Virginia's Ryan Zimmerman Continues His Impressive Play With The USA Baseball National Team

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July 19, 2004

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – University of Virginia baseball player Ryan Zimmerman (Virginia Beach, Va./Kellam) and the 2004 USA Baseball National Team completed its four-game series with Chinese Taipei on Sunday at the Durham Bulls Athletic Park in Durham, N.C. Zimmerman has been one of Team USA’s most consistent players both on the field and at the plate. He has started 11 of the 16 games he has appeared in and leads Team USA in batting average (.509), hits (27), RBI (25), home runs (3), doubles (8) and slugging percentage (.868). Zimmerman has also posted a .897 fielding percentage and was successful on two of his three stolen base attempts.

Zimmerman has been hitting for a very high average for Team USA in competition play. He recently recorded a seven-game hitting streak (from July 4 – July 16) and was 21-for-32 at the plate, good for a .656 batting average through Saturday. Zimmerman batted a team-high .361 for Virginia during the 2004 season.

Team USA currently stands 10-7 overall following its four-game series with Chinese Taipei. Team USA lost the final contest of the series by the score of 4-1 but won two of the first three games in the event to earn a split in the series. Team USA lost the first game of the series 6-5 before posting back-to-back victories (9-5 and 11-1) in games two and three, respectively.

Earlier this summer, Team USA defeated Canada six games to none (6-0) in the USA vs. Canada Friendship Series on June 23-29, lost five games to none (0-5) to Japan in the 33rd Annual USA vs. Japan Collegiate All-Star Series on July 2-8 and claimed two victories (2-0) in the USA vs. New England Collegiate Baseball League on July 11-12 after defeating the Danbury Westerners (19-2) and the Keene Swamp Bats (4-2).

Zimmerman and Team USA will return to action on July 22 – August 1 when the Red, White and Blue competes in the International University Sports Federation (FISU) World University Games in Tainan, Taiwan.

— UVa —