Photo Courtesy Virginia Athletics
It was a good weekend for the top teams in the ACC, as the Miami Hurricanes, University of Virginia Cavaliers and Florida State Seminoles all won their respective series. UVA and Miami enjoyed sweeps, while FSU took two out of three games from North Carolina.
No. 1 UVA won all three games against Georgia Tech, but it wasn’t easy. The Cavaliers needed two runs in the bottom of the 7th inning to erase a 4-3 deficit against the Yellowjackets and earn head coach Brian O’Connor his 500th career win. Nick Howard saved his 16th game, fanning two in the 9th.
In the second game, UVA scored in the 9th to tie the game up at three runs apiece. Derek Fisher singled, stole second, and then moved over on a groundout and scored on a sacrifice fly. After Jonathan Roberts issued an intentional walk to load the bases in the 11th, Brandon Cogswell drew a four pitch walkoff walk. The Cavs got another strong pitching performance in the third game, this time from Brandon Waddell, as they won 3-1. Howard got his 17th save, striking out two in a 1-2-3 9th inning.
Miami won the first two games of their series against the Duke Blue Devils by the scores of 6-1 and 9-1. Zack Collins drilled his 8th home run of the year in the first game, and the Blue Devils scored six runs in the in the 8th to put the game away in the second match. Dale Carey hit a home run and added five RBIs.
Game three was a tight matchup, as Michael Matuella held down the Canes offense with seven strikeouts in six strong innings of work. Bryan Radziewski scattered ten hits across seven innings for the Canes. A two-out single by Brandon Lopez in the 8th would give Miami a 4-3 lead that they wouldn’t relinquish en route to their 15th consecutive road victory.
Behind ace Luke Weaver, the Seminoles notched a blowout 7-0 victory Friday night. The Semin0les scraped out three runs against UNC ace Trent Thornton, then put the game away against the bullpen. D.J. Stewart hit three doubles. The second game was similarly lopsided, as FSU rapped out 12 hits to go along with eight walks in a 10-2 victory. Mike Compton went eight strong innings on the mound, striking out five and walking none.
In the final game of the series, UNC got out to a 3-0 lead, and knocked out Dylan Silva, who was making his first start of the year. After the Tarheels added another run in the 4th, FSU got three back in the top of the 5th and tied it up the next inning. However, a Tyler Ramirez single brought home a run in the 7th, and UNC would emerge victorious by the score of 5-4. Reilly Hovis threw 4.1 innings in relief for the Tarheels, striking out eight and walking just one.
With one week of ACC play remaining, the Miami Hurricanes sit at 22-5 in the conference, while the Cavs are one game back in the Coastal Division at 21-6. In the Atlantic Division, the Seminoles have a commanding hold on first place at 19-8.
