It was the perfect day for a game of baseball in North Carolina, and the Cavaliers were playing a tie-breaking third game in a series against Wilmington with a pitching matchup between Wilmington's Thomas Benton against the Cavaliers' Jeff Kamrath.
Since the Seahawks won Friday's game and Virginia took Saturday's, Sunday's matchup was especially significant. Wilmington has been to the regional championship for the last two years, and after the Cavaliers' performance last season, beating Wilmington would be a great start and say a lot about the new team.
Despite the teams' history, Kamrath said it felt "no different than any other game -- I mean always your first game you have a little bit of jitters, but after that first pitch, it was all baseball."
The game started off well for the Cavaliers with both right fielder Matt Street and left fielder Tom Hagan getting on base. Street eventually scored off a single by third baseman Ryan Zimmerman. Later, first baseman Josh Darby got caught in a rundown but not before Hagan was allowed to score, putting Virginia ahead two to zero in the first inning.
But by the bottom of the second, the Seahawks had retaliated, scoring three runs to take the lead. The third inning remained scoreless until the Cavaliers managed to grab the lead back in the top of the fourth when catcher Scott Headd hit Ryan Zimmerman -- who got to first on a walk -- home.
Sean Doolittle scored to finish off the inning, securing a one run lead for the Cavaliers right before short stop Mike Campagna was tagged out. This time Wilmington didn't respond, and the Cavaliers took the opportunity to expand on their lead in the top of the fifth when Zimmerman flied out, allowing center fielder Tim Henry to score.
Sean Doolittle hit a homer out to right field at the top of the sixth, a run that was matched when Wilmington's Lee McLean hit a ball deep right to bring in the Seahawks Chris Hatcher. This turned out to be the Seahawks' last attempt at regaining the lead, however. After a scoreless seventh, Darby hit a single in the top of the eighth to allow Zimmerman to run home and bring the game to its final score of Cavaliers seven, Seahawks four.
"To come on the road the opening weekend with a relatively young ball club and to come out of there two and one, I couldn't be happier," Virginia coach Brian O'Connor said.
The Cavaliers did remarkably well the whole weekend. Although veteran pitcher Matt Avery went five innings giving up five runs and taking the loss for the opening game, pitcher Mike Ballard came in to take the win Saturday. Ballard, who returned to the mound after a year off due to injury on Saturday, gave up two hits in seven innings for the win.
"I think it showed our younger guys how to play hard, how to play the whole weekend, the whole game, and it just showed our team we can still win, and win late," Kamrath said.
There is no denying that a win against such a touch puts the Cavaliers in a good position for the rest of the season.
"We're off to a great start, and we've just got to keep playing like we played this weekend," Zimmerman said.
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