No. 5 Virginia slugs past Rider in midweek series opener

Courtesy UVA Media Relations

No. 5 Virginia (15-1) blasted four home runs in a 14-4 win over Rider (6-8) on Tuesday  at Disharoon Park. The Cavaliers improved to 10-0 at home this season and have now won 13-straight in their home ballpark dating back to last season.

Kyle Teel, Chris Newell, Casey Saucke and Devin Ortiz each homered in the contest, accounting for eight of the 14 UVA runs. Teel broke a scoreless tie in the fourth inning with a grand slam and finished the game 3-for-5 with a double, triple and five RBI.

Three Cavalier pitchers combined to strikeout 12 batters and surrendered three earned runs. Making his first start on the mound, freshman Matthew Buchanan fanned six over 3.2 innings and walked one. He retired nine of the first 10 batters he faced and was ultimately credited with the win.

HOW IT HAPPENED

• The Teel grand slam was his second of the season and third of his career. He is the third Cavalier since 2000 with three career grand slams (Pavin Smith & Mike Papi).
• Chris Newell led off the fourth inning with his fourth home run of the year which was followed up by the next batter, Casey Saucke who cleared the television tower in left center field. It was third time UVA has hit back-to-back homers this season.
• The two homers ignited a five-run rally in the fourth that included an RBI triple from Teel and RBI singles from Jake Gelof and Alex Tappen. The Cavaliers have scored five or more runs in a single inning 12 times this season.
• Virginia tacked on two more runs in the seventh on a two-run blast by Ortiz. The graduate student made his first start at third base and finished 3-for-4 with two runs scored and three RBI.
• Sophomore Avery Mabe made his collegiate debut and pitched the final 3.1 innings to earn the save. The righthander scattered five hits, allowed one earned run and fanned three.

FROM HEAD COACH BRIAN O’CONNOR

“I just thought I got our guys responded really well after a long day and first loss of the season on Sunday night (at Duke). Matthew Buchanan I thought was really good. He hasn’t thrown much and to go out there and throw 70 pitches and get us off to what I felt was a real quality start in the first start of the kid’s career was nice to see. (Dylan) Bowers did a great job, Avery Mabe got his first opportunity and I thought we pitched pretty well. There were a collection of guys that had big days offensively, which we’ve been doing quite a bit this year. Tomorrow will be the first time we played twice in the middle of the week. It can be challenging on your pitching but we’ve got enough tomorrow and we’ll be able to run a lot of different guys out there tomorrow.”

UP NEXT: The two teams will conclude the midweek series on Wednesday (March 16). The first 1,000 fans in attendance will receive a green Virginia koozie in honor of St. Patrick’s Day. First pitch at Disharoon Park is scheduled for 4 p.m.

ADDITIONAL NOTES

• Virginia has scored 10 or more runs in all 10 home games this season.
• UVA has outscored midweek opponents 50-6 over the course of four games and is outscoring its guests 143-24 at Disharoon Park this season.
• Saucke extended his hitting streak to 14 games with the long homer in the fourth. It was the second time this season he was part of back-to-back blasts. He followed up an Alex Tappen homer against Cornell on Feb. 27.