CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – Three Virginia pitchers combined for a one-hit shutout to lead the perennial national power Cavaliers to a 6-0 win over the Lancers Tuesday afternoon at Disharoon Park.
Virginia (14-10) entered the afternoon ranked second in the ACC in strikeouts and holding opponents to a .242 average, and starter Grant Donahue (1-0) kept that momentum going by shutting down Longwood with 5.0 innings of one-run ball in his first career start.
The game turned into a battle of the bullpens after Donahue's exit, but Virginia's five runs in the first three innings provided enough cushion to send the Cavaliers to their fifth straight midweek win.
Virginia did the bulk of its offensive damage in the first three innings before the Longwood (6-16) bullpen held the Cavaliers to just one run over the game's final five innings. Longwood head coach Ryan Mau emptied his relief cache after Eric Harp's two-inning start, deploying six relievers, four of which turned in a scoreless inning of work each.
"We threw a ton of guys tonight, which was the plan," Mau said. "They have been working hard to make improvements and it was very encouraging to see them carry those mechanical changes over from recent bullpens into the game. I was very pleased with their performances."
The lone Lancer to put a hit on the board was senior first baseman Justin Mitchell, who tagged a single up the middle in the fourth inning. That base knock and a walk to Lancer outfielder Eric Crain that same inning were the lone blemishes on the day for Donahue, who gave way to the bullpen duo of Bobby Nicholson and Mack Meyer to keep Longwood hitless the rest of the way.
"Offensively our scoring chances were very limited," Mau said. "The few chances we had were extinguished with several nice diving catches from their outfielders."
Two errors in the first three innings allowed Virginia to bring home three unearned runs, putting Longwood into a hole it could not climb out of against Virginia's pitching staff.
"Free passes coupled with errors led to all three of UVA's scoring opportunities," Mau said. "We know if you give a team of that caliber free passes and four outs in an inning, they will cash in."
Harp (1-3), in his first career start, came out on the short end of one of those errors in the first inning, which led to the only two runs he allowed in his 2.0 innings of work. The bulk of that damage came with one out in the first inning when cleanup hitter Caleb Knight sent in a run with an infield single, and a Lancer throwing error on the same play moved another runner into scoring position. Nate Eikhoff drove him in with a sacrifice bunt in the next at-bat to bump Virginia's first-inning lead to 2-0.
Harp worked around two hits in his next frame to wrap up a scoreless second inning of work before handing the ball off to a Longwood bullpen. Another Longwood fielding error in the third led to three more runs – two unearned – before John Gregory, Tyler Knapp, Daniel Brandon and Todd Moxey held Virginia scoreless over the next four frames. Brandon hurled a perfect sixth inning, while Gregory and Moxey both fired hitless frames.
Tuesday's loss in Charlottesville signals the end of this week's midweek games for the Lancers, who will head to Charleston Southern this weekend for a three-game series that runs Thursday through Saturday.
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