Virginia Beats Penn State 13-1, Continues Best Start Since 2013

The Cavaliers completed the series sweep over the Nittany Lions and are off to their best start in nearly a decade

Photo courtesy of Virginia Athletics Communications

In front of 4,459 fans at Disharoon Park, the largest home crowd at a UVA baseball game since May 15, 2016, the Cavaliers did not disappoint. 

Virginia scored at least ten runs for a program-record eighth-straight game and completed the series sweep over Penn State with a 13-1 victory on Sunday afternoon. 

Jake Gelof continued his red-hot start to the season by delivering his seventh and eighth home runs of the season. The first, a two-run shot to left field, got the Cavaliers on the board in the bottom of the first inning. UVA scored two more runs in the bottom of the second on an RBI single from Griff O'Ferrall and a sacrifice fly from Ethan Anderson to make it 4-0. 

Brandon Neeck started on the mound and gave the Cavaliers five solid innings, striking out six batters and giving up just one earned run on four hits. After Penn State got on the board in the top of the fourth, Ethan Anderson hit a two-run home run in the bottom half of the inning to put the Hoos back up by five runs. 

Entering the bottom of the eighth inning, which was presumably UVA's last at-bat, the Cavaliers led 7-1 and it seemed likely that their streak of seven consecutive games scoring at least 10 runs would come to an end.

The Hoos decided they'd like that streak to last a little longer. 

Virginia put up six runs in the bottom of the eighth inning. Casey Saucke and Griff O'Ferrall hit back-to-back RBI singles and then Justin Rubin scored on a fielder's choice grounder from Kyle Teel. With two runners on and two outs, Jake Gelof hit his second home run of the game to stretch the Virginia lead to 13-1. Virginia has now scored double-digit runs in eight consecutive games, a new UVA program record. 

After Neeck exited the game, Jay Woolfolk, Jake Berry, and Will Geerdes combined to deliver four scoreless innings on the mound to close out the game. 

With the win, Virginia improves to 11-0, the program's best start to a season since 2013, when the Cavaliers began the year 14-0. 

Virginia concludes its nine-game homestand on Tuesday when the Cavaliers host George Washington at Disharoon Park at 3pm. UVA will then head to Durham for the first ACC series of the year at Duke next weekend. 

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