No. 21 UVa baseball crushes Louisville 15-5 in series game 1

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (WVIR) - No. 21 Virginia scored the first 13 runs of the game Friday night at Disharoon Park and cruised to a 15-5 win over Louisville in game 1 of the series.

Virginia had 16 hits. The ‘Hoos got home runs from Ethan Anderson, Jake Gelof and Henry Godbout. It was Virginia’s first time winning game one of an ACC Series in over a month.

“11 of 12 of our runs today were scored with two outs.” said UVA coach Brian O’Connor. “That’s the type of toughness and competitiveness and finishing off innings that it takes in this league. It was certainly a great offensive day for us.’

HOW IT HAPPENED

• Anderson ignited the 3,741 fans on hand for Military Day with a three-run homer in the bottom of the first inning. The home run was his ninth of the season.

• Jake Gelof became UVA’s first player to hit 20 home runs in two different seasons with a 453-foot blast over the clubhouse in left center. He is one homer shy of matching his career-high set last season and three shy of breaking UVA’s single season mark. The long ball gave UVA a 5-0 advantage after three innings.

• Anderson sparked another two-out rally in the fifth that led to seven runs. He matched the school doubles record with a rope down the right field line that scored Ethan O’Donnell.

• All seven runs in the fifth came with two outs, including three with one swing of the bat from Henry Godbout. He extended the UVA lead to 10-0 with his third homer of the year.

• The Cavaliers scored a run in each of their last three turns at the plate. Graduate student Tommy Courtney drove in UVA’s 15th run of the night on an RBI single up the middle that scored Colin Tuft in the bottom of the eighth inning.

ADDITIONAL NOTES

• Virginia came into the game as the national leader in doubles and added five more on Friday to up its season total to 141.

• Kyle Teel registered his 21st double of the season, one shy of matching Anderson, Bruno and Dan Street for the single-season school mark. UVA has three players with 20 doubles in the lineup (Gelof – 20) for the first time in program history.

• Virginia scored 13 of its 15 runs with two outs.

• The 10-run margin of victory over the Cardinals was the largest in 23-game all-time series.

• The 15 runs were second-most scored against Louisville in 23 all-time meetings. UVA scored 16 in the middle game last season (5/20/22).

• Virginia scored in the first inning for the 26th time this season and improved to 21-5 when posting a run in its first turn at the plate.

• The seven-run outburst was the 13th time this season UVA has scored seven or more runs in an inning.

• Virginia improved to 6-3 in ACC series opening games this season.

UP NEXT

The series continues Saturday (May 13) with the middle game against Louisville and the contest is scheduled for a 4 p.m. first pitch on ACC Network. The Cavaliers will have LHP Connelly Early (9-1) on the mound and he will be opposed by lefty Tate Kuehner (2-2).

Do you have a story idea? Send us your news tip here.

Copyright 2023 WVIR. All rights reserved.