Cardinals Stumble in Road Loss to Cavaliers

Saturday, April 1

Charlottesville, VA

4:00 PM

University of Louisville

23-3, 9-2

Virginia

21-7, 5-6

Louisville

Virginia

Photo by: Mike DeZarn

April 01, 2017 | Baseball

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Fifth inning grand slam lifts Virginia, which evens series with Saturday afternoon win

By: Garett Wall

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. - Pavin Smith's fifth inning grand slam gave No. 16 Virginia the lead for good as the Cavaliers evened the weekend series against the No. 2 Louisville baseball team with Saturday afternoon's 8-2 victory at Davenport Field.

With the score tied at 2-2 and the bases loaded, Smith connected on the first offering from junior lefty reliever Rabon Smith sending it over the right field wall. The Cavaliers (21-7, 5-6 ACC) added five more runs over the next three innings while limiting the chances for the Cardinals (23-3, 9-2 ACC). The two teams will conclude the weekend series with Sunday's deciding game at 1 p.m., ET.

The Cavaliers broke through first on Saturday as a fielding error by the Cardinals extended the second inning before Caleb Knight connected for a two-out, two-run homer to right center. Louisville answered in the third inning when junior Devin Hairston turned on a 2-0 pitch from Evan Sperling sending it over the wall in left center for a two-out, two-run homer. Senior Ryan Summers led off the inning with a walk and stole second before Hairston connected for his sixth career home run and the second this season.

Virginia regained the lead for good in the fifth inning when Pavin Smith delivered his grand slam. The Cavaliers loaded the bases against junior righty Kade McClure on back-to-back one-out singles by Ernie Clement and Andy Weber and a walk to Adam Haseley before Smith's eighth home run of the season turned the game in Virginia's favor.

UVA added to the lead with a pair of runs in the sixth inning. Jake McCarthy tripled down the right field line before scoring on a RBI sacrifice fly to left by Ernie Clement. Later in the inning, Andy Weber scored from third on a wild pitch for the 8-2 lead. The Cavaliers added their final three runs of the game in the eighth inning on RBI double from Haseley, run-scoring double by Smith and a RBI single from Cameron Simmons.

McClure surrendered three earned runs and five total runs on four hits in 4.1 innings to suffer his first loss of the season and drop to 3-1 overall. It was just the second career loss for McClure, who is 16-2 in three seasons. Alec Bettinger earned the win for the Cavaliers and moved to 4-0 on the season after pitching six innings of shutout relief to close the game.

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