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UVa Baseball Ranked in Top 25 and Named CBI Team of the Week
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March 21, 2006
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – – The Virginia Baseball Team cracked the Top 25 in all four of the major collegiate baseball polls after a three-game series sweep of then No. 2 Clemson. The Cavaliers were also named the Team of the Week by CollegeBaseballInsider.com.
The Cavaliers are No. 21 in Collegiate Baseball, No. 22 in the USA Today Coaches’ Poll, 24th in Baseball America and 25th in the National Collegiate Baseball Writer’s Association (NCBWA) poll. SEBaseball.com has UVa as the 17th best team in the nation while the Hoos are 22nd in the Rosenblattreport.com poll. Seven ACC teams are ranked this week in Collegiate Baseball and the USA Today Coaches’ Poll.
CollegeBaseballInsider.com named Virginia its team of the week after the Cavaliers completed a 4-0 week with wins over Dayton and Clemson. Virginia improved to 19-4 on the season and 4-2 in the ACC. Head Coach Brian O’Connor has now swept 17 of the 28 series he has coached including nine in the ACC. It was the second time he’s swept Clemson. Virginia hit .370 in the series against Clemson, out-hitting the Tigers,37-17. In six ACC games against #1 Ga. Tech and #2 Clemson, Virginia has hit. 344, out-hitting the two teams, 72-41. The Cavalier pitching staff held Clemson to a .175 batting average for the series as Clemson managed only 17 hits in the series and struck out 25 times in 27 innings. The staff is holding opponents to .215 batting average in ACC games, while striking out 38 in 36 innings. In four games last week, UVa hit .358 as a team and held opponents to a .183 batting average.
Juniors Casey Lambert and Brandon Marsh earned their second weekly honor along sophomore left-handed pitcher Sean Doolittle. All three were named to the College Baseball Foundation’s Weekly Honor Roll. Lambert was named the ACC Pitcher of the Week Monday while Marsh was named ACC Co-Player of the Week. Doolittle set the tempo early, turning in a career-high eight innings, with a career-high nine strikeouts, earning the no decision in the opener. Lambert (2-1) relieved him in the ninth and pitched one scoreless inning to get the win, 2-1. In the series finale, the reliever tossed 1 1/3 innings of no-hit baseball with the game tied, 4-4, as Virginia went on to win, 7-4. Lambert struck out two of the last three batters on Sunday to preserve the series sweep. Doolittle also contributed at the plate, batting .444, with 2 RBI and two runs scored, manning first base when not pitching.
Marsh batted .600 last week, going 9-for-15 with three RBIs, in helping Virginia to a perfect 4-0 week. In addition, he scored five runs, stole two bases, slugged .800 and had a .632 on-base percentage. In the Clemson finale, Marsh matched a career-high, going 4-for-5 with three runs scored, with a RBI and a triple.