No. 15 Baseball Defeats VCU, 5-3

Courtesy: David Petkofsky/UVa Media Relations Jake Cowan tossed five solid innings vs. VCU to earn his first college win.

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – Behind a solid pitching effort from Jake Cowan (Fr., Roswell, Ga.) and three RBI from Dan Grovatt (Fr., Tabernacle, N.J.), the Virginia baseball team posted a 5-3 win over VCU Tuesday at Davenport Field. The win stretches the Cavaliers’ school-record home winning streak to 18 games.

Virginia plays George Washington at 5 p.m. Wednesday. Please note that because of the men’s basketball game Wednesday night, baseball parking will be limited to the Cage parking lot.

Cowan (1-0) pitched five innings and allowed two runs (one earned), five hits and two walks while striking out five as he earned his first collegiate win. Neal Davis (So., Baltimore, Md.), Kevin Arico (Fr., Flemington, N.J.) and Michael Schwimer (Sr., Alexandria, Va.) combined to pitch the final four innings, with Schwimer tossing the final 1.1 innings to earn his seventh save.

Michael Graham (0-2) took the loss for VCU, going five innings and allowing five runs (four earned), six hits and four walks while striking out three.

The Cavaliers got seven total hits from seven different players. Grovatt drove home three runs, while David Adams (Jr., Margate, Fla.) scored three times.

Virginia (20-4) scored twice in the first inning on a Grovatt groundout and a Jeremy Farrell (Jr., Westlake, Ohio) single.

VCU (5-16) scored twice in the third inning to tie the score. M.L Morgan tripled with one out and scored when Matt Leskiw followed with a single. The Rams then took advantage of back-to-back Cavalier errors and scored when Chris Jackson walked with the bases loaded to score Leskiw.

Virginia took the lead back with two runs in its half of the third. After back-to-back walks to Adams and Farrell, Grovatt slapped a hit-and-run single through the hole on the left side of the infield to score Adams and move Farrell to third. Farrell then scored on a groundout by Tyler Biddix (Fr., Richmond, Va.).

The Cavaliers tacked on a run in the fifth inning on a Grovatt groundout to score Adams, who had singled to lead off and moved to third when the ball was mishandled in right field.

VCU scored its final run in the seventh inning against Arico, as Richard Gonzalez tripled and scored on a Jared Bolden groundout to shortstop.