No. 3 Virginia dispatches Liberty, 7-2, to close homestand

Courtesy UVA Media Relations

A collective effort on the mound and at the plate fueled No. 3 Virginia (26-3) to an 7-2 victory over Liberty (17-10) on Wednesday at Disharoon Park. The Cavaliers closed a five-game homestand and improved to 19-1 at The Dish this season.

All nine batters in the Cavalier lineup collected a hit and four Virginia pitchers limited the Flames to five hits. Sophomore Jake Gelof was one of three Cavalier multi-hit performers with a 2-for-5 effort at the plate. He added two RBI in the contest bringing his season total up to 53 on the season.

On the mound Devin Ortiz was credited with his fifth win of the year, tying for the team lead. He allowed one run over 4.2 innings and fanned five batters. The righthander worked around a runner in each of the first three innings and the only run that crossed came on a fielder’s choice that was originally ruled an inning-ending double play but overturned on replay. He retired the first two batters of the fifth and struck out the final batter he faced before exiting with 75 pitches.

HOW IT HAPPENED

• Virginia captured a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first when Kyle Teel scored on a Liberty fielding error. UVA scored in the first inning for 15^thtime and now own a 14-1 record when plating the first run of the game this season.
• Liberty tied it up in the top of the fourth on a fielder’s choice RBI from first baseman Logan Mathieu.
• The Cavaliers quickly recaptured the lead for good their half of the frame on a two-out, RBI double down the right field line by freshman Ethan Anderson, scoring Alex Tappen.
• Virginia drove Flames starter Trey Gibson out of the game in the fifth with a three-run frame. Griff O’Ferrall and Kyle Teel scored on an RBI single through the left side by Gelof. Chris Newell executed a successful safety squeeze and legged out the infield single to put UVA in front 5-1.
• The Cavaliers added two more runs, an RBI single by Tappen in the sixth and then a two-out RBI base knock from Max Cotier in the seventh. Cotier has six RBI in his last two games.
• Liberty’s Derek Orndorff hit his 12^thhomer of the season, a solo blast in the eighth inning.
• UVA reliever Dylan Bowersworked 1.1 innings of relief and stranded a Liberty runner on third base in the fifth. He recorded the final out by making a backhanded play towards the third base line and delivered a strike to first to retire the side.  Matthew Buchanan struck out four batters in two innings, including all three batters he faced in the seventh. Righthander Avery Mabe made his third appearance of the year and pitched a scoreless ninth.

FROM HEAD COACH BRIAN O’CONNOR

“That was one of those games that our guys just kind of grinded it out. I thought Ortiz did it did another nice job of giving us a chance to win. Their starter (Trey Gibson) was good, he was their conference rookie of the year last year and did a nice job. Fortunately, we were able to find some holes there and then the in the fifth inning to get the three runs was really huge. It was a collective effort and everybody throughout the lineup had a hit and contributed in some form or fashion. It was great to see Avery Mabe finish that game because, there’s opportunities for other guys on this pitching staff at the end of this month when we play two games in the middle of the week, rather than one. You’re going to need some pitching depth to continue to win at a high rate I thought Matthew Buchanan was outstanding and did a did a nice job. Overall, it was a well-played game.”

UP NEXT: The Cavaliers will resume ACC play this weekend when they travel to No. 8 Miami for a three-game series. Friday’s series opener will air on ACC Network at 7 p.m. The series continues on Saturday at 7 p.m. and concludes on Sunday with the finale at 1 p.m.

ADDITIONAL NOTES

• Tappen extended his reached base streak to 28 games with single in the fourth inning. Gelof and Teel have reached base in 18 games and 17 games, respectively. Teel has reached base in all but one game this season.
• With two-hit efforts in the contest, Ortiz and Gelof remained tied for the team lead with 14 multi-hit games this season.
• Virginia improved to 41-22-1 all-time against Liberty and have won 11 of the last 12 against the Flames at Disharoon Park. Under O’Connor, UVA is 17-3 against Liberty.