Wake Forest Athletics
Wake Forest University
Virginia
Wake Forest Edges Virginia, 2-1, at Hooks Stadium
4/25/2003 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
April 25, 2003
Winston-Salem, N.C. -- On a dark, damp Friday afternoon at Hooks Stadium, the Wake Forest baseball team posted a 2-1 victory over visiting Virginia in a pitchers' duel that included some unusual plays.
Wake Forest scored the go-ahead run in the bottom of the eighth inning when Chris Getz walked with the bases loaded to score Steve LeFaivre. Getz' walk was one of four consecutive free passes issued by Cavalier pitchers in the inning, all with two outs.
Wake Forest's Adam Hanson pitched a perfect ninth inning with a pair of strikeouts to record his second save of the year. The game's starting pitchers, Wake Forest's Kyle Sleeth and Virginia's Andrew Dobies, kept the game scoreless through six innings but the Deacons broke the deadlock in the seventh.
Ben Ingold led off with a walk and advanced to second on Getz' sacrifice bunt. After a strikeout, Adam Bourassa dumped a single into short left field, scoring Ingold, the game's first run.
The Cavaliers responded in the bottom of the inning on Matt Dunn's RBI double into the left field corner. One run scored on the play to tie the game at one, but a second runner, Matt Street, was thrown out at the plate to preserve the tie. Deacon left fielder Ryan Hubbard fielded the ball cleanly and fired to Ingold whose relay throw gave catcher Steven Malinowski plenty of time to get the tag down.
Both Sleeth and Dobies held opposing hitters at bay. Sleeth (7-2) went eight innings, allowed just one run on five hits. The junior picked up the win and gave up just one hit through the first four innings. He struck out the side in the fourth and finished with six strikeouts.
Dobies pitched well for Virginia, giving up one run on four hits with four strikeouts and four walks. Cavalier reliever Gabe Spooner took the loss, falling to 0-2.
The Cavaliers had a great chance to take the game's first lead in the top of the seventh, loading the bases with just one out. But a line drive off the bat of Virginia's Chris Sweet was caught on a head-first dive by Ryan Johnson. It appeared that a run would score as Joe Koshansky tagged from third base. But it was ruled that Koshansky never returned to third base.
The Deacons, whose home dugout is on the third base side, shouted instruction to the Wake Forest infield to appeal. The runner was called out at third base and the unusual 9-4-6-5 double play was recorded to ending the inning.
The start of the game was delayed by 34 minutes by rain. Light showers fell periodically in the game's early stages but play was never halted.
Wake Forest snapped a four-game ACC losing streak, to improve to 8-10 in the league, 26-15 overall. Virginia slipped to 24-17 overall, 7-8 in the ACC and lead the Deacons in the ACC standing by just a half-game.
The Deacons and Cavaliers will continue their weekend series on Saturday afternoon at 1:30 p.m. Seth Hill will start for Wake Forest and Chris Gale will get the ball for Virginia.
