North Carolina
Virginia
North Carolina Baseball Falls To Virginia 6-5
April 21, 2000 | Baseball
April 21, 2000
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. - The University of Virginia baseball team returned to home action and hosted the #12 ranked North Carolina Tar Heels in the first game of a three-game Atlantic Coast Conference series at the UVa Baseball Field this afternoon. The Cavaliers entered the game looking to snap a season-high five game losing streak and did just that, as UVa pulled out to an early 4-0 lead and held on for an eventual 6-5 victory.
The game began as a pitchers duel between Virginia's Kevin Shrout (RHP) and North Carolina's Ryan Snare (LHP). Both pitchers kept their opponent quiet until the mid-point of the game. After playing three and a half innings of scoreless baseball, the Cavaliers scored the first run of the contest when Jon Benick (1-3, run) reached first base on an error by the Tar Heels' Clay Hooper and later scored when teammate Mark Rueffert (1-3, three RBI, run) hit a RBI-sacrifice fly to center field.
Leading 1-0, Virginia put together a huge sixth inning and came away with a 4-0 lead before it ended. After gathering only one hit off of Snare through five innings of play, the Cavalier bats came to life and erupted for six hits in the inning off the left-hander and turned three of those hits into runs scored.
The Cavaliers posted five consecutive hits in the sixth inning, starting with a single to left field by Benick. After Benick was picked-off at first base, Luis Giraldo (2-4, two runs, RBI) single to center field before Tim LaVigne (1-3, run) hit a single to center field. Both runners advanced to third and second base respectively before Rueffert collected his second and third RBI of the game after hitting a single to center field that scored Giraldo and LaVigne. Holding a 3-0 advantage, Virginia added another run to pull ahead 4-0. David Stone (2-4, run) single to left field before Stephen Sweet (2-4, RBI) hit a RBI-single to center field to score Rueffert, giving the Cavaliers their four run lead.
The Tar Heels would not give up and came right back and scored two runs of their own in the top of the seventh inning to cut the UVa lead in half. North Carolina began the seventh inning with three consecutive walks by Sean Farrell (RBI, run), Matt McCay (RBI, run) and Chris Maples (2-3, RBI). Ryan Earey gathered a RBI in UNC's next at-bat after he hit into a fielder's choice play that scored Farrell to give North Carolina its first run of the game. Ryan Mathews (RBI) entered the game for UNC as a pinch hitter and flied out to center field (sacrifice fly) to score McCay, making it a 4-2 game.
Virginia scored another run in the bottom of the seventh inning when Giraldo hit his fifth homerun of the season when he blasted a solo shot off of the scoreboard in left field to give the Cavaliers a 5-2 lead.
However, the Tar Heels came right back and scored three runs of their own to tie the game at 5-5 in the top of the eighth inning. Dan Moylan was hit by a pitch before Hooper walked giving UNC base runners at first and second base. Tyrell Godwin (1-4, run) singled to left field to load the bases for the Tar Heels before Farrell grounded out to the catcher. Farrell's fielder's choice play scored Moylan to make it a 5-3 game though. In UNC's next at bat, McCay hit a RBI-sacrifice fly to deep center field to score Hooper, pulling North Carolina to within one run of Virginia at 5-4. Maples then hit a RBI, game-tying double to right-center field to score Godwin, but was tagged out at third base after trying to stretch hits double into a triple. But the Tar Heels were able to tie the game at 5-5 by scoring three runs when the inning ended.
With the game tied at five apiece, Stone singled on a bunt attempt as UVa's leadoff batter in the bottom of the eighth inning. Stone moved to second base on Eric Christensen's sacrifice bunt before moving to third base on a single to shortstop by Sweet. Stone scored what would become the game-winning run in UVa's next at-bat when Robbie Marvin (1-4) hit into a fiedler's choice. On the play, UNC's Jay Medeira, who had just entered the game as a defensive replacement at first base, picked up Marvin's batted ball and threw it to Moylan (UNC catcher). However, Madeira's throw was off the mark and the ball scattered past Moylan, allowing Stone to score the game-winning to put Virginia ahead for good at 6-5.
The Cavaliers would not relinquish their one run lead and held on for their 18th win of the season.
UVa's LaVigne (3-0), who moved from shortstop to pitcher in the eighth inning, gathered his third win of the season as a pitcher after throwing two innings and recording two strikeouts. Shrout pitched 6.1 strong innings and tallied four strikeouts in a no-decision. Derrick DePriest (1-3) was dealt the loss after pitching 1.1 innings of work.
With the victory, Virginia's record improves to 18-23-1 overall, 6-10 in the ACC. The loss drops North Carolina's record to 35-10 overall, 7-9 in the conference.
The Cavaliers and Tar Heels will return to action on Saturday, April 22nd when the two teams face one another in game-two of the three games series. The contest will begin at 2:00 p.m. and will be played at the UVa Baseball Field.
