The No. 23 Virginia baseball team defeated the George Mason Patriots 5-1 on April 28 at Disharoon Park in Charlottesville, opening an eight-game homestand.
The win marks Virginia’s 15th comeback victory of the season after giving up the first run in the third inning. The Cavaliers responded by scoring five unanswered runs to secure the win over George Mason.
Virginia starter Max Stammel allowed only one unearned run over four innings with four strikeouts. Lucas Hartman earned his ninth win of the season by delivering another scoreless relief outing, while Tyler Kapa closed out the game for his eleventh save.
On offense, RJ Holmes and Joe Tiroly each recorded two hits and drove in a run. Jake Weatherspoon, Kyle Johnson, and Sam Harris all contributed doubles during the game. Tiroly tied it with a solo home run in the third inning before Holmes put Virginia ahead for good with a sacrifice bunt that scored Zach Jackson. Additional runs came from back-to-back doubles by Harris and Johnson, as well as a two-run double from Weatherspoon.
After this result, Virginia improves to a record of 29-12 all-time against George Mason and has now won eight consecutive meetings since 2004. The victory also gives UVA its thirtieth win of the season; it is their eighteenth time reaching at least thirty wins in twenty years.
Head coach Chris Pollard said: “I thought the job by our pitching staff to limit free offense was huge. That is a team that is really good at the bunt game and the straight steal game. Not to give them anything free to capitalize and turn into offense with no walks. That team doesn’t strike out much and we were able to keep them off the bases. The handful of times they had baserunners, I thought Coach Kirkpatrick did a great job managing the run game with picks and timing holds. I thought it was a really well-pitched game and a really well-called game by Brady Kirkpatrick. The big two-out RBI at-bat by Jake Weatherspoon, but for me, the player of the game was RJ Holmes. I am just really proud of the player that he is growing into and how he has taken advantage of this opportunity that he has gotten.”
Virginia will continue its homestand on Wednesday when they host Norfolk State Spartans at Disharoon Park.
