VirginiaSports.com

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (AP) -Dontrelle Inman and his teammates were standing on the sideline when they saw Keith Payne burst through the line and gain 15 yards, carrying several Richmond defenders with him most of the way.

Then he did it again, and again.

"We almost got a penalty,'' Inman said of the scene on the sideline as the Cavaliers celebrated Payne's breakout effort. "The refs told us to back up. If you go back and look at the film, almost the whole team was on the field. We were just so hyped.''

Payne ran for 114 yards and four touchdowns, and Virginia ended a four-year losing streak in season openers with a 34-13 victory against Richmond on Saturday night.

Payne, who was finished with football until Al Groh was fired and Mike London replaced him after last season, downplayed his performance, saying it was a team effort.

"I was just following behind the offensive line,'' he said.

Inman, offensive coordinator Bill Lazor and others weren't so dismissive.

Payne caused Lazor to give him a bigger role than was planned, gaining 15, 13 and 15 yards on consecutive third-quarter carries and carrying several Spiders on his back.

"The way the game was going with what we were doing, it was his kind of game,'' Lazor said of the 255-pound tailback. "We did what we thought fit. I think it worked out just right.''

The victory allowed Virginia to accomplish one of its first goals for the season, winning its opener for the first time in five years. It came against London's former team.

Richmond, which beat Duke to start the season twice in the past five seasons, lost in the coaching debut of Latrell Scott, a former Virginia receivers coach. The Spiders pulled to 14-13 on Wil Kamin's second field goal in the third quarter, but Virginia answered with a nine-play, 74-yard drive. Payne gained 50 on five carries, including a 2-yard scoring run.

His other scoring runs covered 1, 2 and 8 yards.

"We came out on the first drive of the second half and I thought it was a pretty good drive,'' said Richmond quarterback Aaron Corp, who transferred from Southern Cal in January. "After that, we just couldn't seem to get a drive sustained consistently.''

The game also marked the return to the Virginia lineup of quarterback Marc Verica, who started nine games in 2008 but played sparingly last season as Groh went to a spread offense.

Verica completed 24 of 35 passes for 283 yards and a touchdown.

Verica, too, was gushing about the big tailback afterward.

"We have a lot of guys on this team right now that are ready to break out,'' he said. "There were some plays there where he was just enforcing his will. It was special to watch.''

Burd finished with seven catches for 122 yards, including a 2-yard TD.

From the opening play from scrimmage, the run-first offense that Lazor installed was effective. Perry Jones burst through the line for 38 yards on the first play, a longer run than the Cavaliers had all last season. Verica's 25-yard completion to Burd two plays later moved it to the Spiders' 13, and two runs by Payne and a penalty gave Virginia a 7-0 lead.

The Spiders tied it when Kendall Gaskins ran into, then away from, a wall of defenders, going 70 yards for a touchdown. The Spiders managed just 100 more yards in the half, but pulled within 14-10 at the break on Kamin's 36-yard field goal 1:23 before the intermission.

Kamin hit from 41 yards on the opening drive of the third quarter on a drive that Corp kept alive with a big-time play. Rolling right and nearly out of room on third-and-12, he found Gaskins running free for 32 yards to the Cavaliers 17 before Virginia's defense tightened.

Corp was 18 for 32 for 183 yards with one interception.

SalemSox.com

Salem, VA - The Red Sox and Dash exchanged a win and a loss apiece on the final Saturday night of the 2010 regular season, with Salem earning a 2-0 shutout victory in the resumption of the suspended game from August 18, and Winston grabbing a 3-1 triumph in the nightcap.

In 17 meetings between the two clubs this season, 15 have been decided by four runs or less, with 10 of them having been determined by just one or two runs.

Zach Hammes' resurgence highlighted the opener, as the two clubs resumed with Salem ahead 1-0 in the top of the fourth inning. Hammes dominated through four scoreless innings, striking out six to improve his record to 3-3 and shrink his ERA to 4.63. It was the ninth time in his last ten outings that he did not allow a single run.

Salem added to their 1-0 lead thanks to Alex Hassan's leadoff triple against Hector Santiago in the top of the sixth inning. Adalberto Ibarra lined a sacrifice fly to deep left to score Hassan and give the Sox a 2-0 edge.

Salem's other run was an unearned tally from back on August 18 in the first inning off starter Dylan Axelrod, with Mitch Dening scoring on a sac fly by Will Middlebrooks.

In game two, Stephen Sauer handled the Red Sox lineup through most of the night, never facing more than four batters in any one inning until the Sox finally scratched a run against him in the sixth. With two outs, Dening doubled and promptly scored on Dan Butler's single.

Otherwise, Sauer was masterful, yielding just one run on six hits over six innings, with no walks and four strikeouts. Tyson Corley retired the Red Sox 1-2-3 in the ninth, with three softly struck grounders leading to his 10th save.

Winston plated a pair in the second and one more in the fifth off Caleb Clay, whose record dropped to a disappointing 4-13.

In the second, Seth Loman walked on four pitches to begin the frame and Nick Ciolli's double moved him to third. Ozzie Lewis' grounder to a back-up second-baseman gave the Dash their first run, while Drew Garcia's sac fly to deep right-center plated another. Up 2-0, Winston added their final run when Jose Martinez bopped a sacrifice fly out to right, scoring Greg Paiml from third.

The 3-1 Winston win was completed in one hour and 40 minutes, matching Salem's shortest game (time-wise) of the season.

With two games of their unorthodox five-game-in-three-day series in the books, the Sox and Dash will square off in another double-dip on Sunday afternoon beginning at 2:05 at Lewis-Gale Field.

Following Sunday's action, the 2010 season wraps up with a 12:05 Labor Day matinee on Monday.

Lynchburg-Hillcats.com

Winston-Salem topped Lynchburg 6-4 to complete a four-game series sweep of the Hillcats at BB&T Ballpark.

The Dash finished the season series against the Cats with a 16-4 record.

Winston-Salem struck first in the bottom of the second inning with a pair of runs.

Jason Bour singled in a run and Drew Garcia doubled in the other. Lynchburg came back to erase the two-run deficit with a pair of solo home runs.

The first came in the third inning when Kevyn Feiner hit his first home run since returning to the Hillcats from Low-A Dayton.

The second was a titanic blast off of the bat of Neftali Soto to tie the game at two a piece. It was Soto's team leading 19th home run of the season and he is now third in the Carolina League in the category.

The Dash broke the 2-2 tie with a four-run bottom of the fourth inning to take a 6-2 lead.

A two-run homer by Garcia plated a pair and Jon Gilmore brought in two more with a base hit in the frame. The Hillcats responded with two runs of their own in the top of the fifth inning to pull back within a pair. Soto and Henry Rodriguez both had an RBI single in the inning to make it a 6-4 game.

The loss went to starter Josh Ravin (2-1) for Lynchburg (30-35, 59-76) and the win went to starter Terry Doyle (8-8) and the save went to Brandon Kloess (1) for Winston-Salem (36-28, 79, 55), who has now won eight straight.

The four-game sweep by the Dash marked the fourth time this season Winston-Salem swept the Hillcats and they went 16-4 against the Cats this season.

Lynchburg begins their final series of the season on Saturday night at Myrtle Beach with a 7:05 p.m. first pitch on Saturday night at BB&T Coastal Field.

Left-hander Justin Walker (3-2, 7.59) will get the call for the Cats opposite right-hander Paul Clemens (0-3, 3.49) for the Pelicans.