Virginia-Georgia Tech Showdown Caps Regular Season

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CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. The Virginia baseball team’s regular season comes to an end this weekend, as the No. 28 Cavaliers play host to No. 25 Georgia Tech in a key three-game series at Davenport Field. Game one is at 6 p.m. Thursday, while the second game starts at 6 p.m. Friday. The finale is at noon Saturday. Please note the time change for the Saturday contest.

All three games will be webcast on ACC Select, while WINA Radio (1070 AM) also will have coverage of the series.

Virginia will conduct Senior Day ceremonies prior to the game Saturday. The Cavaliers will honor their five seniors Pat McAnaney (Syracuse, N.Y.) Robert Poutier (Yorktown, Va.), Jake Rule (Waynesboro, Va.), Michael Schwimer (Alexandria, Va.) and Patrick Wingfield (Winchester, Va.) at 11:35 a.m. Saturday.

The series holds big implications for the upcoming ACC tournament. Both teams enter with 14-13 ACC records and are tied for fifth place in the conference. The winner of the series will earn the tournament’s No. 5 seed.

The Cavaliers (35-17) and Yellow Jackets (36-16) have engaged in an extremely competitive series over the last four years. While Virginia owns a 10-4 edge in that span, all but two games have been decided by three runs or fewer, with half of the 14 games coming down to one-run decisions. The teams split two games in Charlottesville last season both one-run contests before Virginia nabbed a 4-1 win over the Jackets at the ACC tournament.

Virginia rallied late to win 6-5 in 11 innings over VMI Tuesday night. Virginia scored a run in the bottom of the ninth to send the game to extra frames and then picked up the win in the 11th when John Barr (Fr., Ivyland, Pa.) hit an infield single and a VMI throwing error allowed Corey Hunt (So., Charlottesville, Va.) to score the winning run.

Georgia Tech lost, 3-2, Tuesday to No. 7 Georgia in front of over 22,000 fans at Turner Field in Atlanta. The Yellow Jackets have won nine of their last 12 games and took two of three from Clemson last weekend in ACC play.

Charlie Blackmon leads the team with a .383 batting average. Georgia Tech has one of the more explosive offenses in the ACC, with a league-high 85 home runs. Four players have 10 or more long balls, led by Tony Plagman with 15.

Following play this week, Virginia will compete in the ACC tournament, beginning Wednesday in Jacksonville, Fla. Complete brackets and game times will be announced Sunday afternoon.