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May 22, 2007
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JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The Virginia baseball team begins 2007 ACC Championship play at 10 a.m. Wednesday, taking on North Carolina State at The Baseball Grounds of Jacksonville. Virginia is the No. 3-seed in the tournament, while the Wolfpack holds the No. 6-seed. The game will be televised live by Fox Sports South, Comcast Sportsnet Mid-Atlantic and SUN Sports.
The 2007 tournament takes on a new format, as the eight qualifying teams are divided into two divisions. The four teams in each division will play a round robin, with each squad guaranteed to play three games. The teams with the best record in each division will then square off for the championship at 1 p.m. Sunday.
Virginia (41-13, 19-9 ACC) also will play No. 7-seed Georgia Tech at 4 p.m. Thursday and No. 2-seed North Carolina at 1 p.m. Saturday. The other division is comprised of No. 1-seed Florida State, No. 4-seed Clemson, No. 5-seed Miami and No. 8-seed Wake Forest.
Virginia and N.C. State (36-19, 16-14) are extremely familiar foes in ACC Tournament play. The programs will match up for the 12th-consecutive season in the tournament, and the Wolfpack holds a 15-8 edge in tournament games with Virginia. The `Hoos went 1-2 against the Wolfpack two weeks ago at Davenport Field, winning the opener, 4-2, before N.C. State rallied for 10-7 and 8-6 wins to take the series.
Virginia won two of three games March 17-18 at North Carolina and split two games with Georgia Tech April 13-14 at home in a rain-shortened series.
The Cavaliers come off a two-game series sweep at Boston College last weekend. Virginia won 5-4 in 10 innings Thursday and 11-3 Saturday. The final game of the series was cancelled because of rain.
Three Cavaliers have been especially hot at the plate of late. David Adams (Margate, Fla.) is hitting .444 over his last 16 games with three triples, three homers and 14 RBI. Sean Doolittle (Tabernacle, N.J.) is hitting .436 with 15 RBI over the last 10 games, while Tyler Cannon (Pigeon Forge, Tenn.) enters the tournament on a career-best seven-game hitting streak, going 13-for-30 (.433) during that time.