THE LEAD
DBU fell to No. 11 Virginia, 6-3, in the opening game of the Fort Worth regional on Saturday evening at Lupton Stadium in Fort Worth, Texas. The Patriots hit three homeruns in the loss, but all came of the solo variety.
 
Derek Casey (5-2) pitched seven innings and allowed just three runs on six hits and struck out three Patriots. Jordan Martinson (9-4) suffered the loss after giving up six runs on as many hits in 4 2/3 innings of work to go with three strikeouts and three walks. Tommy Doyle (14) picked up the save with a hitless ninth inning, despite putting two DBU baserunners on.
 
After Martinson kept UVA relatively quiet through the first two frames, the Cavaliers struck first with three straight singles to begin the third, taking a 1-0 lead as Justin Novak scored on a fielding error by Evan Sandmann. Virginia added two more on a pair of RBI groundouts to snag a 3-0 lead through three. In the top of the fourth, DBU's first baserunner of the game didn't stop running as Jameson Hannah cut the deficit to 3-1 with a solo blast. The Patriots trimmed UVA's lead to 3-2 in the following inning with another solo homerun off the bat of Tim Millard.
 
The Cavaliers regained a two-run advantage in the bottom of the fifth on a sacrifice fly from Ernie Clement, allowing Novak to score again to make it 4-2. After walking the bases loaded, Dan Heefner removed Martinson in favor of Dalton Higgins, who gave up a two-run double to Robbie Coman to extend Virginia's lead to 6-2.
 
Jimmy Fouse took over on the mound for DBU to begin the bottom of the seventh, bringing an end to the outing of Higgins, who allowed just the one double in 1 1/3 innings. In the top of the eighth, Garrett Wolforth delivered the third solo homerun of the night to make it 6-3 and knock Casey out of the game. Fouse struck out a pair while finishing his second inning of scoreless relief, keeping the deficit at three runs. The Patriots had men at first and second with two outs, but Camden Duzenack struck out to end the game.
 
THREE THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW
 - After not allowing a walk through the first four innings, DBU's pitching walked four batters in the fifth and sixth innings.
 - The Patriots went 0-for-7 with runners on base and 0-for-5 with runners in scoring position.
 - DBU's bullpen combined for 3.1 innings of scoreless baseball, allowing just four hits.

COACH DAN HEEFNER - ON THE MATCHUP WITH VIRGINIA
"I thought Virginia was exactly what we thought they'd be. They pitched really well. They didn't give us any free bases. They've got a really scrappy offense, and when they had runners in scoring position, they took advantage of that. I thought our guys did a decent job, but we'll tip our cap to them. There were some things we could've done better as well."

JAMESON HANNAH - ON HITTING AGAINST CASEY
"He did a really good job of mixing early. We tried to get good swings off ahead in the count and we were barreling balls up. We struggled staying on top of the ball, but I felt like we had some pretty decent at-bats."
 
INSIDE THE NUMBERS
4 – The loss is just the fourth for DBU when hitting more than one homerun (18-4).
1 – The Patriots allowed just one extra base hit while collecting five themselves.
2 – Virginia recorded two two-out RBI in the game.
 
UP NEXT
DBU will face the loser of top-seed TCU and No. 4-seed Central Connecticut State at Noon on Sunday at Lupton Stadium.