Cavaliers Avoid Sweep and Beat ECU in Game 3, 4-2

After dropping the first two games of the series against ECU, the Cavaliers were able to avoid being swept for the first time in an out of conference series since 2003 by beating the Pirates, 4-2.

Second year Tommy Doyle got his second start of the season and turned in the best start of the weekend for the Cavaliers. Doyle was able to hold ECU to just two runs over 7 plus innings. Most impressively, he didn't issue a single walk the entire afternoon, and only gave up 7 hits.

Unlike Friday, when the Cavalier bullpen faltered allowing ECU to tie the game up and eventually win the game in extra innings, Doherty, Sousa, and Bettinger held ECU at bay to close out the game.

The status of Robbie Coman is somewhat concerning though. After coming on to make his second career pitching appearance and running a 3-0 count on the first batter he faced, Coman was removed with an apparent injury. Andrew Ramspacher of the Daily Progress reported that Coach O'Connor said "(h)e hurt his arm. I don't know the status of it. But he couldn't throw another pitch. I don't know anything more than that."

Even though they were able to come out on top, the offense struggled at times. Fortunately, the lineup was able to take advantage of five East Carolina errors. Second year Adam Haseley paced the offense with three of the six UVa hits and scored two of the four runs.

As mentioned above, this would have been Coach O'Connor's first series sweep to an opponent not in the ACC. Even so, it was the first time UVa dropped an out of conference series in the regular season (UVa has lost a few out of conference series in the postseason). The series loss also marks the first time UVa has lost a series to ECU since 1990, when ECU swept UVa in Greenville.

The Cavaliers will have Monday off before returning to Davenport Field to take on William and Mary on Tuesday.