Big fourth inning helps No. 3 Virginia clinch weekend series

Courtesy UVA Media Relations

Third-ranked Virginia (25-3, 9-3 ACC) posted a 10-run, fourth inning in a 18-9 series-clinching win over No. 22 Georgia Tech (18-11, 5-7 ACC) on Sunday. The victory took place in front of 5,286 fans at Disharoon Park, the most ever at a UVA baseball game.

Virginia fell behind twice in the contest, 3-0 in the first inning and 4-3 in the top of the fourth. The Cavaliers then sent 15 batters to the plate, collected seven hits and scored 10 runs, the most in an inning this season and the most by UVA in a single inning since scoring 11 against VMI in 2016. The Cavaliers used a seven-run rally in the sixth inning of Saturday’s contest to help even the series. UVA has scored five or more runs in an inning 18 times this season.

Jake Gelof hit his 14th home run of the year, an opposite field shot onto the porch in right field in the sixth inning as part of a 3-for-6, three-run and three RBI day at the plate. The home run was the 39th hit by the Cavaliers at Disharoon Park this season, breaking the program mark of 38 by the 2017 club over the course of 34 home games.

HOW IT HAPPENED

• For the third-straight game, Georgia Tech took the lead in its half of the first inning. The first three batters came around to score, two on a two-run home run by Andrew Jenkins. The long ball was his third of the series.
• Freshman Griff O’Ferrall, who cleared the bases in the second inning on Saturday to give UVA its first lead of the series, came up with his first triple of the season on Sunday to tie the game at three in the bottom of the second.
• Georgia Tech took its final lead of the day in the fourth on a sacrifice fly by Drew Compton.
• In the 10-run inning, Max Cotier drove in three runs and had two hits. Freshman Casey Saucke also had two hits in the frame to go along with two runs scored and two RBI. Five of the runs came with two outs.
• The Yellow Jackets, who came into the weekend with the 10th highest team batting average in the country peppered Virginia for an opponent-high, 14 hits and scored five runs over their last four trips to the plate.
• Virginia starting pitcher Jake Berry was credited with this third win of the season after logging 5.2 innings of work. Will Geerdes pitched the final two innings and struck out three batters. It was the ninth game Geerdes has finished this season.

FROM HEAD COACH BRIAN O’CONNOR

“I just want to say how grateful we are as coaches and players for our fans. A day like today to have the largest crowd in the history of our stadium is really something pretty special because obviously we we’ve had some pretty good teams and for the fans to come out and the people have worked so hard to build the excitement about coming out to the ballpark. Today was a day that they were rewarded and it’s just amazing. You talk to some of these young players that are in the program, they’ve never played in front of anything like this. They’ve said to us coaches, is this is what it was like back in 2009, 2011, 2013, those kinds of years? Because of COVID things went away a little bit and it’s just so nice to see that the community comes out and supports these guys and what they’re doing. It’s certainly a big win for us. Losing on Friday night and then coming back and winning the next two. I’ll tell you, it doesn’t matter which ones you win whether you win the first one or you win the next two. It’s a matter of winning the series and I thought our guys really, really battled. The 10-run inning in the fourth was pretty amazing. It was kind of like yesterday where it was just one hit after another and with two outs we just kept tacking on. So credit to our guys for being relentless with the bats and putting them away.”

UP NEXT: The Cavaliers conclude a five-game stint at home with a non-conference tilt against Liberty on Wednesday (April 6). The contest will be televised on ACC Network with first pitch scheduled for 7 p.m. at Disharoon Park.

ADDITIONAL NOTES

• The 5,286 fans at Disharooon Park eclipses the previous mark of 5,074 on April 12, 2012 against North Carolina. There have been 13 crowds of 5,000+ in Disharoon Park history. Including Sunday, only two have been in the regular season.
• The 18 runs were the most Virginia has ever scored against Georgia Tech in 140 all-time meetings. The Cavaliers have won six-straight series against the Yellow Jackets at Disharoon Park.
• Tappen extended his reached base streak to 27 games with a walk in the second inning. The reached base streak is the longest in a single season by a Cavaliers since Zack Gelof reached base in the first 28 games of his career back in 2018. Kyle Teel had a reached base streak of 36 games that spanned over the course of two seasons (2021 and 2022).
• Virginia has scored 10 or more runs in 17 of the 28 games this season, including all but two at Disharoon Park.
• Opponents have scored in the first inning against Virginia seven times in the first 28 games. Georgia Tech is responsible for three of those opening-inning rallies.