McAnaney, No. 15 Baseball Thump Virginia Tech, 9-2

Courtesy: Jim Daves/UVa Media Relations Pat McAnaney tossed his second career complete game in the win over Virginia Tech.

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – Behind a dominating complete-game effort from Pat McAnaney (Sr., Syracuse, N.Y.), the Virginia baseball team defeated Virginia Tech, 9-2, Saturday afternoon in ACC play at Davenport Field. McAnaney (3-1) struck out a career-high 13 and allowed just two earned runs, six hits and two walks as he earned his second career complete game.

McAnaney matched the complete-game performance of Jacob Thompson (Jr., Danville, Va.) from Friday night. It marked the first back-to-back complete games by Virginia since 2004 when Joe Koshansky and Matt Avery recorded consecutive complete games in wins over George Mason and Princeton, respectively, in the NCAA tournament.

Jeremy Farrell (Jr., Westlake, Ohio) went 3-for-4 with three RBI while Dan Grovatt (Fr., Tabernacle, N.J.) and David Coleman (Fr., Richmond, Va.) each had two hits and two RBI for the Cavaliers.

David Cross (2-1) took the loss for the Hokies. He started and went two innings and allowed six runs (two earned), six hits and a walk while striking out one. The Virginia Tech defense did little to help the cause by committing five errors.

Virginia (22-5, 7-4 ACC) jumped out to a 6-0 lead through two innings to give McAnaney plenty of early cushion. In the first, Grovatt hit a two-out double to score David Adams (Jr., Margate, Fla.) and Farrell followed with a single to plate Grovatt for a 2-0 UVa lead.

In the second, Virginia benefited from two Virginia Tech errors to bat around and score four unearned runs. Tyler Cannon (So., Pigeon Forge, Tenn.) and Adams hit back-to-back sacrifice flies to give Virginia a 4-0 lead. Grovatt then doubled to score Greg Miclat (Jr., Concord, N.C.) and Coleman hit a single to score Grovatt as the Cavaliers’ lead bulged to 6-0.

Virginia Tech (8-16, 0-11) scored single runs in the fifth and sixth innings to cut the lead to four. In the fifth, Michael Seaborn came home from third base on an attempted double steal as Sean Ryan was thrown out at second. In the sixth, Anthony Sosnoskie grounded out to shortstop to score Sean O’Brien.

Virginia scored twice in its half of the sixth inning, as Farrell hit a sacrifice fly and Coleman then grounded out to second base to bring home Adams. The Cavaliers posted their final run in the eighth inning on a double by Farrell to score Cannon.

Virginia aims for the series sweep at 1 p.m. Sunday. The game will be webcast on ACC Select.