ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, May 26, 1996 TAG: 9605280126
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C-6 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: TUSCALOOSA, ALA.
SOURCE: FROM ASSOCIATED PRESS AND STAFF REPORTS
VIRGINIA BEATS Notre Dame and Stetson to advance to the South I Region championship.
If the Virginia baseball team can duplicate Saturday's feat today, the Cavaliers will play in the College World Series.
Virginia got a day's worth of heroics from several players to win two games in the losers' bracket of the NCAA South I Region and gain an appearance in the championship. Seth Greisinger got his record-breaking 12th victory of the season in a 7-1 win over Notre Dame Saturday afternoon, then the Cavaliers rallied from a four-run deficit to beat Stetson 5-4 in 10 innings Saturday night.
Virginia (44-20) plays Alabama, the only unbeaten team in the region, today at 2 p.m. The Cavaliers must beat the Crimson Tide twice to win the region and earn a trip to Omaha, Neb.
Against the Hatters, Pat Bransford smacked a two-run home run in the top of the eighth inning to tie the game at 4. Virginia leftfielder John Galloway caught a Clint Hendry flyball at the wall in the bottom of the ninth, then the Cavaliers won it in the 10th when Justin Counts doubled home Donnie Seward, who reached on an error.
Craig Zaikov (8-1) got the win with 71/3 innings of scoreless relief. Zaikov, who relieved Javier Lopez with Virginia trailing 4-0 in the third, allowed just two hits and struck out 14.
Greisinger tossed a six-hitter in the first game. The win avenged a 12-1 first-round loss to the Fighting Irish.
Greisinger (12-2) set a Virginia record for most victories in a season and tied the career mark of 21 wins, records previously held by Tim Burcham (1983-85). The junior right-hander struck out six and walked one in a complete-game effort.
``We were very fortunate Greisinger was on the mound,'' said Virginia coach Dennis Womack. ``He was the guy who needed to stop them. If I was trying to rate Notre Dame offensively, they would rate close to the top in our league. Seth really competed.''
Womack gambled by not pitching Greisinger in Friday's game against Princeton and it paid off as Pat Daneker pitched the Cavaliers to a 12-2 win.
Greisinger's three postseason starts have yielded three complete games, two earned runs (for an 0.67 ERA), 12 hits, 25 strikeouts and a .132 opposition batting average. He has held opponents to one earned run or less in 12 of 16 starts.
``It was not my best pitching performance,'' said Greisinger, who credited his defense with making big plays. ``I think I got a little stronger as the game went on. In the fourth or fifth inning, I settled down and sort of got in the groove.''
Ryan Gilleland, a former Timesland Player of the Year from Jefferson Forest, and Adam Robinson homered for Virginia. Gilleland, Counts and Brian Sherlock had two hits.
LENGTH: Medium: 62 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: AP. Virginia's Pat Bransford slides safely home as Notreby CNBDame's Bob Lisanti is late with the tag during their NCAA Division I
South 1 Regional third-round game.