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Sept. 13, 2006
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – – Virginia head baseball coach Brian O’Connor and his staff will conduct their first day of fall practice, Thurs. Sept. 14 at Davenport Field. The Cavaliers will play a fall game against the Ontario Blue Jays at 1 p.m. Sunday at Davenport Field. Admission is free to the public.
“Our guys are really excited to get on the field as a team,” O’Connor said. “This Sunday’s game is going to put our returning players and our rookies in live situations against a quality opponent very early, which is going to help us as a team in our fall development. “
Virginia returns 18 letterwinners including eight position starters as well as its top two weekend starters led by 2006 Atlantic Coast Conference Player of the Year, Sean Doolittle. All-ACC second team selections RHP Jacob Thompson and OF Brandon Marsh also return for the Cavaliers in 2007.
The 2006 Virginia team posted a school record 47 overall wins and 21 conference wins. UVa also hosted its second NCAA Regional in three years as the Charlottesville Regional returned to Davenport Field. The 2006 Cavaliers earned the program’s highest ranking at No. 5 as UVa was ranked in the top 25 of college baseball polls the majority poll. Virginia finished the 2006 season ranked No. 14 in the USA Today Coaches’ poll and No. 16 in the Baseball America poll. Virginia also finished third in the nation in team ERA (3.04) and set a school record with 519 strikeouts. Offensively, UVa set single-season records in RBI (416), total hits (687) and total bases (928).
Virginia welcomes eight newcomers in OF Mark Riffee (Vienna, Va.), INF Tyler Cannon (Pigeon Forge, Tenn.). LHP/1B Matt Packer (Germantown, Tenn.), C Zach Carter (Newport News, Va.), RHP Brian Gray (Winchester, Va.), LHP Neal Davis (Baltimore, Md.), INF Corey Hunt (Charlottesville, Va.) and LHP Jeff Lorick (Duluth, Ga.).
The Cavaliers are slated to play between a 12-15 inning game with the Blue Jays on Sunday.
“Hopefully, this early fall game will give our fans an early preview of our team. They’ll also have the opportunity to see them again in the Orange-Blue Series as we get ready for another challenging season in 2007. It’s also Homecoming weekend and we’ll have some baseball alumni floating around so this is going to be a good weekend to start off our fall ball.”
Official fall practice for the Cavaliers runs from Sept. 14-Oct. 14 and concludes with the Orange-Blue Series
Baseball Fall Orange-Blue Series dates set for Oct. 12-14
O’Connor has set October 12-14 as the dates for the Cavaliers’ annual Orange-Blue World Series. A three-day affair, the Orange-Blue Series will conclude Saturday Oct. 14 just before kickoff of the Virginia-Maryland football game.
The Orange-Blue Series will be open to the public. Game times for the first two days are 6 p.m. Thurs. and Fri. The game time for the series finale has yet to be set. Official team rosters will be released the week of the series. The 2007 roster is split in half and the club competes in an orange and blue intrasquad scrimmage.