Baseball: Cavaliers blank Yellow Jackets in ACC pool play, 13-0

Courtesy UVA Media Relations

Fourth-seeded Virginia recorded its ACC-best, fifth shutout with a 13-0, seven-inning win over ninth-seeded Georgia Tech during ACC pool play on Wednesday in Charlotte. The Cavaliers will play fifth-seeded Florida State on Friday at 11 a.m. The winner will advance to the ACC semifinals.

Evan Blanco pitched six shutout frames, scattered five hits and struck out three to improve to 7-3 on the season. The lefthander, who garnered third team All-ACC honors earlier this week, has not allowed an earned run in his last 13.1 innings pitched.

Harrison Didawick homered in his fifth-straight game and tied the UVA single-season record for home runs with his 23rd long ball of the season. His two-run shot in the top of the second kicked of the Cavalier scoring outburst and matched Jake Gelof’s mark established last season. The home run also pulled him even with the UVA single season runs record of 71, set by teammate Griff O’Ferrall in 2023.

Junior Casey Saucke led the Cavaliers offensively with a 2-for-4, 4-RBI effort. He hit a two-run homer in the fourth inning and has left the yard in three-straight games. Saucke has driven in eight runs in his last two games.

HOW IT HAPPENED

Didawick homered in consecutive at-bats, his two-run walk-off homer in the 13th inning against Virginia Tech on Saturday and his first at-bat in the second inning of Wednesday’s contest, taking a 2-1 pitch into the seats in right center field to put UVA up 2-0.

Virginia (41-14) added two more runs in the frame on RBI singles from Griff O’Ferrall and Henry Ford, opening a 4-0 advantage.

The only threat to the shutout effort came in the bottom of the second when Georgia Tech (31-23) led the bottom of the second inning with back-to-back singles. Blanco retired the next three batters, including the final batter on his first strikeout of the day to strand a pair of runners in scoring position.

Henry Godbout, the Cavaliers hottest hitter over the final 10 games of the regular season (16 for 37; .432), launched his seventh homer of the year to put UVA ahead 5-0 in the third.

Saucke followed with a two-run blast in the fourth inning, extending the Cavalier lead to 7-0.

Virginia posted three runs in the fifth and three more in the top of the sixth. A total of four runs came across on a pair of two-run doubles by Saucke (5th) and O’Ferrall (6th)

Freshman Matt Augustin pitched a 1-2-3 seventh inning to secure the Cavalier victory.

ADDITIONAL NOTES

• It marked the second-straight season UVA has opened ACC Tournament Pool Play against Georgia Tech. The Cavaliers have outscored the Yellow Jackets 28-1 in the two contests. UVA has won four-straight ACC Tournament games against Georgia Tech.
• It marked UVA’s first shutout in an ACC Tournament game since blanking the Yellow Jackets 11-0 (7 innings) in the 2015.
• With three against Georgia Tech, UVA has hit 16 home runs in its last four games.
• The 13 runs marked the 27th time this season the Cavaliers have produced double-digit runs.
• The run-rule victory was UVA’s sixth of the season and fourth in the last nine games.
• Ethan Anderson extended his reached base streak to 27 games the longest active streak on the team.

UP NEXT

The Cavaliers will play fifth-seeded Florida State on Friday at 11 a.m. The winner will advance to the ACC Semifinals on Saturday. The contest will air live on ACC Network and can be heard on WINA (98.9 FM/1070 AM/WINA.com).