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Cavaliers to play school-record 40 home games, home night games to start at 6 p.m.

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. The Virginia baseball team has announced its 2008 schedule, which features home contests with College World Series runner-up North Carolina and 2007 NCAA Tournament teams Wake Forest, VCU and Coastal Carolina at Davenport Field. Thanks to the new NCAA universal start date for all teams, the Cavaliers will play host to a school-record 40 games as part of the 56-game slate this year and open the season at home for the first time since 2002.

Virginia also travels to NC State, Florida State and Miami (Fla.), all of which reached the tournament last year. In all, the Cavaliers are scheduled to play five three-game series and 17 games total against 2007 NCAA Tournament teams.

“Because of the college baseball season being pushed back and having an official start date, we will be opening at home,” O’Connor said. “I’m excited about this new scheduling format, and it will be a challenge for programs across the country with more games in a shorter amount of time. This gives our fans more opportunities to see our team and, with the tough ACC and non-conference teams coming in, it should be very exciting.”

The Cavaliers’ home night games will start at 6 p.m. this season, moving up an hour from the 7 p.m. start time last year.

Virginia’s schedule features a 10-game homestand to start the season, beginning Feb. 22-24 with a four-game series against Lehigh. The Cavaliers battle Coppin State, Old Dominion, Cornell and Siena over the next week as part of six games in six days. With the scheduling change this season, there will be just two weekends of non-conference play before the ACC season commences March 7-9.

The Cavaliers’ first road excursion is March 4 at VMI, marking Virginia’s lone non-conference road game of the season. Virginia opens ACC play March 7-9 at NC State, the first of 30 conference games. The Cavaliers also play at Duke (March 14-16), Florida State (April 4-6), Maryland (April 11-13) and Miami (April 25-27).

Virginia’s matchup with Florida State marks the first contest between the two teams since the 2006 ACC Tournament and their first regular-season matchup since 2005. With the Seminoles rotating back onto the Cavaliers’ schedule this year, Clemson shifts off for the next two years, marking the first time since 1978 that the two schools will not meet in the regular season.

The Cavaliers start their home ACC slate March 21-23 against Boston College as part of a season-long 12-game homestand. Virginia also is scheduled to play host to league foes Virginia Tech (March 28-30), Wake Forest (April 18-20), North Carolina (May 9-11) and Georgia Tech (May 15-17).

In non-conference action, Virginia also welcomes Radford (March 11), Navy (March 12), Stony Brook (March 18-19), VCU (March 25), George Washington (March 26), Towson (April 1-2), Longwood (April 8), Liberty (April 9), Coastal Carolina (April 15), Georgetown (April 22), William & Mary (April 23), Mount St. Mary’s (April 29) and VMI (May 13).

The ACC Tournament will be contested May 21-25 at the Baseball Grounds of Jacksonville in Jacksonville, Fla. NCAA Regionals run May 30-June 2, followed by NCAA Super Regionals June 6-9 and the College World Series June 13-23.

Season tickets for the 2008 season will go on sale in November.

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