North Carolina State University Athletics
Virginia Downs NC State Baseball 3-1
3/19/2000 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
RALEIGH, N.C. (March 19) -- Virginia third baseman Luis Giraldo stroked a two-out, two-run single to left field Sunday to break a 1-1 tie and lift the Cavaliers to a 3-1 Atlantic Coast Conference baseball victory over NC State at Doak Field. Giraldo's hit enabled UVa to avoid a series sweep by the Wolfpack, which won the first two games of the series.
The win was Virginia's first in the ACC, lifting the Cavs to 1-2 in the conference and 12-12-1 overall. NC State, which had won four consecutive conference games and five straight overall, dropped to 4-2 in the league and 15-8 overall.
Tim Lavigne, Virginia's starting shortstop, came in to pitch in relief of starter Will Parker with two out in the bottom of the sixth inning and allowed no runs on one hit in 2 1/3 innings to record the win, his first decision of the season. Mike Sollie (3-1) went the distance for the Wolfpack, allowing three runs on seven hits to take the loss. Sollie walked none and struck out a career-high eight.
Sollie and Parker matched zeroes and solo homers into the late innings. Hunter Wyant led off the bottom of the second inning with a solo blast for the Cavaliers, his second of the season, and Josh Schmitt matched that with a two-out solo bomb in the bottom of the fifth, his first, to tie the game at 1-1.
Other than that, the pitchers dominated into the ninth, and despite taking the loss Sollie was more the victim of misfortune than of bad pitching. With one out in the top of the ninth, David Stone singled to left field. Robbie Marvin then bunted for a hit to put runners on first and second with one out. Jon Benick flied to left for the second out of the inning. Wyant then beat out a Baltimore chop to third base for a single to load the bases. Giraldo was up next and hit a line single to left field that drove in Stone and Marvin with the winning runs.
Until the ninth inning, Sollie had dominated the Cavaliers. From Wyant's leadoff homer in the top of the second through the eighth inning, Sollie retired 20 of 23 batters, and two of the three men who reached were erased on the bases.
Parker, meanwhile, allowed just five baserunners through six innings, and two of those were caught stealing in the fourth inning, when the Pack ran itself out of a first-and-second situation with none out. The Wolfpack also had runners on first and second with one down in the bottom of the eighth, but a strike-'em-out, throw-'em-out double play ended that threat.
