Matt Riley/Virginia Athletics
No. 20 Duke Takes Series Opener Over No. 13 Virginia 17-5
Game 1 goes to the Blue Devils.
No. 20 Duke came to Charlottesville and used an offensive explosion featuring 17 runs on 21 hits to rout No. 13 Virginia 17-5 in the series opener at Disharoon Park.
Rain delayed the start of the game by more than an hour, but the Blue Devils came to play right away as they jumped on the board with a two-run home run by MJ Metz off of UVA starter Brian Edgington. The Cavaliers answered with a long ball of their own as Ethan Anderson hit a solo homer down the right field line in the bottom of the second, but Duke scored three more runs off of Edgington in the top of the third, capitalizing on a walk, two singles, and two doubles.
The score remained 5-1 through the sixth inning as the Duke pitching staff held the UVA bats in check outside of Anderson's homer. Duke starter Alex Gow gave up just one earned run in four innings and the next two pitchers worked through the fifth and sixth innings without giving up any runs.
The Blue Devils put the game out of reach in the seventh inning by hanging five runs on Virginia reliever Chase Hungate. Duke batted around in the frame and brought in five runs on six hits before Jacob Hodorovich came in and stranded the bases loaded. UVA got one run back in the bottom of the seventh on an RBI single from Ethan O'Donnell, but the Hoos trailed 10-2 entering the final two innings.
Duke scored again in the top of the eighth on a solo homer from Alex Stone before the Cavaliers managed to double their scoring total on a two-run single from Casey Saucke in the bottom half of the inning. With Virginia maintaining just a slim chance of staging a rally trailing 11-4 entering the ninth inning, the Blue Devils put the nail in the proverbial coffin by sending six more runs across the plate in the top of the ninth. Avery Mabe pitched the inning and, with the game out of reach, was left on the mound to work himself out of it even after he gave up an RBI single, a two-run home run, and another RBI single. Duke scored two more runs on a ground-rule double to make it 17-4 before Mabe finally got out of the inning.
Justin Rubin homered to left field to lead off the bottom of the ninth and Tommy Courtney followed that up with a walk, but Duke's Jason White retired the next three batters in order to seal the 17-5 win for the Blue Devils.
Duke has established itself as one of the hottest teams in college baseball. The Blue Devils have now won eight-straight games, with six of those wins coming against ranked opponents. Virginia, meanwhile, has lost four-straight ACC games and six of its last seven conference games and is in danger of losing a third-consecutive ACC series if the Cavaliers can't find a way to win games 2 and 3 this weekend.
UVA (34-10, 12-10 ACC) will look to even the series in game 2 on Saturday at 4pm.
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