It was a very successful week for us, going 3-1 with wins over Richmond and Clemson. We continued our solid play and continue to position ourselves where we want to be as the season winds down.

On Tuesday, Richmond came to Charlottesville for the second game of the two-game season series. We cruised to 12-5 victory as Greg Miclat set the single-season school record for stolen bases, and Mike Mitchell kept with the theme of Major League Baseball, donning the 42 in honor of Jackie Robinson.

The weekend saw us traveling to Clemson, S.C., to take on the Tigers. It was everything we expected – tremendous pitching on both sides, great crowds and a postseason type feel. Runs were hard to come by, so we relied on pitching, defense and execution to propel us to a series win. Jacob Thompson was nothing short of spectacular on Friday, going eight and giving up just three. He prides himself on being able to hand the ball to our closer Casey Lambert and he was able to do so.

Lambert cruised through the ninth for the save. Offensively we were able to put pressure on Clemson by swiping nine bases. Miclat got four of his own, leading us to a 5-3 Friday night win. Winning Game 1 is huge. You go to sleep easier that night knowing that you have the chance to win the series on Saturday, and you don’t have to fight to even things at one.

Saturday brought more great pitching. Both David Kopp of Clemson and Matt Packer gave strong outings – neither surrendering a run. Defensively, Mitchell and Brandon Guyer made incredible catches in taking home runs away from Clemson third baseman Marquez Smith and keeping us in the ballgame. Once Kopp left the game, we were able to scratch a few across against their bullpen. Tim Henry, who has come up big against Clemson in the last few years – scoring the game-winning run last year on Friday – delivered a pinch-hit RBI that would prove to be the game-winner. We were able to plate two more before Lambert came in to complete the shutout and earn his career ACC record-tying save – a tremendous accomplishment that shows his consistency and dependency over the last four years.

Our play on Sunday this year has been subpar. Too many times we have had the opportunity going into Sunday to take a series or complete a sweep and for whatever reason we have not done so. This Sunday we looked to correct that – but again fell just short. Sean Doolittle gave us a great start, going six. We hit several balls on the nose, but we were unable to execute when it mattered the most. Trailing 2-0 going into the ninth, we put together a rally and scored one on a Miclat RBI single.

Only three more ACC series left before post season begins. James Madison comes in Wednesday before Maryland over the weekend. After that it’s time to hit the books for finals.

Go Hoos!

Jeremy Farrell

(photo courtesy of Virginia Media Relations Office)