After a 16-0 home winning streak came to an end with two weekend losses to Miami, the Virginia baseball team has kindled another winning streak at Davenport Field with their 8-3 dismantling of Old Dominion Tuesday night.
Despite worries that the 17 runs scored in the seven-inning spectacle against the 'Canes Sunday would deplete the Cavaliers of their allotted run total for the week, Virginia (22-12, 6-5 ACC) knocked in four in the third inning and three in the fourth to secure the win.
Virginia pitcher Josh Myers (0-0) stole the show in his first career start, shaking off early-game jitters to throw 4.2 innings in a five-hit, one-run performance. With two outs in the top of the fifth inning, Myers walked two Monarch batters in a row to put men on first and second. Coach Dennis Womack, who left the right-hander to pitch his way out of a bases loaded jam in the opening frame and a situation with men on the corners and one out the next inning, decided to pull the sophomore only one out shy of qualifying for the win.
"Yeah, I was" a little disappointed, Myers said of the decision that prevented him from winning his first collegiate start. "I was really trying to get the last out, but what can you do about that?"
Myers, who only last year was a member of the Virginia club baseball team, responded to the challenge of taking the mound against Old Dominion (12-21) despite having faced only three batters all season prior to the opening pitch. The walk-on surprised even Womack after being told of his opportunity less than three hours before the game.
"I felt like if Josh would just throw the ball across the plate that we would have a chance," Womack said of Myers. "Now, to hold the other team to one run in five innings -- that I was probably a little surprised at, especially from a guy making his first collegiate start who really has no experience. I felt like he was really the star of the game."
While Myers was the feel-good story of the night, left fielder Matt Dunn terrorized Monarch pitchers by reaching base in four of his five plate appearences. Dunn, who scored three times in Sundays game against Miami, knocked in a pair and went 2-for-3 with two walks and two runs scored.
The 5-foot-9, 160-pound freshman played the kind of baseball that coaches want out of a player his size. Although Dunn was caught stealing in the bottom of the first inning, the frenetic No. 2 hitter showed his ability to put pressure on starting catcher John Oehler, who had a rough night behind the plate blocking pitches in the dirt. Oehler was relieved in the middle of the sixth inning by freshman Willy Morales.
Dunn's first run of the night came off a Mark Reynolds triple in the third inning -- the second run of a four-run outburst highlighted by junior first baseman Joe Koshansky's third home run of the year.
Dunn's two RBI's were a product of a heads-up play in the fourth stanza. As he pulled around for a sacrifice bunt with men on second and third, he fashioned a makeshift half-swing to push the ball past both the pitcher and the second baseman, who was already halfway on the trip to cover first base. Kyle Werman and Matt Street scored on the play to push the Cavaliers' lead to five. Dunn capped his night with a double down the right field line in the eighth.
Virginia travels to Blacksburg today to face in-state rival Virginia Tech before coming home for a key ACC series against red-hot N.C. State.
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