UVA is 1-0 after shutting out Bellarmine 1-0 this afternoon in Boiling Springs, NC. Time of game: 2:13 (!).
Some quick notes:
Some quick notes:
- Brandon Neeck, Will Geerdes and Matt Wyatt combined on the 2-hit shutout. Neeck allowed just one baserunner through four, but left after back-to-back HBPs and then a one-out single to load the bases in the 5th. Geerdes got out of that jam with (what Channing described as) a nifty 6-4-3 double play, then went the next three full innings. He gave up just one hit, a leadoff single in the 8th that was eventually stranded at 3rd. Wyatt got up to 96 mph in the 9th, needed just eight pitches to record the save.
- It's the second time in three years that UVA has thrown a shutout on opening day. Two years ago, Griff McGarry, Kyle Whitten, Andrew Abbott and Stephen Schoch combined on a 2-hitter of Oklahoma.
- The lone UVA run came on a Jake Gelof RBI double in the 2nd inning. UVA managed just six hits and stranded six runners on base, including one in scoring position in each of the first three innings.
- Two first-years were in the opening day lineup: Griff O'Ferrall leading off and playing short, and Ethan Anderson at DH batting eighth. O'Ferrall led off the first inning with a base hit, and also started that double play to get out of the bases loaded jam in the fifth. Anderson went 0-for-3 with two strikeouts.
- Chris Newell reached base all three times, first on an error to lead off the 2nd (he eventually scored the game's lone run), then on a leadoff single in the 4th and on a fielder's choice in the 6th. He also stole two bases.
