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April 10, 2007
CHARLOTTESVILLE – The fifth-ranked Virginia baseball team hits the road Tuesday night with a 7 p.m. contest against VCU at The Diamond. It will be the Cavaliers’ final non-conference road game of the regular season.
Virginia (29-7, 10-5 ACC) went 2-2 last week with a loss at VMI before taking two-of-three games against Duke over the weekend. Jacob Thompson (Danville, Va.) was honored as the ACC Pitcher of the Week, marking his first career league pitcher of the week award.
Thompson was dazzling in his Friday night performance against Duke, throwing his second career complete-game shutout. He did not walk a batter and tied a career high with 10 strikeouts while needing just 104 pitches to finish matters. He faced just three batters over the minimum and did not allow a runner past second base.
Brandon Guyer (Herndon, Va.) continued his career-best hitting streak last week, as he extended it to 21 games. He is batting .457 (42-92) during that stretch. It also is the second-longest current streak in the ACC, behind North Carolina’s Dustin Ackley, who is on a 26-game hitting streak.
Sean Doolittle (Tabernacle, N.J.) was the Cavaliers’ top hitter last week, going 7-for-15 (.467) in the four games. He also made a strong starting pitching performance Sunday to improve to 6-2 on the mound this year.
VCU is 19-13 overall and 5-6 in the Colonial Athletic Association after dropping 2-of-3 games to Old Dominion over the weekend. The Rams boast two reigning league players of the week, as first baseman Jared Bolden is co-player of the week and freshman Phillip Deane is the rookie of the week. Bolden leads the Rams with a .437 batting average after going 12-for-15 last week. Deane is scheduled to start against Virginia’s Jeff Lorick (Duluth, Ga.) Tuesday night.
Virginia holds a 25-19 lead in the all-time series with VCU. The teams last met Feb. 21, 2006, with the Cavaliers taking a 7-1 decision at Davenport Field. UVA has not played at the Diamond since 2003, a 5-3 VCU win.
The Cavaliers return to Davenport Field this weekend, playing host to Georgia Tech in a three-game series. The Yellow Jackets stand a game behind second-place Virginia in the ACC Coastal Division standings.