Jones Fires Two-Hitter, UVA-Wise Pounds 34 Hits in Sweep of Bluefield

March 19, 2007
Game 1 Boxscore

Game 2 Boxscore

Wise, VA – David Jones fired a two-hitter and UVA-Wise pounded out 34 hits and scored 23 runs to sweep Bluefield College, 16-3 in eight innings and 7-0, in a rescheduled Appalachian Athletic Conference baseball twinbill Monday afternoon.

The Highland Cavaliers moved into a tie for second place in the AAC with a 5-1 mark and 15-4-1 overall. Bluefield falls to 14-11 and 1-5 in the league.

UVA-Wise had four players lined at least five hits apiece in the two games with Brad Robbins (Big Stone Gap, VA) leading the way with six. Robbins went a perfect four for four with two doubles in the opener before finishing six of eight with five rbi. Matt Hall (Hillsville, VA) was five of seven with a double while John Bigley (Woodbridge, VA) had five hits of his own, two doubles and three runs.

Brock Funk (Fries, VA) picked up the mound win in the opener hurling the first five innings while going four of five at the plate. The junior improved to 4-1 on the mound while blasting a two-run homer and two doubles in the opener before finishing five of nine.

David Jones (Amelia, VA) continued his stellar pitching as he moved to 5-0 on the season and has a 0.90 ERA in 30 innings of work. The 7-0 shutout was the junior’s first of the season as he allowed a single in each of the first two innings, set down 11-straight at one point and fanned eight.

Bluefield received three hits from Chad Pace while Lowell Coats, Charles White and Billie Mueller had two each.

The scored was tied 1-1 after three innings before UVA-Wise, playing as the visitors due to the moving of the doubleheader to Wise because of field maintence in Bluefield, put together five-straight scoring frames. In the fourth through eight innings, the Cavs produced 17 hits with nine extra base hits.

The Cavs scored four times in the fourth with Hall having a two-run double before adding three more tallies in the fifth including a two-run homer from Funk to lead 8-1. The Rams scored twice in the bottom of the fifth before Jorge Laboy (Woodbridge, VA) belted a solo homer and Robbins a sac fly to answer for a 10-3 score.

UVA-Wise added a single tally in the seventh and five more runs in the eighth to run-rule Bluefield, 16-3 in eight innings.

The Cavs rode Jones’ pitching and scoring frames of the third and fourth for the nightcap victory. UVA-Wise posted four runs on four hits to open the third and added another pair in the fourth on four more hits for a 6-0 lead. Matt Begley (Norton, VA) lined a rbi single up the middle for the last score, 7-0, before Jones shut the door in the bottom of the seventh.

Other hitters for UVA-Wise included Begley (3 singles), Laboy (2B and HR), Alan Stoupa (McLean, VA – 2 for 4, 2B in game 1), Mike Lang (Fredericksburg, VA – two hits, 2B and 2 rbi) and Edwin Narvaez (2 singles).

UVA-Wise will travel to Alice Lloyd College for a 1:00 p.m. doubleheader on Tuesday.