Wake Forest University
Virginia
Deacs Take Down No. 10 Virginia in Ninth
3/19/2016 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
Final Stats | Final Stats (PDF) 
Wake Forest Athletic Communications (@WakeBaseball)
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. -- Wake Forest scored the go-ahead run in the ninth inning and held on to beat No. 10 Virginia, 9-8, in a back-and-forth affair at Davenport Field on Saturday.
The Demon Deacons (13-9, 2-4 ACC) jumped out to leads of 2-0 and 8-1, but Virginia (15-6, 4-2 ACC) chipped away and battled back to tie it in the eighth, before Wake Forest took the lead for good.
Stuart Fairchild went 3-for-5 with a double and four RBIs, while Joey Rodriguez drilled a pair of doubles and had three RBIs.
In his return to the lineup, Will Craig went 2-for-4 with a walk and two runs scored. Ben Breazeale reached base four times on two singles and a pair of walks.
Craig led off the ninth with a single, and pinch runner Jake Mueller advanced to second on a wild pitch.
Then, Fairchild hit a bloop single into right field, and turned towards second as the throw headed home. The first baseman cut it off and delivered an errant throw towards second base, which allowed Mueller to scamper home for what proved to be the game-winning run.
Donnie Sellers (2-1) earned the victory on the mound, tossing 1.2 perfect innings in relief.
In contrast to the past three games, Demon Deacons delivered big hit after big hit on Saturday. Wake Forest went 6-for-12 with runners in scoring position and 9-for-21 with runners on base, limiting UVA to going 2-for-12 with runners in scoring position.
Wake Forest had a two-out rally in the first inning, with a Craig single, Breazeale walk and Fairchild two-run single to pull ahead 2-0.
The Cavaliers recorded an unearned run in the first, and each team was scoreless until the sixth.
Craig walked, Breazeale singled and Fairchild hit a two-run double to make it 4-1. After a dropped popup, Johnny Aiello hit a bunt single and Rodriguez delievered a three-run double to the wall to make it 7-1, and Kevin Conway added an RBI single to close out the scoring.
UVA scored two in the sixth, three and the seventh and two in the eighth to knot the game at 8-8 before the Deacs pulled ahead in the ninth.
Wake Forest has now defeated four ranked teams in 2016, twice as many as in all of 2015.
The Demon Deacons return to action on Tuesday, playing host to Charlotte at 6 p.m.
