The Virginia baseball team swept its weekend series against Bucknell, which included two victories in a Saturday doubleheader. The victories marked the end of a stretch of eight games in eight days for the Cavaliers, all of which were victories.
In the previous five games, the Cavaliers have outscored their opponents by a combined total of 66-5. Virginia (10-1), however, was held to just five runs in the first two games by Bucknell (0-4) before exploding with 13 in the final game Saturday.The final scores were 2-0 Friday, 3-0 in the first Saturday game and 13-2 in the final game of the series Saturday evening.
Virginia went until the fourth inning without getting a hit off opposing Bucknell starting pitcher, junior Mathew Wilson. In that same inning, Virginia was able to score a run on a sacrifice fly by senior outfielder Mike Mitchell.
Virginia added another run in the eighth after sophomore Brandon Guyer singled, was sacrificed to second and took third on a wild pitch.Senior Beau Seabury then singled to left to pick up the RBI.
Pitching was certainly the story of Friday and would prove to be the story for the rest of the weekend. Senior pitcher Sean Doolittle pitched six shutout innings on four hits and eight strikeouts in Friday's victory.
After the game, Doolittle said such a close game was "a good situation," noting that "We're going to have several of those games here over the course of our season, playing the ACC schedule that we have ahead of us. So, for us to go through that...was really good."
In the other two games of the weekend, pitching was also vital to the wins. In the first game of the doubleheader Saturday, sophomore starting pitcher Jacob Thompson became the first Virginia starter this season to pitch into the seventh inning. He gave up two hits, struck out six and walked one in seven innings of work.
"He's not a guy that's going to go out and dominate an entire game," Virginia coach Brian O'Connor said. "But he made the big pitches when he needed to ... and that was good to see. It makes me feel good going into the ACC."
Virginia scored one run in the sixth on an RBI single by senior Ryan Hudson. In the seventh, the Cavaliers scored again when sophomore Greg Miclat reached base on error and was eventually singled home by Doolittle. Guyer then doubled to score Doolittle, who had reached second on a single by sophomore David Adams.
After two tense contests, the Cavaliers ran away with the final game of the series, scoring three runs in the second inning and two in the third. The team then shut the door on Bucknell, scoring two in the sixth and six more in the seventh inning. Four players had two or more RBIs: Miclat (3), Seabury (2), Mitchell (2) and sophomore Jeremy Farrell (2).
While the starting pitching in all three games was dominant, so was the Cavalier bullpen. Virginia relief pitchers allowed no runs and only five hits in 8 1/3 innings of work over the three games. Thompson said it was easier for him to pitch in close games because the "bullpen's just been lights out this year."
The Cavaliers look to maintain their undefeated record at home Tuesday against the Virginia Military Institute.
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