Cavaliers Defeat Radford 2-0

After 9 straight wins that included a perfect game and a sweep of ACC foe Virginia Tech, nobody expected Virginia to struggle taking care of Radford (16-12). Per usual, the Cavaliers wanted to keep the game close and make everyone sweat a little bit before taking care of the Highlanders 2-0.

Following his perfect game outing last week, Will Roberts looked to continue his domination on the mound. I'll be dammed if Will didn't have a terrible game and gave up three hits! Coach O'Connor should give serious consideration to getting Roberts out of the rotation! All joking aside, Roberts had another stellar outing striking out six, walking none, and not giving up a run in his seven innings. After seven innings on Tuesday, Will runs his scoreless streak to 21 straight innings while improving his record to 6-0 and lowering his ERA to a RIDICULOUS 0.96 to take the team lead.

Following Roberts' seven strong innings, 1^st year Kyle Crockett came on and pitched a scoreless 8^th. Crockett struck out one and allowed a single hit to hold Radford at arm's length. Kline entered the game in the 9^th, striking out one and not allowing a runner on base. With the scoreless 9^th, Kline picked up his 10^th save which ties him for the national lead and puts him at 6^th in UVa history for single season saves (Kevin Arico owns the record with 18).

Dave Coleman and Steven Proscia continued their hotstreaks at the plate that they began over the weekend in Blacksburg. Both Coleman and Proscia, along with with 2^nd year Reed Gragnani, recorded two hits in the ‘Hoos offensive efforts. Gragnani also picked up the lone RBI of the evening when he tripled with two outs in the seventh to score 3^rd year Jared King. Even though the Cavaliers scored two runs, only one of the runs was credited as an RBI due to the other run being scored on an error by the Radford SS.

The Cavaliers improved their record to 29-2 on the year and run their winning streak to 10. With the current winning streak, the Cavaliers now have multiple double digit winning streaks (10 and 13) and if they had not dropped an extra inning affair to FSU three weeks ago, the winning streak could be at 24. The Hoos were also able to record their 9^th shutout of the season which ties them for 3^rd most in a single season in UVa history with the 2007 squad. The 2005 squad holds the record with 11 shutouts in one season and I expect this year's team to blaze past that number in the coming weeks.

The boys have Wednesday and Thursday off before heading to Atlanta to take on the highly touted Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets. The Jackets lost last night to Kennsaw State 7-6 and will be fired up to play the top ranked Cavalier team, come this weekend. I'll provide a preview of the upcoming series later in the week and as always Go Hoos!