Brandon Neeck, Virginia Cavaliers baseball — Photo courtesy of Matt Riley/Virginia Athletics Communications

Virginia Bats Cool Off in 8-1 Loss to Wake Forest

UVA's eight-game winning streak came to an end on Sunday in Winston-Salem

Author:
Matt Newton
Publish date:
Mar 27, 2022 10:49 PM EDT

Virginia's bats cooled off on Sunday afternoon in Winston-Salem, as the Cavaliers were held to just four hits and one run in a 8-1 loss to Wake Forest in the series finale.

Wake Forest starter Teddy McGraw, who is widely considered to be a top MLB pitching prospect, finally made the UVA batters look human. McGraw pitched five innings, giving up just one earned run on three hits and striking out six batters. Virginia failed to score at least five runs for the first time since the season-opening 1-0 win over Bellarmine on February 18th.

Virginia starter Brandon Neeck was unable to match McGraw's pitching performance, as Neeck struggled to find the zone. He walked five batters and gave up five earned runs in 2.1 innings of work.

Each of Wake's first three batters reached base in the bottom of the first inning to load the bases and then Adam Cecere delivered a one-out single into right field to score two runs. Neeck managed to get out of the inning without allowing further damage.

In the top of the second, Chris Newell took a 2-1 fastball deep to center field for his seventh home run of the season.

In the bottom of the third, Neeck got into some more trouble as Wake put its first two batters on board on a walk and a hit-by-pitch. Brendan Tinsman came up and took a 3-1 pitch over the shallow wall in right field for an opposite-field three-run home run to make it 5-1 in favor of the Demon Deacons. Neeck faced two more hitters, walking one and striking out the other, before getting pulled for Dylan Bowers.

Bowers pitched through the third and into the fourth inning, but gave up a solo home run to Adam Cecere and was lifted after surrendering another single after that. Matthew Buchanan entered the game for the Cavaliers and gave up an RBI double to Jake Reinisch to stretch the Wake lead to 7-1.

The Demon Deacons added one more run in the bottom of the seventh on an RBI double by Pierce Bennett. That was more than enough to keep Wake on top of the Cavaliers, who had come into the day averaging over 10 runs per game in ACC play, but were kept at bay by the combined efforts of Teddy McGraw, Crawford Wade, and Camden Minacci.

The loss snaps Virginia's eight-game winning streak and drops the Cavaliers to 22-2 and 7-2 in ACC play. UVA is currently tied with Miami for first place in the ACC Coastal standings. Virginia hosts Richmond on Tuesday at 4pm before welcoming Georgia Tech to Charlottesville for a three-game series next weekend.

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