No. 12 Virginia claims final home ACC series against Clemson

Courtesy UVA Media Relations

No. 12 Virginia capped a marathon weekend with a 6-3, series-clinching win over Clemson on Sunday night at Disharoon Park. The two teams waited out a 6 1/2-hour weather delay between games one and two of the Sunday doubleheader to complete the series.

With the score tied at 1-1 after three innings, freshman Ethan Anderson hit a go-ahead, two-run homer in the fourth to give UVA (37-13, 16-11 ACC) its first lead of the day. Anderson has hit the right field wall in each of his last three starts, twice for triples, and on Sunday for his fourth home run of the season. He drove a 1-1 pitch that hit the top of the wall and bounced into the Cavalier bullpen.

The Cavaliers followed up in the fifth inning with a three-run rally, two runs coming off the 18th home run of the season by Jake Gelof, a two-run shot that cleared the wall in left center.

Graduate Student Paul Kosanovich earned the win pitching 3.1 scoreless innings after taking over in the fourth inning. Playing in his last regular season home game, the righthander struck out four batters and stranded runners in scoring position in the fourth, fifth and sixth innings. Kosanovich improved to 4-0 on the season and has been credited with wins in each of his last two appearances.

Clemson (32-20, 10-16) scored first in all three games of the series and jumped out to a 1-0 lead on a two-out RBI single by Camden Troyer in the second inning.

Alex Tappen recorded his 66th RBI of the season on an RBI ground out in the fifth inning to make the score 4-1. The next batter, Gelof, drove a 1-1 pitch deep into the Charlottesville night, recording his 70th and 71st RBI of the season. He is only the second player in program history (Pavin Smith – 77 in 2017) to eclipse the 70-RBI mark in a single season.

Clemson chipped away in the ninth with solo home run by Bryar Hawkins to lead off the frame and eventually brought the tying run to the plate. Brandon Neeck finished the game striking out cleanup hitter Blake Wright for the final out.

“This was a challenging weekend for both teams, it really was,” UVA head coach Brian O’Connor said. “Early mornings, doing it whatever we have to do to get three games in. I’ll tell you, I’ve got the highest level of respect for (Clemson head coach) Monte Lee. The ACC rules do not require somebody to stay on Sunday night and play like this. It’s like never happened. They wanted to do everything they could to play the games and so that’s a testament to their program.

“I’m just proud of our guys. We did not play well at all this morning. They beat us up good in game one. We bounced back. I thought our pitching was really good. (Jake) Berry got us off to a nice start, Paul Kosanovich was outstanding, coming in and getting the game under control. Those two guys who both pitched yesterday, (Jay) Woofolk and (Brandon) Neeck did some did some good things. Certainly, Gelof put a charge into that ball and we just did enough offensively.”

Box Score

ADDITIONAL NOTES

• With homers from Anderson and Gelof, Virginia now has 67 home runs as a team this season, matching the program record set in 1988.
• The 18 home runs by Gelof are tied with Jon Benick (2001) for the second most in a single season in school history.
• The Cavaliers finish the regular season with a 29-5 record at Disharoon Park that included an 11-4 mark against ACC foes.
• Virginia has won five of the last six series against Clemson and improve to 31-14 against the Tigers under head coach Brian O’Connor.

UP NEXT

Virginia will play its final ACC series of the season at Louisville beginning Thursday at 6 p.m. Friday and Saturday’s game will both air on ACC Network with start times of 4 p.m. and noon, respectively.

ACC Standings and Schedule