Virginia Baseball: Hoos give up 19 runs in loss to Duke

After the first two ACC weekend series of the year, you could chalk up Virginia’s struggles to a step up in competition and playing on the road. UNC and Clemson are top ten teams and the Hoos’ pitching woes against them is nothing to get worried about. Enter Duke, a good team but not with the pedigree or expectations of the Tar Heels and Tigers and all the Blue Devils did was mash, hanging 19 runs on the Cavaliers including 10 against Virginia starter, Daniel Lynch. Duke scored early and often en route to a Friday night beatdown winning 19-3.

Duke started hot posting a three spot on Virginia in the top of the first thanks to a three-run home run by Jack Labosky. Virginia got one back thanks to Adam Haseley’s solo home run in the bottom of the frame.

But that is as close as the game would get as Duke would score four runs in the second and three runs in the third. That would be all Duke would need for the game and signal the end of the night for Lynch who pitched 2.1 innings, giving up 10 earned runs on 12 hits, two walks and one strike out.

Noah Murdock did his job to keep Virginia in it pitching 3.2 innings of one run ball and giving the offense a chance for a comeback. Unfortunately, the bats couldn’t string together enough hits to really make a dent. They picked up single runs in the third and fifth, but their eight hits in the game pales compared to Duke’s 26.

On the day, Duke scored runs in all but two innings including a five run seventh that added insult to injury. Beyond the hits, Duke slugged four homes runs with two coming from Labosky. For Virginia, Haseley and Justin Novak led the way with two hits apiece while Haseley also drove in two of Virginia’s three runs.

Virginia looks to bounce back Saturday at 1 P.M. Evan Sperling takes the mound for the Hoos who can ill-afford to drop another game and lose their third series in a row to start the ACC season.