No. 7 Baseball Blanks No. 1 UC Irvine, Advances to Regional Final
Courtesy: VirginiaSports.com
Release: 05/31/2009

IRVINE, Calif. – Danny Hultzen (Fr., Bethesda, Md.) pitched a masterful 7.1 shutout innings and the Virginia offense broke through for five runs in the fifth and sixth innings as the Cavaliers shut out top-ranked UC Irvine, 5-0, Saturday night at the 2009 NCAA Irvine Regional at Anteater Ballpark in Irvine, Calif. UCI is the top seed in the regional and the No. 6 national seed, while UVa is the No. 2 seed in the regional.
Virginia (45-12-1) advances to the regional championship game at 11 p.m. ET Sunday. The Cavaliers will face the winner of the UC Irvine-San Diego State game which precedes the championship game at 7 p.m. ESPNU and Comcast SportsNet each will have live coverage of both games. The winner of the UCI-SDSU game will have to beat the Cavaliers twice in order to move on the Super Regionals.

Hultzen (9-1) went a career-high 7.1 innings and pitched into the eighth inning for the first time in his career. He allowed six hits and just one walk while striking out three. Tyler Wilson (So., Midlothian, Va.) pitched an inning before Matt Packer (Jr., Germantown, Tenn.) tossed the final two-thirds of an inning as the Cavaliers became the first team to shut out the Anteaters this season.

UC Irvine starter Christian Bergman (9-3) pitched 5.2 innings, allowing five runs (four earned) and eight hits while striking out seven. He did not walk a batter. The Anteaters (44-14) came in with a sparkling .976 team fielding percentage but committed four errors, while UVa played flawless defense for the second straight day. The Cavaliers also turned three key double plays.

Franco Valdes (Jr., Miami, Fla.) had two hits, including a key two-run single in the fifth inning, while Dan Grovatt (So., Tabernacle, N.J.) added a pair of hits to run his hitting streak to seven games. Jarrett Parker (So., Stafford, Va.) had an RBI single to push his hitting streak to a career-best 11 games.

The game was a pitchers’ duel at the outset, with both pitchers posting zeroes through the first four-and-a-half innings. After not recording a hit in the first 3.2 innings while Bergman dominated, the Cavaliers broke through on a single by Grovatt.

In the fifth inning, UVa broke the stalemate with a pair of runs while taking advantage of two UCI miscues. With one out, John Hicks (Fr., Sandy Hook, Va.) doubled to left field. Valdes followed with a bloop single to center to move Hicks to third. Keith Werman (Fr., Vienna, Va.) then hit a grounder to shortstop Ben Orloff, who got the force at second, but Casey Stevenson’s throw to first was errant on the fielder’s choice, allowing Werman to move to second while the run scored. Parker then ripped a single to right to plate Werman with the game’s second run.

Virginia’s bats continued to awaken in the sixth inning. Hultzen led off with a single to shortstop, and he advanced on an errant throw by Orloff. Grovatt moved the runner over with a groundout to second base. Steven Proscia (Fr., Suffern, N.Y.) then hit a single to left over the drawn-in infield to push the Cavaliers’ lead to 3-0. Tyler Cannon (Jr., Pigeon Forge, Tenn.) doubled to left to move Proscia to third base. After Hicks hit a rocket back to the mound for an out to keep the runners at bay, Valdes drilled the first pitch he saw to center field for a two-run single to give UVa a 5-0 lead.

UC Irvine posted its first major threat in the eighth inning. Hultzen gave up a one-out single to Orloff and then was relieved in favor of Wilson. Eric Deragisch and Ronnie Shaeffer hit back-to-back singles to right field to load the bases, but Wilson forced Jeff Cusick to ground into a 6-4-3 double play to end the threat.

 

Anteaters Blanked for First Time This Season, Fall to UVA 5-0
May 31, 2009

IRVINE, Calif. - For the first time this season top ranked UC Irvine failed to score a run as No. 7 Virginia defeated the Anteaters 5-0 on Saturday evening at Anteater Ballpark to advance to the UC Irvine Regional Championship game. The Cavaliers will face the winner of the UC Irvine/San Diego State game at 8 p.m. tomorrow evening.
Danny Hultzen started on the mound for Virginia and scattered six hits over 7.1 innings. He added four strikeouts and walked just one batter to improve his season record to 10-2.

