UVA Baseball Reaches .500 in ACC With Win Over Boston College

Fresh off a three-game sweep of Wake Forest last weekend, the UVA baseball team beat Boston College 7-1 in their series opener on Thursday. It was Virginia’s fifth-straight win in ACC play and fifth-straight series-opening win.

Andrew Abbott picked up the win, scattering three hits across 6.2 innings while also striking out 11 batters. With 291 total strikeouts, Abbott is now second in program history behind Danny Hultzen (395).

Virginia’s offense was clutch right from the get-go against BC starter Emmet Sheehan, scoring four runs with two outs in the top of the first. Leading 4-0, the Hoos put up three more runs in the top of the fifth to take a 7-0 lead. Nic Kent (3-for-5) and Kyle Teel (2-for-5) led the charge in both big innings, combining for five RBIs. Chris Newell (2-for-5) drove in the other two runs for Virginia, who smashed out 15 hits in the game.

Other Wahoos with multi-hit games were Brendan Rivoli (3-for-5) and Zack Gelof (2-for-5).

On the bump, senior Kyle Whitten closed the game for Virginia. He struck out five batters in 2.1 innings and allowed the lone run in the bottom of the eighth. In their last three series-opening games, the UVA pitching staff has allowed just two runs.

With the win, Virginia moved to .500 in conference action (17-17) for the first time this season. Both Baseball America and D1 Baseball have the Hoos projected to make the NCAA tournament field in their latest releases.

Virginia and BC continue their series today at 2:00 p.m. ET on ACCNX. On Saturday, they’ll have the series finale bright and early at 11:00 a.m. ET.