No. 14 Baseball Falls in Series Opener at No. 2 Florida State

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – The 14^th-ranked Virginia baseball team dropped a 10-3 decision at No. 2 Florida State Friday night in front of 5,722 spectators at Dick Howser Stadium.

Jeremy Farrell (Jr., Westlake, Ohio) hit a two-run home run, his sixth of the season, for Virginia, while Patrick Wingfield (Sr., Winchester, Va.) added two hits. Tony Delmonico went 4-for-5 to highlight the Seminoles’ 17-hit night.

Virginia starting pitcher Jacob Thompson (Jr., Danville, Va.) pitched 6.1 innings and allowed seven runs (six earned), 11 hits and five walks while striking out one. He took the loss and fell to 4-1 this season while suffering his first defeat since June 4, 2006, vs. Evansville – a span of 23 games in which he earned 15-consecutive wins.

FSU starter Matt Fairel (7-0) earned the win after tossing seven innings and allowing two earned runs, six hits and three walks while fanning seven.

Virginia (24-7, 8-5 ACC) cracked the scoreboard in its first at bat, as Farrell ripped a two-run home run to left field to score David Adams (Jr., Margate, Fla.) and give the Cavaliers a 2-0 lead. The hit stretched Farrell’s hit streak to 10 games, tying a career high from his freshman season.

Florida State (26-3, 12-1) scored four in the bottom of the first inning. Buster Posey tripled with one out to score Tyler Holt, and Jack Rye followed with a groundout to score Posey and tie the game. After Dennis Guinn walked and Delmonico singled, Tommy Oravetz singled to score Guinn, and Delmonico scored on the play on a UVa fielding error.

The Seminoles added two runs in the third inning. Delmonico hit a run-scoring single with one out and after a sacrifice bunt, Ohmed Danesh singled to plate Delmonico and give FSU a 6-2 advantage.

In the seventh inning, FSU added a run on a groundout by Mike McGee to score Delmonico. The Seminoles tacked on three runs in the eighth on back-to-back solo home runs by Jason Stidham and Posey off Kevin Arico (Fr., Flemington, N.J.) and a run-scoring single from McGee.

Virginia scored its final run in the ninth inning on a Greg Miclat (Jr., Concord, N.C.) groundout to plate Wingfield.

Game two of the series is at 7 p.m. Saturday and will be webcast by ACC Select.