Virginia Baseball: Connor Jones Tosses a Gem in Hoos' 3-0 Win

Efficient. That's the best way to describe Connor Jones' outing Friday night. On the night he needed only 116 pitches complete the nine inning shut out. He gave up only one hit (in the second inning) and had four walks. What's most impressive about the outing is that he faced the minimum in six of his nine innings needing no more than 12 pitches in any of those innings to retire the side. Jones did a masterful job pitching to contact, which is reflected in his low strikeout total of four. He threw strikes, BC batters put it in play, and the Hoos' defense got the outs.

Somewhat overshadowed by Jones' dominance was an outstanding pitching performance by the Boston College staff. Jacob Stevens got the start and pitched six innings giving up only one run, on one hit, and struck out six. In total, Cavalier batters were only able to muster four hits.

Virginia got the first run of the day in the third when Adam Haseley walked to start the inning. Then both Ernie Clement and Matt Thaiss reached on throwing errors by Boston College. Then after a Pavin Smith infield fly, Daniel Pinero drew a walk to score Haseley. The Cavaliers added two insurance runs in the ninth when Justin Novak led off the inning with a hit by pitch. He came around to score from first when Haseley's sacrifice attempt resulted in a throwing error. Haseley then scored on Clement's RBI single.

In addition to Clement's RBI single, Haseley, Novak, and Ryan Karstetter each had hits for the Cavaliers and Haseley scored two of Virginia's three runs.

The two teams square off again on Saturday at 1:30 p.m. In what should be another pitcher's duel, Haseley (6-0, 1.42 ERA) will be on the mound for Virginia while Boston College counters with Justin Dunn (1-0, 2.03).