No. 1 Uva sweeps Duke

DURHAM, N.C. —After recent results, it’s apparent that a new addition is needed with the Virginia baseball team’s travel gear — a broom.

For the second time since 2004, the top-ranked Cavaliers swept an opponent on the road in succession, blasting Duke 10-6 in the series finale Sunday at the Durham Bulls Athletic Park.

A week after demolishing Maryland on the road in league play, Virginia (39-9, 18-6 ACC) won its 10th straight contest and remained tied with Miami for the top spot in the Coastal Division.

“I think it says something about our ballclub, how we have been playing recently,” Virginia coach Brian O’Connor said. “It goes back to our starting pitching, which has been very, very consistent.

“When your starting pitchers go out there and give you a good start you have a chance to do some damage and we played great baseball over the last couple of weeks.”

Virginia did not get a typical performance on the mound, however, from junior Cody Winiarski.

On the heels of back-to-back complete games, the right-hander was chased from the contest in the fifth inning after allowing three runs and with two runners on base.

Oddly enough, Winiarski retired 10 straight Duke batters at one point after giving up a lone run in the first inning.

Luckily, Virginia had wrestled the lead away from Duke (25-21, 7-17) by the time that O’Connor elected to turn to reliever Tyler Wilson.

In fact, Virginia scored two runs in the fourth and another pair in the fifth to go ahead 4-1.

In the fourth, John Hicks delivered an RBI single and Kenny Swab walked with the bases loaded.

Steven Proscia opened the scoring in the fifth with a single through the left side of the infield, and junior Jarrett Parker, a day after hitting two homers, drove in another with a run-scoring grounder.

In all, Wilson (5-2) worked 2.1 scoreless innings and scattered two hits after he quickly escaped the two-out drama in the fifth.

At that time, Virginia struck again — Swab singled home John Barr from third and eventually scored on Phil Gosselin’s double that plunked off the wall in left-center field.

“I was just happy to do the team things right,” said Swab, who drove in four runs. “When I was up we had a guy on third with one out and the infield was in and I just wanted to put something into the outfield.

“It worked out.”

During a wild seventh inning, Virginia registered three extra-base hits and broke the game open with three runs, going ahead of the Blue Devils,

9-3.

In the lengthy frame, Proscia, Barr, and Swab provided doubles, the last of which drove home two runs.

“That was an important inning,” O’Connor said. “Duke has an aggressive team and they can swing the bat. We needed those runs.”

Virginia also added an insurance run in the eighth as Cannon belted his third home run of the season, one that hit off the giant bull over the left-field wall.

Duke, however, responded with two runs off reliever Justin Thompson and another off closer Kevin Arico in the ninth.

For the series, UVa accomplished a first in program history, scoring in double digits for the first time in all three games. The ACC started the

three-game weekend schedule back in 1990.

With just six league games left, landing the sweep was important to Virginia.

“This team needed it,” Swab said. “We were just ready to come out and play.

“We are trying to win ACC ballgames, every single one of them.”

The Cavaliers finished with 16 hits in the contest, helping to leave Duke starter Eric Pfisterer (3-5) with the loss. The left-hander allowed nine hits and six earned runs.

Virginia returns to action on Tuesday at home against VCU at 6 p.m.