RICHMOND -- If David Adams's baseball career does not work out, he may have a future in Hollywood. Leading off the top of the second inning of Wednesday afternoon's game at Richmond, Adams took a fastball up and in and then pointed to his helmet as if it had been hit. Home plate umpire Bill Slish, who at first had called a ball, agreed with Adams, and the freshman second baseman was awarded first base. Virginia would go on to score four runs that inning en route to a 5-0 win over Richmond at Pitt Field.
"I don't even know," Adams said. "I thought I heard something and I was just like, 'I got hit, I got hit.' It was a good way to get on base."
Sophomore left-hander Pat McAnaney started for the Cavaliers (25-8, 6-6 ACC) and notched seven stellar innings of work, in which he struck out four and limited the Spiders to three hits and zero runs. McAnaney, who has established himself as Virginia's midweek starter, improved his record to 5-1.
"He really had a good performance today," Virginia coach Brian O'Connor said. "But I was hard on Pat today. I am still not completely satisfied with the way he threw. Believe it or not, even though he shut them out. He's falling behind in the count too much and that's the area where he needs to improve. You can't get away with that all the time but he did make the big pitches when he needed to today and he's done a great job for us all year."
Richmond sent right-hander Jason Bolinski to the mound for the start and he lasted only two innings. After retiring the Cavaliers in order in the first, Bolinksi struggled in the second after Adams reached base. Brandon Guyer executed a sacrifice bunt to move Adams into scoring position. Tom Hagan followed with an RBI single and advanced to third on an error by Richmond catcher Hank Coogan. Jeremy Farrell then lined out to third base but Beau Seabury kept the inning alive with an infield single to the shortstop that scored Hagan. Greg Miclat and Tim Henry both singled to load the bases before Brandon Marsh drove in two runs with a single to give Virginia a 4-0 lead.
The Cavaliers added to their lead the next inning when Adams led off with a walk and later scored on a RBI single off the bat of Farrell. Virginia is now 3-0 against Richmond under O'Connor and the two teams will meet again this season April 26 in Charlottesville.
Sophomore set-up man Michael Schwimer pitched a scoreless eighth inning before handing the ball over to closer Casey Lambert in the ninth. It was Lambert's first appearance since the junior left-hander blew a five-run lead against N.C. State Saturday evening.
"It was important to get him back out there and give him a little confidence heading into a key weekend for us," O'Connor said.
The win was especially important for the Cavaliers as it came on the heels of last weekend's disappointing sweep at the hands of the Wolfpack. With another upcoming road series this weekend at Duke, O'Connor felt that Wednesday's contest was vitally important for his squad's confidence and momentum.
"We're in a great position," O'Connor said. "We have played four teams in our league so far that I think are going to be NCAA Tournament teams. Now we need to take care of the middle of our schedule here."
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