Uncharacteristically, the Anteaters (44-14) committed a season-high four errors that the Cavaliers (45-12-1) turned into two runs. Keith Werman drove in the first run of the game on a fielder's choice in the fifth inning and advanced to second on an errant throw.

Jarrett Parker singled home Werman to give the Cavaliers a 2-0 advantage and advanced to third as the ball got by right fielder Tony Asaro. John Hicks started the UVA inning with a one-out double down the left field line and Franco Valdes put runners on the corner with a single to center.

Virginia struck again in the sixth inning with a three-run effort. Steven Proscia drove in Phil Gosselin with a single to left field and three batters later Valdes plated two runs to give UVA 5-0 lead.

Gosselin reached on a throwing error by shortstop Ben Orloff.

UC Irvine stranded nine runners and totaled 10 hits for the evening. The Anteaters left runners on first and second in the fourth inning and second and third in each the eighth and ninth frame.

UCI used three consecutive singles by Orloff, Eric Deragisch and Ronnie Shaeffer to load the bases with one out in its half of the eighth but a sharply hit ball to shortstop Tyler Cannon provided for an easy 6-4-3 double play to end the threat.

Christian Bergman got the start on the mound for the Anteaters and fell to 8-2 on the year. He went 5.2 innings and allowed five runs (four earned) on eight hits with seven strikeouts. Bergman was perfect through the first 3.2 innings.

Noel Avison struck out two batters in 1.1 innings of work and Matt Dufour allowed just one hit in his lone inning of action.

Deragisch and Casey Stevenson each finished 2-for-4 for UCI while Dan Grovatt and Valdes put together multi-hit games for the Cavaliers.

Tonight's loss marks only the fifth loss at the friendly confines of Anteater Ballpark for UC Irvine and first since a 9-2 setback to San Diego on May 12.

The Anteaters will face San Diego State University tomorrow afternoon at 4 p.m. in an elimination game.

 

Cavs In Control
Posted May. 31, 2009 2:05 am by Aaron Fitt
Filed under: At The Ballpark, Division I Postseason

IRVINE, Calif.—Few college baseball teams in America play defense better than UC Irvine. The Anteaters rank eighth in the nation in fielding percentage (.977), and they pride themselves in making all the routine plays and then some.

That’s why it was so jarring to see Irvine commit four errors in a 5-0 loss to Virginia on Saturday night. Virginia exploited two of them to break a scoreless tie in the fifth inning with a pair of runs, then benefitted from another error (by rock-solid shortstop Ben Orloff, no less) in a three-run sixth. Virginia’s Franco Valdes provided the big blow with a two-run single to center.

"Part of our story this year is we’ve played very, very well on defense, and at times played highlight defense," UCI coach Mike Gillespie said. "So this is very atypical for us."
The Cavaliers, meanwhile, played flawlessly on defense, and second baseman Keith Werman was involved with two key double plays to quash Irvine rallies. In the second inning, the Anteaters put runners on first and second with one out, but Werman made a leaping catch of a D.J. Crumlich liner, then ran to second base to double off Jeff Cusick. Then, in the eighth, Irvine loaded the bases with one out, but Cusick hit into an inning-ending 6-4-3 double play, with Werman making a terrific turn.

"This regional right now is showing that it is a pitching-and-defense regional," Virginia coach Brian O’Connor said. "Maybe it has somethign to do with the ballpark, maybe something to do with the quality of arms that are in this tournament. i just think defense is so important, and today was very uncharacterstic of irvine. When that happens and you’re playing in that ballpark, you have to capitalize on it. Fortunately we did."

Indeed, the Cavs are out-’Eatering the ‘Eaters. Of course, lost amidst Virginia’s offensive outburst this season is the fact that UVa.’s Davenport Field plays very similarly to Anteater Ballpark, and the Cavaliers are always constructed to win games in pitcher-friendly parks. As usual, they are an athletic, fast club that plays great defense and has quality pitching.

On Saturday, freshman lefthander Danny Hultzen supplied the pitching, allowing just six hits and a walk over 7 1/3 scoreless innings.

"Danny Hultzen was terrific tonight," O’Connor said. "I think that was one of his better outings of the year. He pitched out of numerous jams, just really stepped up. I held him back from pitching Friday because I thought this was going to be the key ballgame. I’ve got a lot of respect for irvine’s club—I think they’re very, very good."

Certainly they are, but the top-ranked Anteaters face an elimination game tomorrow afternoon against San Diego State. As Orloff put it, "Our backs are against the wall now."