Virginia Falls to Duke 7-4 in Game 3, Blue Devils Take Series

The Blue Devils have their revenge. Nine months after seeing its 2023 season came to an end at the hands of the Cavaliers in the Charlottesville Super Regional last June, No.11 Duke (20-8, 6-6 ACC) avenged that loss by taking two out of three against No. 9 Virginia (22-6, 7-5 ACC) this weekend in Durham, capped by a 7-4 win over UVA on Saturday afternoon.

The story of the series finale was missed opportunities for the Cavalier offense, which had 12 hits as compared to eight for their opponent, but scored only four runs and stranded 11 runners on base. That, combined with one bad inning for the UVA pitching staff in the bottom of the seventh doomed Virginia to the game 3 loss.

The game started with two scoreless frames before Virginia struck first on an RBI double from Casey Saucke to score Griff O'Ferrall in the top of the third. UVA made it 2-0 on an RBI single from Henry Godbout to bring in Jacob Ference, who had gotten himself into scoring position with a single and a stolen base.

Kevin Jaxel opened his outing with three scoreless innings, but then surrendered a two-run home run Logan Bravo in the bottom of the fourth to tie the game at 2-2. Two more scoreless frames followed in the fifth and sixth, with both teams' bullpens stranding runners in scoring position in the sixth.

UVA grabbed the lead in the top of the seventh as Griff O'Ferrall hit a leadoff double, moved to third on a Bobby Whalen sacrifice bunt, and then scored on a double by Henry Ford.

Virginia's designs on winning a low-scoring game collapsed in a disastrous bottom of the seventh. Jay Woolfolk issued a leadoff walk and then a double, before handing the ball to Angelo Tonas, who gave up a two-run single to Chad Knight to give the Blue Devils the lead. Things continued to unravel after that, as the Cavaliers committed two errors and Duke ultimately scored five runs in the inning on five hits and two errors to make it 7-3.

Virginia got a run back in the top of the eighth on an RBI single by Luke Hanson, but couldn't muster anything else offensively, going on to lose 7-4.

Jay Woolfolk took the loss, as he was responsible for the baserunners who ultimately scored the game-tying and go-ahead runs. Four Cavaliers had multi-hit afternoons, led by Casey Saucke who went 3 for 5 with an RBI, but missed opportunities with runners in scoring position were too costly to overcome.

Now 22-6 overall and 7-5 in the ACC, Virginia returns to Charlottesville to begin a six-game homestand, starting with a game against Old Dominion on Tuesday at 6pm on the ACC Network.