It seemed only appropriate that senior captain Dan Street ended the second game of a doubleheader in much the same fashion he had started the first game seven hours earlier Sunday.
Street opened scoring in the first game, an 18-3 blowout, with a two-run home run in the first inning and ended the second game pitching the last four innings to secure a 5-1 victory. On the day, Street finished 5-10 with four runs, five RBIs and two homers.
Street led the Cavaliers as Virginia (9-2) completed the sweep of Seton Hall (2-7) on Sunday after they beat the Pirates 2-0 Saturday.
"They scored four runs" in the three games, Virginia coach Dennis Womack said. "I mean, this is a team that beat Carolina two out of three. We're not talking about chopped liver here. We had to play well to beat these guys three games and we did."
The Cavaliers opened yesterday by putting up the most runs in recent memory, scoring at least one run in each of the first five innings. They had five home runs, racked up 16 hits and were helped by five Pirate errors. Not to be outdone by his older brother, sophomore outfielder Matt Street reached base all five times he came to bat, going 4-4 with his first career home run, a three-run blast to left-center in the Cavaliers' five-run eighth inning.
"We've got a couple of guys that can really hurt you," Womack said. "I don't know [where the offense came from], but it was a welcome sight."
Virginia sophomore pitcher Canon Hickman went five innings and gave up only two runs on two hits for the victory, and junior reliever Ty Collins went four innings for his first save.
The second game could not have been more different than the first, as the temperature dropped drastically and the wind picked up. The Cavaliers used the momentum from the early blowout and hung on to beat the Pirates 5-1 in the second game.
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"You're always a little nervous about beating somebody that badly and in the second game having a letdown," Womack said. "We didn't have a letdown. With [junior pitcher Shooter Starr] going out there and pitching as well as he did, it kind of gave us a little chance to catch our second wind. Shooter Starr was kind of the guy who got us going and we just played sound baseball."
Junior first baseman Robert Word gave the Cavaliers an early edge with a two-run homer in the second inning that started off foul down the right field line and was blown back fair. Senior outfielder David Stone laid a run-scoring bunt later that inning to extend the lead to 3-0. Starr pitched five shutout innings, giving up only three hits, to even his record to 1-1 on the season.
"They're putting me in the spot I'm in to drive in runs and I'm doing that," Word said.
The Pirates narrowed the lead to 3-1 in the sixth inning, but the Cavaliers came back in the eighth to put the game away. Street hit a one-out triple to right-center, and a bloop single by Word scored him. The Cavaliers tacked on one more run when freshman third baseman Matt Priest drove in Matt Street with a single.
"That [single] has a tendency to be a momentum changer," Word said. "When it's 3-1 and they're starting to bite back towards the end of the game and you tack on one more run, it takes the wind out of their sails."
On Friday, sophomore pitcher Chris Gale pitched seven scoreless innings, giving up seven hits and striking out five to lead Virginia. Junior catcher Andrew Riesenfeld drove in the game's only two runs on a two-run double with the bases loaded in the second inning.
The Cavaliers have now won four straight games and Street, the team's captain, is very pleased with the way the team is playing.
"As a team, we played really well," Dan Street said. "I'm really impressed with the way our younger guys are coming along and our pitching staff is throwing really well."
The Cavaliers will return to action Tuesday when they travel to Liberty.
"All we have to do is go down there and play our game," Word said. "We haven't had a lot of time to play at other places. We played well at William and Mary and hopefully we can play that way at Liberty, but Liberty always has a good ballclub"