No. 14 Virginia baseball defeated No. 11 Arkansas, 5-3, Saturday in the opening game of the College World Series. Senior third baseman Kenny Towns singled home sophomore Daniel Pinero to break a 3-3 deadlock in the 8th inning.
The Cavalier batters came up clutch throughout the game as all five runs were scored with two outs.
Junior Joe McCarthy began the scoring with a solo blast in the second inning — his second home run of the NCAA Tournament.
The Razorbacks (40-25, 17-12 SEC) got two back against sophomore Connor Jones in the bottom of the third. Sophomore Andrew Benintendi and sophomore Clark Eagan both drove home a run.
Jones struggled with the command of his fastball and left breaking balls up in the zone throughout the afternoon but limited Arkansas to three runs on six hits and two walk in six innings.
Virginia (41-22, 15-15 ACC) retook the lead with two runs in the fifth. Pinero doubled home freshman Ernie Clement then came around to score on a base hit by sophomore Matt Thaiss.
Pinero led the team with three hits, and stole three bases — the most ever by a Cavalier in NCAA Tournament play. The Toronto native was the first player to steal three bases in the CWS since 2004.
Virginia’s lead would be short lived once again as Benintendi took Jones deep to knot the score. The round tripper was the NCAA leading 20th for the seventh overall selection by the Boston Red Sox in the 2015 MLB Draft.
The Cavaliers pulled ahead for good in the eighth. With one out, junior starter Trey Killian surrendered a single to Pinero. After the Razorbacks pulled Killian for sophomore Zach Jackson, Pinero stole second then third on back-to-back pitches. One out later, Towns doubled into right field to put Virginia on top.
Junior Josh Sborz pitched the final three innings and allowed one hit and one walk to pick up his fifth win of the season.
With the victory, Virginia reached 40 wins for the 10th time in the 12-year tenure of coach Brian O’Connor.
The Cavaliers advanced to the winners bracket and won against No. 2 Florida, 1-0, Monday. They will play Florida Friday in the final round of the series starting at 3 p.m.
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