Virginia Baseball Beats Ohio 8-4 in Wilmington

The Virginia baseball team improved to 2-0 on the season with an 8-4 victory over Ohio on Saturday afternoon at the Hughes Bros. Challenge in Wilmington, North Carolina.

Coastal Carolina transfer Nick Parker made his UVA debut on the mound and delivered a solid performance, striking out ten batters, including a run of seven-straight strikeouts into the fifth inning. Parker got the win in his debut, giving up three earned runs on six hits in five innings of work.

After putting up 24 runs in the season-opening win against Navy on Friday, the UVA offense picked up where it left off and gave Parker some run support right away in the top of the first inning. Griff O'Ferrall led off with a single and then stole second base before coming around to score the game's first run on a Casey Saucke single. Kyle Teel hit a single to move Saucke to second and then Ethan Anderson singled to bring home Saucke. The Cavaliers then hit their fourth-straight single as Colin Tuft hit a base hit to right field to bring home Teel to make it 3-0.

Nick Parker eventually settled in for a solid performance, but the Bobcats were able to get to him early on as they hit three-consecutive one-out singles, the last of which was an RBI single by Mason Minzey to get Ohio on the board in the bottom of the first. After a scoreless second inning, Ohio managed to even things up as AJ Rausch delivered a game-tying two-run home run to left field.

The Cavaliers retook the lead in the bottom of the fourth inning with a long ball of their own as Jake Gelof hit his first home run of the season with Henry Godbout on base.

Jake Gelof in the HR column in 2023.

His 26th career 💣, tied for the 10th most in UVA history.#GoHoos pic.twitter.com/a8ShAtrpWg
— Virginia Baseball (@UVABaseball) February 18, 2023

After a scoreless fifth and sixth inning, Virginia put up three more runs in the top of the seventh to provide some critical lead insurance. Kyle Teel led off with a single and eventually came around to score on a two-out single by freshman Henry Godbout, who had three hits, an RBI, and two runs scored in his first collegiate start at second base. Griff O'Ferrall then delivered a two-run double to left field to score both Godbout and Harrison Didawick.

Ohio scored one run in the bottom of the ninth on an RBI double by AJ Rausch, but Virginia closed out the 8-4 win.

Virginia went to a pair of freshmen lefties out of the bullpen to relieve Nick Parker. Bradley Hodges pitched two scoreless innings and struck out two batters to get through the sixth and seventh innings and fellow freshman Evan Blanco struck out three batters in the eighth. Jacob Hodorovich gave up a run in the bottom of the ninth on an RBI double by AJ Rausch, but he secured the 8-4 victory for the Cavaliers.

UVA (2-0) will wrap up the Hughes Bros. Challenge by facing the host UNC-Wilmington on Sunday at 3pm.

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