#5 Virginia clinches series with doubleheader split

Courtesy UVA Media Relations

Virginia (14-1, 2-1 ACC) won its first Atlantic Coast Conference series with a 13-1 victory over Duke (9-7, 1-2 ACC) in game one of doubleheader at Durham Bulls Athletic Park on Sunday. The Blue Devils snapped UVA’s 14-game win streak in the nightcap, edging the Cavaliers, 7-6.

GAME 1 – Virginia 13, Duke 1

Virginia scored in six of its first seven trips to the plate including a four-run rally in the fifth to clinch the series against the Blue Devils. The Cavaliers matched a season-high with 18 hits in the contest and scored double-digit runs for the 10^th time in the first 14 games of the year.

The Cavaliers were stellar on the mound again, led by starting pitcher Brian Gursky. The lefthander allowed one run over five innings pitched and struck out five. He has a win in each of his first four starts this season. After the second Blue Devil hit of the first inning, he went on to retire 13 of the next 14 batters including the last seven in-a-row.

He handed the ball over to the relief combination of Jake Berry, Jacob Hodorovich and Paul Kosanovich for a combined four innings of scoreless relief. Berry struck out four of the seven batters he faced and lowered his ERA to 1.23 on the season.

The Cavaliers peppered Duke with seven RBI singles that plated eight Virginia runs. Kyle Teel and Jake Gelof each had RBI doubles off the monster in left field.

Freshman Griff O’Ferrall drove in a season-best, four runs and went 3-for-4 at the plate.

GAME 2 – Duke 7, Virginia 6

Coming into the nightcap, Virginia had only trailed on three occasions this season but found itself down 4-0 after the first two innings. Trevor Johnson made it 4-0 Blue Devils with his first career-homer, a two-run shot to left center.

After Blue Devil starting pitcher Billy Seidl sat down the first 10 batters he faced, Kyle Teel recorded the first Cavalier hit with an infield single. A batter later Jake Gelof plated Teel with a double into left. The RBI was his 36^th of the season.

Making his second start of the season, Justin Rubin doubled his season RBI total with one swing in the fifth inning to tie the game at four.

Duke broke the 4-4 stalemate with a three-run seventh inning that included a two-run double by Johnson. For the game, Johnson finished 3-for-3 with two runs scored and four RBI.

The Cavaliers nearly mounted a comeback and had the tying run on base in the ninth inning. Casey Saucke, who came on as a pinch-hitter earlier in the contest, singled home two runs in UVA’s final turn at the plate. Duke reliever Jimmy Loper induced a game-ending ground out with pinch-runner Addie Burrow on first base.

Virginia pitchers issued a season-high eight walks and three Duke batters were hit by pitches.

FROM HEAD COACH BRIAN O’CONOR

“Overall, I think it’s just a great weekend. Anytime you can win a series on the road and in this league, you feel great about it and that’s what we did. We had a chance there to sweep the series but just couldn’t do enough. We gave away a lot of free passes and to Duke’s credit, they made some nice adjustments in their lineup and Trevor Johnson killed us in this game, so I tip my hat to him.

We got away from what we’ve been doing the first 14 games and that’s throwing strikes and playing good defense. We didn’t throw strikes, we didn’t play good defense and you can’t win in this league doing that. We still had a chance there at the end of the game proud of our guys to fight in them. The first game was outstanding, I thought we played another really outstanding ballgame. I’m just proud to come down here on the first ACC weekend and win the series and almost sweep it.”

UP NEXT

Virginia will return home to begin a six-game stint at Disharoon Park. The Cavaliers will play a midweek series against Rider on Tuesday (March 15) and Wednesday (March 16). Both games are scheduled for a 4 p.m. first pitch.

ADDITIONAL NOTES

• Duke homered once in the first game and again in the nightcap. The long balls were only the second and third surrendered by UVA pitching this season.
• The 12-run margin of victory in game one was tied for the second largest in the 172-game history against Duke. The Cavaliers won 15-3 on March 20, 1999 and 13-1 on March 21, 2003. The 18-4 win in the second game of a doubleheader on April 17, 2011 is UVA’s largest win over the Blue Devils.
• Dating back to last season, Virginia has scored 13 or more runs at least one game of the last three ACC series.