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The Virginia baseball team won the 2011 ACC Championship with a 7-2 victory over Florida State Sunday afternoon at Durham Bulls Athletic Park at the ACC Baseball Championship. Virginia went unbeaten in the tournament (4-0) and defeated three top-20 foes (Miami, North Carolina, Florida State) en route to the title and the ACC’s automatic berth to the NCAA tournament.
Virginia captured its third ACC tournament title (1996, 2009, 2011).
Ironically, all three championships have come at Durham Bulls Athletic Park against Florida State. Virginia now has won 11-consecutive games at DBAP.
"I am obviously extremely happy for our ball club," Virginia head coach Brian O'Connor said. "Florida State has a tremendous team. The fact that we won the conference championship of the toughest conference in the country and went 4-0 in the tournament and still don’t have 10 losses on the season is something that shows that these players come to play every day. There are multiple guys who stepped up for this team today. It was a collective team effort, and I am proud of them because a championship like this is something that they will always remember."
The game was a matchup of the tournament’s top two seeds – No. 1 Virginia
(49-9) and No. 2 FSU (42-17). With its 49th victory this year, Virginia tied the 2009 squad for the second-most wins in program history. The 2010 team holds the record with 51 wins.
Virginia matched a season high by hitting three home runs, which led to all seven runs. UVa also smacked three homers on March 16 against James Madison.
Tournament Most Valuable Player Steven Proscia (Jr., Suffern, N.Y.) hit the go-ahead three-run home run in the sixth inning, while John Hicks (Jr., Sandy Hook, Va.) and Chris Taylor (So., Virginia Beach, Va.) each ripped two-run blasts.
Taylor and Kenny Swab (Sr., Kernersville, N.C.) joined Proscia on the all-tournament team.
UVa starting pitcher Danny Hultzen (Jr., Bethesda, Md.) worked 6.0 innings, allowing two earned runs, six hits and a walk while striking out five. He earned the win to improve to 10-3 this year while also recording his school-record 30th career win. Senior Tyler Wilson (Midlothian, Va.) recorded the final four outs, including a strikeout of Mike McGee to seal the championship.
Florida State starting pitcher Hunter Scantling (3-2) rolled through 5.2 innings before Proscia’s three-run blast in the sixth. In all, he allowed five earned runs and five hits while striking out three.
Florida State jumped on Hultzen quickly in the first inning. Devon Travis hit Hultzen’s first pitch off the Blue Monster in left-center field for a double. He moved to third on a groundout, then scored on a grounder to third base, as Proscia’s throw to the plate sailed wide.
