Virginia Baseball Has Winning Streak Snapped in 9-4 Loss at Duke

The red-hot Cavalier bats were put on ice by the Blue Devils in game 1 of the rematch of last year's Charlottesville Super Regional. No. 9 Virginia (21-5, 6-4 ACC) had its six-game winning streak snapped in a 9-4 loss to No. 11 Duke (19-7, 5-5 ACC) on Thursday night at Jack Coombs Field in Durham.

It was an ideal start for Duke, as starter Jonathan Santucci set the top of the UVA lineup down in order in the top of the first and then the Blue Devils scored two runs off of Virginia starter Cullen McKay in the bottom half on RBI doubles by Ben Miller and Logan Bravo.

The Cavaliers got on the board in the top of the second as Henry Ford drew a leadoff walk, advanced to second on a wild pitch, moved to third on a groundout, and then scored on a Henry Godbout RBI single. But Virginia wouldn't score again until the fifth inning and managed only five hits in the entire game.

After a scoreless third inning, Duke opened up the game with a four-run fourth, as McKay surrendered a pair of RBI singles and walked in a run before exiting the game. Ryan Osinski came in and gave up a sacrifice fly to make it 6-1 Duke.

UVA got one back in the top of the fifth as Griff O'Ferrall scored Ethan Anderson with an RBI groundout, but Duke responded with two more runs as Devin Obee hit an RBI double and then scored on a sacrifice fly. Jacob Ference singled to lead off the top of the seventh, moved to third on an Anderson double and then scored on a Luke Hanson groundout.

The gap would never get any closer than five, though, as Duke tacked on another run in the bottom of the eighth to push its lead back to six entering the final frame. Harrison Didawick singled to start the top of the ninth and eventually scored, but the Cavaliers would make no further noise as Duke sealed its 9-4 win in game 1.

Virginia will look to even the series in game 2 on Friday at 6pm. Evan Blanco will face Duke's Ryan Higgins and the game will be streamed on ACC Network Extra.