Edgington Deals 8 K's, Virginia Completes Sweep Over Louisville

Brian Edgington recorded eight strikeouts and tossed six scoreless innings to lead UVA to an 8-3 win over Louisville

What a weekend for Virginia's starting pitchers. 

After Nick Parker and Connelly Early combined to surrender just three earned runs in 12.1 innings to help the Cavaliers clinch the series in games 1 and 2, Brian Edgington raised the bar a few notches in game 3 with a stunning pitching display, giving up zero earned runs on only two hits and striking out eight batters to lead No. 21 Virginia to an 8-3 victory over Louisville on Sunday afternoon at Disharoon Park, completeing the series sweep over the Cardinals. 

Edgington deservedly gets the game ball for his performance on the mound, but the Virginia bats gave him plenty of run support right from the start. Griff O'Ferrall and Ethan O'Donnell hit back-to-back singles to start the game and a hard-hit line drive by Jake Gelof went down as a sacrifice fly, scoring O'Ferrall from third. Kyle Teel followed that up with a well-hit ball into the gap in left-center for an RBI double. A Casey Saucke single into right field scored Teel and Virginia took an early 3-0 lead after just one inning. 

More trouble followed in the second inning for Louisville starter Carson Liggett. Colin Tuft hit a leadoff single, advanced to second on a single from O'Ferrall, moved to third on a well-executed bunt from O'Donnell, and came home to score on a sacrifice fly by Teel. Ethan Anderson followed that up with a single to left field to score O'Ferrall, giving UVA a 5-0 lead. 

After surrendering a single in the first inning, Edgington proceeded to retire the next 13 Louisville batters in a row, retiring the side in order in the second, third, fourth, and fifth innings. UVA tacked on another run in the fourth as O'Donnell singled and eventually came around to score on a fielder's choice grounder from Anderson to make it 6-0. 

Edgington worked around a leadoff double in the sixth and finished his outing with a terrific statline of zero earned runs on two hits with eight strikeouts in six innings of work. 

UVA scored two more runs in the bottom of the sixth. Jake Gelof started it off with a one-out single, moved to second on a bunt single from Teel, and scored on an RBI single by Saucke. An error from the Louisville first baseman then allowed Teel to score from second to give Virginia an 8-0 lead. 

With the Cavaliers only using four total pitchers in games 1 and 2, they had their entire bullpen at their disposal in game 3. Evan Blanco entered the game in the seventh and gave up a walk and a single, before recording his first and only out as he was then replaced by Kevin Jaxel, who surrendered a two-run ground-rule double to Eddie King Jr. to get the Cardinals on the board. Jaxel gave up another run on a groundout, but then recorded a strikeout to end the inning with the UVA lead at 8-3. 

Freshman Jack O'Connor, who had been Virginia's normal Sunday starter until this weekend, pitched the eighth inning out of the bullpen and retired the side thanks to an inning-ending double play in which O'Connor struck out the batter, who was then called for interference as Teel tried to throw out a stealing baserunner. 

With Virginia still leading by five in the ninth inning, Jay Woolfolk manufactured some drama for himself by giving up two singles and a walk to load the bases with one out. But, Woolfolk retired the next two batters to end the game, securing the three-game sweep for the Cavaliers. 

With the victory, Virginia improves to 41-11 overall and 16-11 in ACC play. UVA finishes the regular season with a 32-4 record at home at Disharoon Park, the program's best home record since 2014 and tying the program record for most home wins in a season. 

The Cavaliers will conclude the regular season with a three-game series at Georgia Tech on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. Game 1 is set for Thursday at 6pm in Atlanta. 

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