No. 18 Pitt claims middle game of weekend set, 6-2

Courtesy UVA Media Relations

No. 18 Pittsburgh (11-4, 8-3 ACC) never trailed in a 6-2 series-clinching win over Virginia (8-10, 2-9 ACC) on Sunday at Disharoon Park.

The series finale will take place on Monday at 2 p.m. and will be broadcast live on ACCNX.

Pittsburgh starting pitcher Matt Gilbertson tossed eight innings and earned his third win of the season. The righthander did not walk a batter, scattered five hits and struck out five Cavaliers. After 109 pitches Gilbertson gave way to Jordan McCrum who worked a scoreless ninth inning to seal the victory.

“Two back-to-back really outstanding starting pitching performances by their number one and number two starters,” head coach Brian O’Connor said. “We showed signs, showed flashes at times but couldn’t put together a big inning at all and certainly they did with three innings where they had two runs. We just couldn’t muster up a big inning at all and based what we had seen on him (Gilbertson) that’s what you needed to do and we couldn’t pull it off.”

Senior Devin Ortiz (Nutley, N.J.) was responsible for one of the two Virginia runs on the afternoon after he hit his first home run of the season, a solo shot, in the eighth inning. The long ball was his fourth of his career. Freshman Kyle Teel (Mahwah, N.J.) drove in the first Cavalier run in the sixth with a two-out single up the middle that scored Marc Lebreux (Montreal, Canada).

Teel finished the day, 2-for-4 with an RBI, his third multi-hit game in eight starts this season.

Two of the six Pittsburgh runs were unearned as the Cavaliers committed two fielding errors. Starting pitcher Griff McGarry (Portola Valley, Calif.) took the loss after being lifted in the third inning. The Panthers scored two runs and recorded all four hits against McGarry in the third frame.

Zack Messinger (Chandler, Ind.) made his 10th appearance out of the bullpen and pitched the next 3.1 innings. He fanned four batters and was responsible for one earned run. Freshman Luke Schauer (Washington, D.C.) was also charged with one of the two runs that came across in his 1.1 innings of work. Senior Kyle Whitten (Manassas, Va.) rounded out the Cavalier pitching duties by working a scoreless 1.2 innings and recording two strikeouts.

The quartet of Virginia pitchers combined for 10 strikeouts, the 14th time this season the Cavaliers have combined for 10 or more strikeouts in a game.

The Cavaliers will look to salvage the series on Monday afternoon in the series finale. Virginia will send Mike Vasil to the hill and he will be opposed by righty Stephen Hansen of Pitt.