98.9 FM/1070 AM).