ACC Baseball: Virginia Defeats Florida to Advance to College World Series Final

By: Mike McDaniel | Associate Editor

The Virginia Cavaliers are heading back to the College World Series Finals.

 

The ‘Hoos cemented their second straight trip to the championship series with a 5-4 victory against the Florida Gators on Saturday night in Omaha. Kenny Towns drove in three runs for the Cavaliers (42-23), including the go ahead run in the seventh, as he helped back the strong relief pitching by Josh Sborz, who only allowed three hits in four innings of work to clinch the victory for the Cavaliers. Sborz has now pitched 23 straight scoreless frames dating back to May 15th.

 

 

It was a back and forth affair in Game 3 of the best-of-three set, but Towns, who is the school’s career NCAA Tournament leader in RBI’s, lofted a sacrifice fly to right field, which was deep enough to bring home Ernie Clement to give the Cavaliers the lead for good. Prior to this however, the Gators (52-18) held a 3-2 lead following a Harrison Bader home run in the top of the fifth. That lead would be relinquished in the bottom of the inning, when none other than Kenny Towns hit a two-run double to plate his first runs of the night to give Virginia back the lead. When Florida’s Mike Rivera singled to bring home a run and tie the game at 4 in the sixth inning, the battle of relievers emerged, which ultimately led to Virginia’s Josh Sborz outlasting the Gators offense, while getting the one run of support in the bottom of the seventh to help him improve to 6-2 on the season. After losing to Vanderbilt in the 2014 College World Series, the ‘Hoos will look to bring home a title to the Atlantic Coast Conference when the best-of-three series begins on Monday night. The full schedule can be found below.

 

Thanks for reading! Follow me on twitter @mikem92VT and check out InsideTheACC on Facebook and on twitter @InsideTheAcc.

Leave a Reply