No. 7 Virginia Outlasts No. 20 Miami 6-5, Claims Series and ACC Coastal Lead

With the victory over the Hurricanes on Saturday, the Cavaliers have won a program-record 20-consecutive home games

Olivia Taylor/Virginia Athletics

With the Cavaliers and Hurricanes battling with first place in the ACC Coastal on the line, UVA's lopsided 14-2 victory over Miami to open the series on Friday was certainly surprising. Game 2, on the other hand, matched the level of competitiveness and quality baseball expected when two top 25-ranked rivals face each other. 

In a back-and-forth affair that saw the two teams exchange the lead on five separate occassions, the Cavalier bullpen shut down the Hurricanes in the final three frames to secure a hard-fought 6-5 victory for No. 7 Virginia over No. 20 Miami on Saturday afternoon at Disharoon Park. The win clinches the series and the ACC Coastal division lead for the Cavaliers and extends their home-winning streak to a program-record 20-consecutive games dating back to last season. 

Nick Parker made his return to the mound for Virginia after missing the last two weeks with an injury sustained from a line-drive he took to the head in UVA's game against Florida State on March 24th. In his first time back on the mound, Parker was thrown into the fire in the first inning, as he issued a leadoff walk before giving up a two-run home run to Edgardo Villegas. Parker settled in nicely after that, retiring the next three batters and nine out of the next 11 as he worked through the third inning with relative ease. 

Meanwhile, the Virginia bats made it so that Parker wasn't pitching from behind for long, matching Miami with two runs in the first inning. Griff O'Ferrall hit a leadoff double and then Ethan O'Donnell and Jake Gelof hit back-to-back singles to bring O'Ferrall home. A grounder from Kyle Teel moved O'Donnell to third and another grounder from Ethan Anderson brought him in to tie the game. 

After a scoreless second inning, Virginia took its first lead of the game as O'Ferrall hit his second double of the game and then Jake Gelof hit an RBI triple to make it 3-2. Miami answered quickly as Parker hit a batter and gave up a double to Dominic Pitelli to put runners on second and third with no outs in the top of the fourth. Dario Gomez hit a sacrifice fly to score one run and Renzo Gonzalez grounded out to second, bringing in another run to put the Hurricanes back in front 4-3. 

UVA chased Miami starter Alejandro Rosario from the game in the bottom of the fifth, as Teel hit a one-out single and Anderson and Casey Saucke followed with back-to-back walks to load the bases. Henry Godbout came up and delivered a two-run double to left field, allowing the Cavaliers to retake a 5-4 lead. Miami brought in Rafe Schlesinger, who gave up a walk, but got Tommy Courtney to ground into an inning-ending double-play. 

Kevin Jaxel entered the game for UVA in the sixth and Miami made Jaxel's outing short and painful as the four batters he faced each got on base with two singles, a double, and a walk to tie the game once again. Angelo Tonas replaced Jaxel and proceeded to retire the next three batters in order to get Virginia out of the jam and maintain the 5-5 tie. 

The Cavaliers regained the lead in the bottom of the sixth on a sequence once again started by a Griff O'Ferrall base hit. Jake Gelof then drove in his third run of the game with a double to score O'Ferrall. UVA had a chance to extend its lead with the bases loaded, but Casey Saucke grounded into a double play to end the inning with no further runs scored. 

Virginia threatened with runners in scoring position in the next two innings, included another bases loaded opportunity in the eighth, but the Miami pitchers did well to keep UVA off the board to keep the deficit at just one run. Unfortunately for the Hurricanes, the Cavalier pitching staff was up to the task as well. Miami put a runner in scoring position in both the seventh and eighth innings, but Jake Berry worked himself out of those situations unscathed both times. 

Jay Woolfolk came on in the ninth inning and, after surrendering a leadoff walk, retired the next three batters he faced to record his fourth save of the season and secure the 6-5 victory and the series for Virginia. 

Angelo Tonas was credited with his third victory of the season. Griff O'Ferrall went 3 for 4 with two doubles and three runs scored, Jake Gelof went 3 for 5 with three RBI, and Kyle Teel went 3 for 4 with a run scored. 

Virginia improves to 27-4 overall and 10-4 in ACC play. The Cavaliers have won four of their five ACC series this season and have the longest home-winning streak in the country at 20 games. UVA clinched its first series win over Miami since 2017 and will look to complete the series sweep over the Hurricanes on Sunday at 1pm at Disharoon Park. 

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