The Virginia baseball team rode a strong performance by starting pitcher Brandon Creswell to a 7-4 victory over Seton Hall at the U.Va. Baseball Field yesterday.
The Cavaliers (6-8-1), who have won six of their last eight games after opening the season 0-5-1, took two of three against the Pirates over the weekend.
Creswell left the game after getting the first out in the top of the seventh. He gave up two runs on seven hits, walking two and striking out three.
Creswell got all the offensive support he would need in a five-run Virginia sixth. Down 2-1, the Cavaliers scored four runs off Pirate reliever Buddy Hausmann, who gave up one hit, walked two and hit Tim LaVigne with a pitch.
Virginia center fielder Michael Floyd, whose ninth-inning RBI beat George Mason 4-3 Thursday, had the key hit in the rally, lining a shot over the head of Seton Hall shortstop Chris Carter for an RBI double.
Pirate righthander Scott Zadina relieved Hausmann and gave up another run before putting out the fire.
"That was basically the difference in the ballgame," Cavalier Coach Dennis Womack said of the big sixth inning.
Chris Marinak relieved Creswell for the Cavs with one out in the seventh and pitched two scoreless innings before giving up two runs in the top of the ninth. LaVigne, who was 1-2 with an RBI and a walk at the plate, moved over from short and nailed down the save.
The Pirates (1-5) put the single blemish on Creswell's performance in the top of the third inning, when the southpaw left a high changeup out over the plate and Seton Hall first baseman Alfie Critelli pushed it over the rightfield fence for a two-run homer that opened the scoring.
"It was one of the two bad pitches that I made," Creswell said. "I just have to give him credit for hitting it."
Except for the home run, Creswell was able to keep the Pirates off the board. With five games in five days, the struggling Virginia pitching staff needed a performance like the one Creswell turned in.
"We're really down pitching-wise, in terms of numbers," Womack said. "To be honest with you, I don't know who we're gonna pitch [today at Virginia Commonwealth]. We really needed Creswell to give us a lot of innings, as many as possible."
The Virginia defense played a major role in the two wins over the weekend. Yesterday the Cavs played error-free ball, just as they did in a 4-1 win in the first game of Saturday's doubleheader. They made three errors in an 8-4 loss in the second game Saturday.
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