"Here's the good news: The Virginia baseball team took game one from UNC-Greensboro in yesterday's doubleheader, winning 1-0 in a two-hit shutout led by sophomore Dan Street.
The bad news? The success didn't last long. The Spartans won the second game 15-5, racking up 14 hits, while the Cavs had only eight.
"They've got a good program," Virginia coach Dennis Womack said. "I expected two close ball games. I didn't expect a blowout either way, which unfortunately happened."
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In the first game, the only two Cavaliers to produce hits were second baseman Robbie Marvin and left fielder Ryan Kalamaya, whose second-inning RBI single gave Virginia the only run of the game. But Street had a stellar performance on the mound, pitching six innings and allowing only one hit.
"Danny did such a nice job," Womack said. "The ball did not really get hit at all."
The Spartans final chance to tie the game came in the seventh inning, which in both games was the final inning. Senior closer Tim LaVigne forced Ryan Gordon to ground into a double play to end the game.
In the second game, Cavalier starting pitcher Tommy Keiper had a devastating first inning that doomed the Cavs from the start. Keiper allowed four straight solid hits from the first four Spartan batters. It wasn't until he gave up seven runs, six hits and hit a batter in only two-thirds of an inning that freshman Shooter Starr replaced him.
"After the first game, the pitching never really got better for us as the day went on," Womack said.
In the bottom of the first, the Cavs scored two runs on LaVigne's laser double with runners on first and second.
The damage continued, with the Spartans scoring six runs in three innings off of Starr and fellow relievers David Poppert and Hunter Wyant.
In the bottom of the fourth LaVigne hit a long drive to the 377 sign that was dropped by left fielder Nick Gonzalez. Running hard the whole way, he made it to third base. Hunter Wyant grounded into a fielder's choice and got the RBI to score LaVigne.
Marvin led off the fifth for the Cavs with an infield hit, stole second and third on a passed ball by Spartan pitcher Darin Phalines and scored on David Stone's double to right-center. Jon Benick struck out looking at a full count pitch and third baseman Luis Giraldo lined out to the shortstop to end what might have been a productive inning for the Cavs.
The Spartans scored their last run in the top of the seventh with a mammoth home run by Gonzalez that cleared the fence in leftfield and bounced off of the asphalt behind Klöckner Stadium.
The Spartans believed they had a shot against the Cavs, who took last weekend's series from 12th-ranked North Carolina.
"U.Va. has been playing excellent lately," UNC-G coach Mike Gaski said. "Beating a first-rate team is always an accomplishment"
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