Virginia baseball routs Richmond 18-6 in regular-season home finale

WVEC-TV

Virginia baseball rolled past Richmond 18-6 in eight innings Tuesday at Disharoon Park in the Cavaliers’ final regular-season home game.

After falling behind 1-0 in the first inning, Virginia (34-18) scored the next six runs to build a 6-1 lead through three innings. The Cavaliers added six runs in the fourth inning and five more in the eighth to secure the run-rule victory over Richmond (30-22).

Virginia Cavaliers baseball was led offensively by Harrison Didawick, who went 3-for-6 with a double and four RBIs. AJ Gracia and Antonio Perrotta each homered for Virginia, while Lucas Hartman earned his 10th win after pitching the final 1 2/3 innings in relief.

Richmond scored first after a Virginia throwing error in the top of the first inning. Virginia answered immediately, scoring on a dropped third strike before taking advantage of a bases-loaded hit-by-pitch and a two-run single by Thomas O’Connell to take a 4-1 lead after one inning.

Gracia extended the advantage to 6-1 in the second inning with a two-run home run, his team-leading 14th homer of the season.

Richmond cut the deficit to 6-3 in the third inning on a two-run double by Trevor Dosenbach.

Virginia broke the game open in the fourth inning with six runs, highlighted by a two-run home run from Perrotta and a two-run double by RJ Holmes.

The Spiders scored their final three runs in the fifth inning on a Dosenbach home run to left field, trimming the deficit to 12-6.

Virginia’s bullpen combination of Noah Yoder and Hartman closed out the game with three scoreless innings.

Didawick capped the scoring with an RBI double in the seventh inning and a bases-clearing triple in the eighth to finalize the 18-6 victory.

The win improved Virginia to 91-60-2 all-time against Richmond and marked the Cavaliers’ 21st victory in the past 22 meetings between the programs dating to 2004.

Virginia finished the regular season with a 23-8 home record and improved to 156-45 at Disharoon Park since the start of the 2021 season.

The Cavaliers moved to 17-7 this season when hitting at least two home runs and remained unbeaten at 16-0 when scoring 10 or more runs. Tuesday’s result also marked Virginia’s 19th comeback victory of the season.

Sam Harris extended his reached-base streak to 17 games in the first inning.

With his performance Tuesday, Didawick moved into the top 10 in program history in games played, runs scored, RBIs, home runs, total bases and triples.