North Carolina
Virginia
UVa Baseball Gets Past UNC With Big Third Inning
April 23, 2000 | Baseball
April 23, 2000
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. - The University of Virginia baseball team returned to home action and hosted the #12 ranked North Carolina Tar Heels in the final game of a three-game weekend series with the Tar Heels. UVa won Friday's game by the score of 6-5 before UNC took game two by the count of 5-4. This afternoon, the Cavaliers used a six-run third inning to their advantage en route to a 10-6 victory in front of 420 spectators at the UVa Baseball Field. The 10-6 win ended a streak of five consecutive games decided by one run in the North Carolina/Virginia series. But more importantly for the Cavaliers, UVa won two of the three games in the Atlantic Coast Conference weekend series with UNC with today's 10-6 victory.
The Cavaliers scored the first run of the game and took an early 1-0 lead in the bottom of the second inning. The score was set up after Ben Himes (2-5, two runs, RBI) singled to right field to reach first base. After Himes stole second base, he advanced to third base on a fly ball to center field before scoring Virginia's first run of the game when Michael Floyd (2-4, three RBI) hit a RBI-single to shortstop.
The Tar Heels scored three runs in the top of the third inning to take a 3-1 lead. It would be Carolina's first and only lead of the game. The inning was started off with a double down the right field line by UNC's Chad Prosser (4-4, two runs). North Carolina's Adam Greenberg (2-5, RBI, run) hit a bunt single that advanced Prosser to third base in UNC's next at-bat. With base runners on the corners and zero outs, Dan Moylan (2-3, three RBI, run) hit a RBI-double to left field that scored Prosser to tie the game at 1-1. Clay Hooper then hit a RBI-sacrifice fly ball to right field to score Greenberg, giving the Tar Heels a 2-1 lead. The next batter, Tyrell Godwin (1-4), hit a RBI-single to right field to score Moylan, making it a 3-1 UNC advantage.
But UVa would answer right back with a huge third inning of its own to retake the lead it would not relinquish. The Cavaliers would go on to score six runs on seven hits to pull out to a 7-3 lead through three innings of play.
Robbie Marvin (3-5) started the third inning off with a single to center field for Virginia. After David Stone (1-4, run) hit into a fielder's choice to reach base, Jon Benick (3-4, two runs) singled to right field. The Cavaliers next batter, Luis Giraldo (2-5, RBI, run), hit a RBI-double to left-center field to score Stone, pulling UVa within one run of UNC at 3-2. In Virginia's next at-bat, Tim LaVigne (2-4, four RBI, two runs) hit a three-run homerun (his fourth homerun of the season) to deep, center field to score Benick and Giraldo, giving the Cavaliers a 5-3 lead. One batter later, Himes hit a solo homerun to right-center field, putting UVa ahead by the score of 6-3. Himes' homerun was his seventh (team-high) of the season and the second time Virginia batters hit back-to-back homeruns this season. Two batters later, UNC pulled pitcher Ryan Earey after he gave up seven runs on nine hits through only 2.1 innings of play. He was replaced by Eric Henderson in the inning. Mark Rueffert (3-4, two runs) walked before moving to second base on a balk by Henderson. Ryan Kalamaya (1-3) hit a single to left field to advance Rueffert to third base before he scored the Cavaliers seventh run (sixth of the inning) when Floyd hit a RBI-sacrifice fly ball to center field.
UVa starting pitcher Brandon Creswell (LHP) now had run support with a 7-3 lead and pitched a fine game as the lefty went 6.2 innings while allowing four runs on nine hits to go along with five strikeouts. North Carolina managed to scored a run in the top of the fourth inning when Prosser singled to center field and later scored on a RBI-double to right-center field by Greenberg. But the Cavaliers would answer the Tar Heels scoring run once again, this time with two more runs of their own in the bottom of the fourth inning.
Leading 7-4, Benick singled to left-center field before scoring on a RBI-double to left field by LaVigne to extend UVa's lead to 8-4. In the Cavaliers next at-bat, Himes struck out swinging but reached first base on a throwing error by UNC's Moylan when his throw to first base hit Himes in the back. LaVigne came around from third base to score Virginia's ninth run of the game on the throwing error to make it a 9-4 UVa lead.
The Cavaliers would pull out to their biggest lead of the game (10-4) when they scored another run in the bottom of the seventh inning after Rueffert doubled to right-center field and scored two batters later when Floyd hit a RBI-double to left field, giving Virginia a six-run advantage at 10-4.
North Carolina would eventually score two more runs in the top of the eighth inning on a bases-loaded RBI-single to center field by Moylan that scored Russ Adams (1-4) and Jay Madeira. But that would be all the scoring the Tar Heels would post as the Cavaliers held on for the 10-6 victory.
UVa's Creswell gathered his third win of the season as a pitcher as he improved his record to 3-7 on the year, while UNC's Earey took his first loss of the season and fell to 4-1 on the year.
With the win, Virginia's record improves to 19-24-1 overall, 7-11 in the ACC. The loss drops North Carolina's record to 36-11 overall, 8-10 in the conference.
The Cavaliers will return to home action on Monday, April 24th when UVa faces the James Madison Dukes at 4:00 p.m. at the UVa Baseball Field. UNC will not play again until Thursday, April 27th when the Tar Heels face the the Duke Blue Devils. That contest is scheduled to begin at 3:00 p.m. and will be played in Durham, N.C. at Jack Coombs Field.
