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#14 Virginia Hosts Coppin State Tuesday at 4 p.m.
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March 28, 2006
Game #28
Mar. 28, 2006
#14 Virginia (22-5) vs. Coppin State (6-21-1), 4 p.m.
UVa RHP: Josh Myers (1-1, 0.00 ERA)
Coppin RHP: Jesus Melendez (0-0, 5.60 ERA)
Davenport Field at UVa Baseball Stadium
Charlottesville, Va.
#14 VIRGINIA HOSTS COPPIN STATE FOR NINTH STRAIGHT HOME GAME
Virginia continues its 10-game home-stand when the Cavaliers host the Coppin State Eagles Tuesday. Virginia is off to its best start in the program’s history at 22-5 after winning a three-game series with #24 Wake Forest over the weekend. UVa brings a 2.36 team ERA into week, which ranks second in the ACC. The team is second in the ACC while hitting .345. The Cavaliers will send senior RHP Josh Myers (1-1, 0.00 ERA) to the mound Tuesday and sophomore LHP Pat McAnaney (3-1, 4.01 ERA) gets the nod on Wednesday against Norfolk State.
SCOUTING COPPIN STATE
The Eagles (6-21-1) are coming off a series win over Maryland-Eastern Shore. Coppin State took two of three games from UMES after sweeping a doubleheader, 8-4, and 4-1 on Sunday. Coppin State is led by right fielder Ryan Deakyne, who is hitting .381 with seven doubles, three triples and 25 RBI. Corey Greene hits .326 for the Eagles, who are hitting .254. Jesus Melendez (0-0, 5.60 ERA is expected to start against the Cavaliers.
SERIES VS. COPPIN STATE
Virginia is 1-0 against Coppin State under head coach Brian O’Connor. The Cavaliers defeated the Eagles, 15-1, last season.
ABOUT THE CAVALIERS
Virginia improved to 22-5 on the season and 6-3 in the ACC after going 3-1 last week including an ACC series win over #24 Wake Forest. The Cavaliers used strong pitching performances from sophomore lefty Sean Doolittle and senior lefty Mike Ballard in claiming two wins. Doolittle struck out 10 in the series opener for his fifth win of the season while Ballard pitched a complete game with a season-high eight strikeouts for his fourth win … Head Coach Brian O’Connor picked up his 10th ACC series win and registered his first 2 of 3 ACC series win. O’Connor’s previous nine ACC series’ wins were all sweeps … Virginia posted a 1.33 ERA in the Wake Forest series and struck out 29 in 27 innings. Wake Forest only hit .194 against UVa pitchers. The Cavalier pitching staff is holding opponents to a .208 batting average in ACC games, while striking out 78 in 79 innings and a .205 batting avg. overall … Virginia is off to its best start in the program’s history at 22-5 and is the quickest team to 20 wins. The 2004 team started off the season 20-7 … Offensively, UVa hits .345 as a team with 331 hits in 959 at-bats.
HOOS IN THE POLLS
Virginia cracked the Top 20 in college baseball polls. The Cavaliers are No. 14 in Collegiate Baseball, No. 18 in the USA Today Coaches’ Poll, 23rd in Baseball America and 23rd in the NCBWA poll. SEBaseball.com has UVa as the 14th best team in th nation while the Hoos are 15th in the Rosenblattreport.com poll.
HOO NOTES
– Sophomore left-handed pitcher Sean Doolittle picked up his fifth win of the season after striking out a career 10 batters in the 3-2 win over Wake Forest. Doolittle held the Demon Deacons to two runs on four hits. In nine appearances, he is 5-0 with 1.42 ERA with 48 K’s in 38 innings and a .144 opponent batting average.- Junior lefty Casey Lambert registered his third save of the season picking up two strikeouts in 1.1 innings in the 3-2 win over Wake Forest.- Sophomore left fielder Brandon Guyer hit his second home run of the season in the Wake Forest series finale. Guyer now has a team-high 16 extra-base hits while leading the team with 39 total hits. He’s already topped his season-high from a year ago in RBIs having driven in 33 runs in 27 games.- Junior outfielder Brandon Marsh continued his hot hitting for the Cavs. Marsh hit .375 last week going 6-for-16 with three runs. He’s hitting .486 with 36 hits in 74 at-bats.- Freshman right-hander Jacob Thompson had another good outing as he held Wake Forest to one earned run on four hits in 6 2/3 innings and struck out four.- Sophomore Pat McAnaney, senior Josh Myers and freshman Andrew Carraway combined for a seven-hit shutout in leading UVa to 12-0 win over Marshall. McAnaney struck out five in five innings. He now has 29 K’s in 24 2/3 innings.- Freshman second baseman David Adams hit his team-leading fourth home run in the 10-2 series finale win over Wake Forest. Adams leads the team with 29 runs scored and ties for second in RBI (25).
DOOLITTLE NAMED TO COLLEGE BASEBALL FOUNDATION WEEKLY NATIONAL HONOR ROLL FOR THIRD TIME
The sophomore lefthander pick up Honor Roll mention for the second consecutive week by striking out a career-high 10 batters, as the Cavaliers edged Wake Forest, 3-2, in the first game of their ACC series win. He topped his strikeout career-high, which he set last week with nine against Clemson. He also hit .462 last week by going 6-for-13, with 4 RBIs in helping UVa to a 3-1 record. He ended up allowing two runs, on only four hits in 6 2 /3 innings, to improve to (5-0) on the season. Doolittle has fanned at least eight in each of his first three ACC starts.
CAVALIERS IN BOYDSWORLD.COM RPI
In the latest edition of the college baseball RPI released by Boydsworld.com, Virginia is 10th in the Ratings Power Index. The Cavaliers have gone 6-3 against three of the top four teams in the RPI in Clemson (1), Georgia Tech (2) and Wake Forest (4). While Boydsworld.com RPI, is not the official RPI used by the NCAA. The site uses the formula and bonus amounts with the official results from the 2001 and 2004 seasons. They are extremely close to the official ones and good indicator as the season progresses.
HOME SWEET HOME
Virginia had a 16-game home winning streak sanpped by Wake Forest, but the Cavaliers are 17-2 at home this season. The Cavaliers lost their home opener to Old Dominion, 5-1, but settled down to win 16 in a row before falling to Wake Forest in the second game of their series. UVa is hitting .364 as a team at Davenport Field. The Cavs have scored 187 runs on 241 hits with 55 extra-base hits. UVa’s pitching staff is holding the opposition to a .186 batting average at Davenport Field while opponents have scored 40 runs in 167 innings (1.72 ERA). The Cavs have 180 K’s in 167 innings.