CHARLESTON, S.C. -- The Marist baseball team forced Virginia to play its longest game in program history before the Cavaliers topped the Red Foxes by a score of 5-4 in 18 innings on Sunday at Joseph P. Riley Park.

Junior center fielder Graham McIntire (Concord, N.H.) went 5-for-7 with a home run, two RBIs and two runs scored. Senior right-hander Chris Napolitano (Wall, N.J.) kept the game going with 8.1 innings of scoreless relief. Napolitano entered the game with two outs of the seventh, and pitched out of a bases-loaded jam. He also worked out of a bases-loaded situation in the 10th. Sophomore right-hander Tyler Dearden (LaGrange, N.Y.) started and allowed just three hits, one walk and two runs in 5.1 innings. Dearden struck out two.

Virginia, which advanced to the final of last year's College World Series, is currently ranked #1 in the NCBWA Poll. The Cavaliers entered this week #2 in the USA Today Coaches' poll, #3 in the D1Baseball.com, Perfect Game and Collegiate Baseball Newspaper polls, and #4 in the Baseball America poll.

It was another scoreless game until the fourth inning, when Virginia drew first blood off a sacrifice fly to centerfield allowing the first run of the game to be scored. The Red Foxes would answer in the next inning when junior John Brucker (Sparta, N.J.) singled to left centerfield, allowing McIntire and junior Joey Aiola (Suffern, N.Y.) to score unearned runs giving Marist a 2-1 lead.

The Cavaliers would tie the game up at 2-2 in the sixth inning off a double to right field. With the game knotted at two apiece at the start of the seventh inning, McIntire hit a two-run homerun to regain the Red Fox lead with a score of 4-2. Virginia would tie the game up in the bottom of the seventh inning after a single that drove in two runs.

The game headed to extra innings after a scoreless eighth and ninth inning. It wouldn't be until the 18th inning that another run would be scored. Virginia would drive in the winning run off a single hit to left center field ending the game with a score of 5-4.

Freshman Spencer Bunting (Rocky hill, Conn.) pitched 2.1 innings in the loss for Marist, giving up two hits and one run, and striking out one batter. Napolitano struck out four batters in 8.1 innings pitched.

Marist returns to action next weekend for a three-game series with Charlotte in Charlotte, NC. Game one will be played on Friday, Feb. 27 at 4 p.m. Game two is scheduled for Saturday, Fab. 28 with game time set for 1 p.m. The final game of the series will be on Sunday, Mar. 1 at 1 p.m.