Baseball: Pitt claims series with 6-4 win over No. 7 UVA

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Posted on Sunday, Apr. 16, 2023, 2:01 am

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Courtesy UVA Media Relations

Photo: UVA Athletics

Pitt clinched the series with a 6-4 win over No. 7 Virginia on Saturday at Disharoon Park. The Cavaliers suffer their second ACC series loss of the season.

Pitt starting pitcher Logan Evans made one mistake, a first-pitch slider that Virginia junior Jake Gelof hit out of the yard for a three-run homer. After that at bat, he limited the Cavaliers (30-6, 11-6 ACC) to a pair of hits and struck out eight batters over the next six innings. The righthander needed 98 pitches over seven innings of work to earn his second win of the season.

The home run for Gelof was his seventh in the last seven games. He ups his season total to 16 and his career mark to a program-best, 41. Gelof was responsible for two of the six UVA hits in a 2-for-3, three RBI effort at the plate. Gelof, the national leader in RBI coming into the weekend, has six RBI in two games against Pitt.

A total of 5,309 fans were in attendance at Disharoon Park on Saturday, the fourth-largest crowd in the stadium’s history.

HOW IT HAPPENED

  • The first two Virginia batters of the game reached base, Griff O’Ferrall on a lead-off double and Ethan O’Donnell walk. That set the stage for Gelof whose towering fly ball had just enough carry to get the ball of the ballpark and gave UVA a 3-0 lead, just three batters in.
  • Held hitless through its first two turns at the plate, Pitt (16-17, 7-8) collected four hits and scored three runs in the top of the third inning. Two came in on Noah Martinez’s one-out RBI single to left. Martinez has four RBI in the series.
  • With the game tied at three, Pitt went ahead for good on a two-out RBI single by Jack Anderson in the sixth inning. The Panthers tacked on two more in the seventh on two balls that did not leave the infield to take a 6-3 advantage.
  • Sophomore Anthony Stephan led off the bottom of the ninth inning with solo homer to right field, his first career home run.
  • Pitt’s Nash Bryan retired the next three batters, including two strikeouts, to record his second save in as many days.

ADDITIONAL NOTES

  • Lefthander Jake Berry pitched three innings of relief and struck out seven batters, tied for the most he’s had in a relief outing in his career (7 strikeouts vs. Cornell on Feb. 25, 2022).
  • Chase Hungate pitched the final 2.2 innings for the Cavaliers, allowing only an inherited runner to score. He has allowed one earned run in his last seven innings pitched.
  • Kyle Teel was the other Cavalier multi-hit performer, going 2 for 4 with a pair of doubles. He has reached base in all 36 games this year and leads the team with 22 multi-hit games.
  • O’Ferrall extended his hitting streak to 13 games, the longest active streak on the team. He’s also reached base safely in 27-straight.

UP NEXT

This weekend series concludes on Sunday with the finale at 1 p.m. UVA will have freshman righthander Jack O’Connor (3-1) on the mound and he will be opposed by rightly Kyle Mosely (0-4). The first 1,000 fans will receive a free Virginia baseball t-shirt that will be distributed at the Klöckner Stadium gate.