Based on the first half inning of last night's game against Brown, it looked like Virginia would be in for a long night.
Brown's lead-off hitter, right fielder Paul Christian, hit a home run in the first at bat of the contest. The Bears would tack on another run as Virginia starter Chris Gale struggled early, and, to make matters worse, there was a steady rainfall throughout the first half inning.
In the bottom half of the first inning, however, the Cavaliers (21-7) were able to take control of the game on their way to a lopsided 13-2 victory over Brown (2-8) in a rain-shortened contest.
After loading the bases with two outs, a passed ball strike out and a walk both brought runs across the plate to tie the score.
"If we don't try to do too much, we can score a lot of runs," third baseman Ryan Zimmerman said of the inning. "If we stay within ourselves, the results will take care of themselves."
The Cavaliers, who sent 14 batters to the plate in the inning, were not finished, as they added seven more runs before the inning ended. Mark Reynolds hit a two-run double, and both Kyle Werman and Zimmerman hit singles that drove in two runs. Joe Koshansky drove in his 40th RBI of the season to cap Virginia's impressive nine-run, two-out rally.
"It was good to see us get in there and dig in and fight," Virginia coach Brian O'Conner said. "It was important for us to get us a comfortable lead because Chris Gale didn't have a real great first inning, but with a lead like that he's able to go out and be aggressive and attack the hitters."
Gale used the lead to find his control and pick up his third win of the season. After the first inning, Gale did not give up another hit until late in the fifth inning.
"It seems to happen to me a lot," Gale said. "I go out there and give up a couple runs, and then I settle down. When we scored it gave me a lot of confidence, and I could go out there and settle down and pitch my game."
Virginia added two more runs in the second inning, as the Cavaliers continued their assault of Brown starter Chris Davidson, who gave up 11 earned runs on nine hits in only five innings of work. With the bases loaded again, Reynolds hit his second double of the night and drove in two more Cavalier runs.
The game slowed at that point as neither team got a runner into scoring position until the bottom of the fifth inning when Reynolds advanced to second base on a wild pitch. Zimmerman later hit a double to bring Reynolds across the plate to make the score 12-2. Werman would add another run to Virginia's total when he hit a bloop single off relief pitcher Jason Priede in the sixth inning that scored pinch runner Matt Lucido.
Coming off of two consecutive losses to N.C. State this weekend, there was a sense of urgency for Virginia to pull out the victory.
"We were still a little upset about this weekend," Zimmerman said. "We learned from our mistakes this weekend obviously, based on what we did tonight."
In the top of the seventh inning, with the score 13-2 and a Brown runner on second, home plate umpire Mickey Fuqua called a rain delay and halted play. The teams waited 30 minutes after the tarp was pulled out to cover the infield, but play never resumed and the game was called with no outs in the seventh inning.
Virginia and Brown will meet at Davenport Field again this afternoon at 3 p.m. for the final game of their two-game series.
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