Baseball: Cavaliers bounce back, claim series at Louisville, 16-7

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Posted on Sunday, Apr. 14, 2024, 8:25 pm

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Courtesy UVA Media Relations

Photo: UVA Athletics

No. 11 Virginia hit six home runs in a 16-7 victory over Louisville on Sunday in the series finale at Jim Patterson Stadium. The Cavaliers scored 47 runs in the three games against the Cardinals, matching a program record for runs in a three-game ACC series.

Luke Hanson had two of UVA’s six homers in the contest, his first multi-homer game of his career. He finished the day 3 for 4 with 3 runs scored and 2 RBI. Harrison Didawick went deep for the 15th time this season and Henry Ford hit his third homer of the series. Eric Becker capped a standout weekend for the Cavaliers with his second homer of the series and finished the three-game set with 9 RBI.

Reliever Chase Hungate was credited with the victory after pitching four innings of one-run baseball. He did not walk a batter and struck out a pair to improve to 4-0 on the season.

The Cavaliers (28-8, 11-7 ACC) win their second conference road series of the season and take two out of three in Louisville for the first time since 2018. Virginia has won five of the last six games against Louisville and now own a 14-13 advantage in the all-time series.

HOW IT HAPPENED

Virginia jumped out to a 5-0 advantage all courtesy of the long ball. Didawick kickstarted the offense with a solo shot in the bottom of the second inning. The home run moves him into a tie with Mark Reynolds (2002) and Ethan Anderson (2023) for the seventh-most in a single season in UVA history.

With two outs in the frame, Becker blasted a three-run homer off the batter’s eye in centerfield to give UVA a 4-0 advantage.

Casey Saucke, who was 1 for 11 in the series going into his third-inning at-bat, launched a ball over the centerfield wall for his eighth of the year, establishing a new career high. The solo homer put UVA up 5-0.

After Louisville (21-13, 7-8) pulled within two in its half of the third inning, Virginia scored the next six runs including another four-run rally in the sixth. Ford provided the decisive blow in the frame with a three-run shot to left center. Ford belted three homers in the series and now has 13 on the year, two shy of matching UVA’s freshman home run record.

Hanson hit the first of his two home runs in the seventh inning and started a four-run rally in the top of the ninth with his second solo shot. Saucke finished off the Cavalier scoring with a bases-clearing double that made it 16-4.

ADDITIONAL NOTES

  • Virginia matched the school record for runs in a three-game ACC series, previously set in 2009 at Wake Forest. UVA scored 18 runs in the opener, eight runs in the middle game and 21 in the finale.
  • The 47 runs scored by Virginia are the most in any three-game series since plating 60 in a three-game series against Cornell in 2022.
  • Virginia scored double-digit runs for the 19th time this season and are 17-2 when scoring 10 or more runs in a game.
  • Luke Hanson is the sixth Cavalier this season to hit multiple homers in the same game.
  • Virginia hit 12 home runs in the series. The six homers are the fourth time this season and third time in ACC play that UVA has totaled five or more homers in game.

UP NEXT

Virginia will wrap up its four-game road stint with a non-conference tilt at Harbor Park in Norfolk on Tuesday against Old Dominion. First pitch is scheduled for 6 p.m.