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April 24, 2006
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – – The Virginia Baseball team earned its highest ranking of the season as the Cavaliers remained in college baseball polls for the sixth straight week. The Cavaliers moved up four spots to No. 13 in the USA Today Coaches’ Poll, which is as high as the Cavaliers have been in 2006. UVa moved up three spots in the Collegiate Baseball Poll coming in at No. 15. The Cavaliers climbed back into the Baseball America poll at No. 20. Virginia is 14th in the National Collegiate Baseball Writer’s Association (NCBWA) Poll. The Hoos are 14th in the Rosenblattreport.com poll. Seven Atlantic Coast Conference teams are again ranked this week in the USA Today Coaches’ Poll while eight ACC teams are in the Collegiate Baseball Poll.
Virginia improved to 34-10 on the season after going 3-1 last week. The Cavaliers moved to 13-8 in the Atlantic Coast Conference, which puts UVa in a tie for second place in the Coastal Division. UVa is one of six teams in the ACC with 30 or more wins and matched North Carolina with the most overall wins in the conference. The Cavaliers won their second straight ACC road series and have won five of its seven conference series this season. UVa took the series opener at No. 19 Miami, 8-2, behind a strong pitching performance from Sean Doolittle. Doolittle struck out nine while UVa limited the Hurricanes to five hits. In game two, UVa out-hit Miami, 17-11, on its way to a 15-7 win. Virginia scored seven runs in the third and used a five-run eighth inning to break open a four-run game. In the series finale, Miami edged UVa-8, in 10 innings. Patrick Wingfield led the Cavaliers going 3-for-4 with three RBI while Tom Hagan was 3-for-4 with three runs.
Virginia hit .320 last week and .342 in the Miami series. Thirteen of Virginia’s 41 hits went for extra bases. The Cavaliers won its first ever series over Miami. UVa was 2-4 under Brian O’Connor heading into the weekend and 9-4 all-time against the Virginia continues to lead the ACC in team ERA (2.62) and ranks second in the league in team batting (.332). The Cavaliers entered last week as one of only two teams in the nation ranked in the Top 10 in the national statistics in both team ERA and batting average. UVa was 2nd nationally in team ERA and ninth in batting average
Virginia returns home Wednesday to host Richmond at 7 p.m.