Virginia survives three home runs from Dallas Baptist to win FW Regional opener

Designated hitter Robbie Coman doubled in a three-run fifth inning, and the top five batters in the order had a hit as Virginia outlasted Dallas Baptist for a 6-3 victory Saturday in the delayed opener of the Fort Worth Regional at Lupton Stadium.

Junior right-hander Derek Casey allowed three runs, all on solo home runs, in seven innings to win for Virginia (43-14), which advanced to a winner’s bracket game against either TCU or Central Connecticut State, which played late Saturday.

Jameson Hannah, Tim Millard and Garrett Wolforth homered for Dallas Baptist (40-20), which will play the loser of the late game at noon Sunday.

“Best outing of the year, best outing of his career,” Virginia coach Brian O’Connor said of Casey (5-2), who made his postseason debut after sitting out last season following elbow surgery. “Picked a great time for it. Dallas Baptist is the kind of team that you are on the edge of your seat pitching to those guys, just because they have so many threats that can hit the ball out of the ballpark.”

The Patriots were 0-for-7 with runners on base and 0-for-5 with runners in scoring position.

Virginia closer Tommy Doyle recorded his 14th save by striking out Camden Duzenack as the tying run in the ninth inning.

“Virginia was exactly what we thought they’d be,” DBU coach Dan Heefner said. “They pitched it well, they didn’t give us any free bases. And when they got runners in scoring position, they took advantage of it.”

Jameson and Austin Listi were each 2-for-4 for DBU.

Second baseman Andy Weber was 3-for-4 for Virginia, and third baseman Justin Novak was 2-for-2. They each scored two runs.

This story was originally published June 3, 2017 at 9:01 PM with the headline "Virginia survives three home runs from Dallas Baptist to win FW Regional opener."