UVA BASEBALL: Cavs earn sweep over Terps

By Jay Jenkins

Published: April 13, 2008

COLLEGE PARK, Md. — Andrew Carraway held his breath as the ball whizzed through the air.
What appeared to be a game-tying homer, miraculously clanked off the metallic fence in right field for a loud single.
Virginia’s starting pitcher had survived what proved to be his biggest scare in an outing that lifted his team to their first road sweep of the season.
The Cavaliers, behind a season-best three homers, overcame chilly conditions and whipped Maryland, 11-4, at Shipley Field on Sunday.
Now sporting a five-game winning streak, Virginia stands at 29-9 overall, just a game behind the team’s 30-8 start a year ago. More importantly, the Cavaliers moved to 11-7 in the ACC and maintain the league’s
fourth-best winning percentage.
“You have to be proud of your players any time you can complete a sweep of a league opponent on the road,” said Virginia coach Brian O’Connor. “We had a great day offensively, we got production throughout our lineup and that was great to see.”
But the biggest key, the skipper said, was Carraway’s ability to “minimize” the Terrapins’ offensive threat in the fourth inning.
After being spotted a 3-0 lead thanks in part to solo homers from Tyler Cannon and Dan Grovatt, Carraway allowed back-to-back one-out singles to Bill Rice and Jensen Pupa.
Carraway, who retired the game’s first 10 batters, then made a mistake against Maryland slugger Mike Murphy — he threw a hittable pitch.
Murphy’s blast, however, was not his 10th homer as it hit off the fence in right field. Oddly enough, the runners advanced only one base.
“At that point, I was willing to trade an out for a run,” Carraway said. “I knew I had a lead to work with.”
The right-hander did just that, getting Gerry Spessard to hit a sacrifice fly to center. Carraway, who set the tone with his fastball, went on to end the frame moments later with a four-pitch strikeout of Will Greenberg.
Ironically, Virginia responded offensively for its second-best inning of the weekend.
“We talk about that all the time,” said Carraway, who fanned nine batters in the longest outing of his college career. “You can gain or give away momentum on the mound with one pitch.”
In the top of the fifth, UVa took advantage of bunt singles by Jarrett Parker and Greg Miclat to fuel the six-hit, five-run attack that provided an 8-1 advantage.
“We took advantage of our speed in that inning,” O’Connor said. “Tyler Cannon, Dan Grovatt and Franco Valdes drove in big runs with timely hits and that’s what you need to score a lot of runs in an inning. You have to have multiple guys coming through at the plate.”
The Cavaliers, who play nine of their final 12 league games at home, scored another run in the seventh on a RBI double by John Barr and two more in the eighth on a two-run homer second baseman David Adams to left-center field. 
After surpassing the 100-pitch plateau, Carraway (3-2) was pulled in favor of freshman reliever Robert Morey, who allowed three runs in the eighth before he gave way to junior Jake Rule for a scoreless ninth.
For the game, Virginia slapped out 14 hits, giving the team 34 for the series. Maryland (20-17, 5-13) had 29 hits over the weekend, including 11 on Sunday, but dropped their 18th straight to the Cavaliers.
UVa returns to action Tuesday as it opens a six-game homestand with 24th-ranked Coastal Carolina (28-7) at 5 p.m.