Record Crowd Sees Virginia Baseball Beat Virginia Tech 6-3 on Ryan Zimmerman Day

A Disharoon Park record crowd of 5,919 fans were in attendance for the Cavaliers' victory over the Hokies on Saturday afternoon

Author:
Matt Newton
Updated:
Apr 30, 2022 7:25 PM EDT
Original:
Apr 30, 2022

With a record crowd of 5,919 fans on hand to witness the official retirement of Ryan Zimmerman's legendary No. 11, the Virginia baseball team (33-11, 14-9 ACC) treated the sellout crowd with an impressive all-around performance to beat the No. 7 Virginia Tech Hokies (30-10, 13-8 ACC) 6-3 to even the series on Saturday afternoon at Disharoon Park.

Game 2 of this Commonwealth Clash series was already going to be a top attraction with both the Cavaliers and the Hokies ranked inside the top 11 in college baseball. Combined with Virginia baseball and Washington Nationals legend Ryan Zimmerman having his number retired in a ceremony before the game, it was a recipe for the largest crowd in the history of Disharoon Park. Zimmerman addressed the fans in a brief speech and then threw out the ceremonial first pitch to Virginia head coach Brian O'Connor.

With all the well-earned fanfare and ceremony for Ryan Zimmerman out of the way, a crucial baseball game between ACC Coastal rivals and two of the top teams in the country got underway.

Virginia starter Brian Gursky took some time to settle in, yielding two baserunners in the top of the first on a hit and a walk, but managed to get out of the inning unscathed. After that, Gursky was superb on the mound for the Cavaliers, giving up just two earned runs on five hits and striking out eight batters. Five of those strikeouts came in the first two innings as Gursky had the Virginia Tech batters guessing in the early part of the game.

The Cavaliers had their own chance to get on the board in the first inning, as Griff O'Ferrall hit a lead-off single, stole second, and advanced to third on a groundout. O'Ferrall then made a baserunning mistake, which has become a disturbing trend for the Cavaliers in this series, and got caught between third and home on a routine grounder to shortstop and was tagged out in a rundown.

UVA nearly scored in the the third inning as well, as Max Cotier tried to score from first on a bloop single to center field off of the bat of Kyle Teel, but Cotier was thrown out at the plate by Hokie center fielder Gavin Cross.

In the bottom of the fourth inning, Jake Gelof sent a rocket deep into the left field bleachers for his 17th home run of the season to break the scoreless tie.

Besides the solo home run to Gelof, Virginia Tech starter Drue Hackenberg had breezed through the UVA lineup, needing just 45 pitches to get through the first four innings. The Hoos finally got to the freshman pitcher in a pivotal fifth inning.

Casey Saucke hit a one-out ground-rule double and then Max Cotier drew a walk to put runners on first and second. Hackenberg struck out Griff O'Ferrall looking for the second out, but the Cavaliers had a two-out rally up their sleeves.

Kyle Teel, Alex Tappen, and Jake Gelof delivered back-to-back-to-back RBI singles. Then, Devin Ortiz worked a 3-2 count and hit another single, scoring both Tappen and Gelof to give Virginia a 6-0 lead and chase Hackenberg from the game.

Brian Gursky retired 13 straight batters from the end of the first inning through the fifth inning. In the top of the sixth, the Hokies finally broke that streak with a few base hits. With runners on first and second, Tanner Schobel hit a slow dribbler that went off the glove of a diving Max Cotier, allowing Nick Biddison to score from second to give the Hokies their first run of the game. Schobel was then caught in a rundown trying to steal second and was tagged for the third out, but not before Gavin Cross came home from third to make it 6-2.

In the top of the seventh, Gursky's afternoon came to an end as he surrendered a double and a walk to start the inning. Virginia turned to Brandon Neeck with the tough task of getting the Cavaliers out of the jam with no outs and two runners on.

Neeck got the job done. Conor Hartigan popped out to center field and then Virginia turned a beautiful 6-4-3 double play on a Lucan Donlon grounder to end the inning with no runs crossing the plate.

Neeck retired the Hokies in order in the eighth and remained on the mound for the ninth inning. Tanner Schobel, clearly the player of the game for Virginia Tech, led off the top of the ninth with a line drive solo home run to left field to make it 6-3. Neeck bounced back from the home run, striking out the next two batters and then getting Cade Hunter to ground out to second to end the game.

Brian Gursky and Brandon Neeck were spectacular in this game for the Cavaliers. Gursky got the win, improving his record to 7-0 and Brandon Neeck picked up his second save of the season.

Jake Gelof led UVA offensively, going 2-4 with two RBIs and two runs scored. The Virginia offense handed Virginia Tech starter Drue Hackenberg his first loss of the season. Hackenberg had been 8-0 entering the weekend.

With the win, Virginia evens the series at one game apiece and sets up a rubber match to determine the victor of the Commonwealth Clash on Sunday at 1pm at Disharoon Park.

See more Virginia baseball news and content: Virginia Baseball on Sports Illustrated

See more Virginia sports news and content: Virginia Cavaliers on Sports Illustrated

Read more from Cavaliers Now