Miami Arms Stifle Virginia Bats, Canes Take Series Opener 6-2

The nation's best hitting team was held to just two hits on Friday night in Miami

Photo courtesy of Matt Riley/Virginia Athletics Communications

No. 3 Virginia entered the weekend as the NCAA's leader in team batting average at .336. In the series opener at No. 8 Miami, UVA's batters were baffled by starter Carson Palmquist and the rest of the Hurricane bullpen. The Cavaliers were held to just two hits and Miami took game 1 of this series between top-10 Coastal rivals with a 6-2 victory on Friday night in Coral Gables. 

After a scoreless first inning, Virginia drew first blood with a two-run second inning. UVA put two runners on and then Jake Rubin delivered an RBI single to center field to score Chris Newell. Griff O'Ferrall then grounded out to short, which brought home Colin Tuft. The Cavaliers would not score another run in the game. 

Sophomore lefty Carson Palmquist had the UVA hitters on their heels for most of the night. Palmquist went six innings, striking out eight batters and giving up two hits and two unearned runs. 

In the bottom of the second inning, the Hurricanes got on the board as Maxwell Romero Jr. took the first pitch of the inning from UVA starter Nate Savino over the wall in right field for a solo home run. Miami took the lead in the bottom of the third on a two-run home run by Yohandy Morales to right center. Savino went five innings for the Cavaliers, giving up six earned runs on 10 hits and striking out six batters. He took the loss for the game, dropping his record as a starter to 4-2 this season. 

Miami scored again in the bottom of the fifth on yet another long ball, as Gaby Gutierrez homered to right field to make it 4-2. Savino worked into the sixth inning, but got into some trouble as he gave up two straight singles to start the inning. Jacob Burk then hit an RBI double down the left field line. Savino hit the next batter and that spelled the end of his night. 

Paul Kosanovich entered with the difficult challenge of controlling the damage as Miami had the bases loaded with no outs. Kosanovich did well, getting Zach Levenson to ground into a double play, yielding another run for the Canes, and then struck out Gutierrez to end the inning. 

Kosanovich was lights out the rest of the way, giving up no runs and no hits and striking out two batters in three innings of work. His work on the mound kept UVA within striking distance, trailing by just four runs. 

Unfortunately for the Cavaliers, the bats never woke up. 

Miami used four pitchers in the bullpen to work through the seventh, eighth, and ninth innings and did not surrender a single UVA hit. Virginia had a chance in the top of the seventh with a pair of walks off of sophomore reliever Alex McFarlane, but Rafe Schlesinger came in with two outs and got Kyle Teel to pop out to end the inning, stranding two UVA runners on base. 

Gage Ziehl breezed through the middle of UVA's lineup in the eighth and closer Andrew Walters worked a perfect ninth inning to end the game as Miami took game 1. 

Virginia falls to 26-4 and 9-4 in ACC play. The Cavaliers will look to even the series against the Hurricanes on Saturday at 7pm. 

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