Cavaliers Drop Series Finale to Wolfpack, 5-2

The offensive outburst that came Saturday was nowhere to be found on Sunday as NC State's starter Ryan Williamson and reliever Will Gilbert combined to shut down the Cavalier lineup.

Williamson held UVa to just 2 runs over his six innings. The two lone runs came in the 2nd off a hit by pitch with the bases loaded and the 3rd via a wild pitch. Reliever Will Gilbert completely shutout the Hoos over the final three innings to secure NC State's win and series victory.

UVa's Tommy Doyle never had a blow up inning, but ultimately allowed five runs over 5.1 innings. Doyle did not hit a batter and only surrendered a single walk, so he did pitch to contact his entire outing. Unfortunately, that contact resulted in ten Wolfpack hits and lead to all five of their runs.

Fourth year Kevin Doherty came on in relief of Doyle in the sixth and held NC State scoreless over the final 3.2 innings, giving up only two hits and no walks.

More bothersome for UVa has to be Matt Thaiss being the lone bright spot at the plate. Coach O'Connor put the third year backstop in the third spot of the lineup and he came away with two hits and a walk in five plate appearances, but no other Cavalier had more than one hit. That includes Pavin Smith, who was 0-5 with four strikeouts on the day.

The series loss is UVa's first series loss to NC State in Charlottesville since 2007 and the second straight series loss to the Wolfpack. Ignoring Louisville, who Coach O'Connor only has six games against, NC State is the only ACC team O'Connor is worse than .500 against. The two losses this weekend gives him a 17-24 record.

The loss moves UVa's ACC record to 6-6 with some tough series coming up. After taking on BC this upcoming weekend, the Hoos will take on UNC and Miami in back to back weekends. A series win in Boston this weekend is a must for UVa to keep up with the top 6 in the conference and avoid the one game play in game in the ACC Tournament.

Hoos play their yearly crowd-record setting game at VCU on Tuesday before returning to Davenport Field to play host to George Washington on Wednesday.