No. 18 Baseball Starts Homestand with Navy, VMI
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CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. The No. 18 Virginia baseball team will put its 12-0 record on the line for two midweek games this week, playing Navy at 4 p.m. Tuesday and VMI at 4 p.m. Wednesday.
The Cavaliers’ 12-0 mark is the best 12-game start in school history. The 12-game winning streak is tied for the longest active streak in the nation with Georgia. The Cavaliers and Bulldogs join San Jose State as the only remaining undefeated teams in the country.
Virginia’s road sweep of Wake Forest was the Cavaliers’ first sweep of an ACC-opening series since 2004 at Georgia Tech. UVa won the opener, 18-2, then took the second game, 8-6. In the finale, the Cavaliers scored in all but two innings in a 21-5 victory. The Cavaliers also had a 17-4 home win over George Washington last week.
Because of the strong start, UVa moved into three national polls this week No. 18 by Collegiate Baseball, No. 23 according to the ESPN/USA Today Coaches’ poll and No. 26 by the NCBWA.
Virginia put up some astronomical numbers last weekend. UVa racked up 47 runs in the three games, the Cavaliers’ most in an ACC series since the Cavaliers piled up 50 at Maryland in 1990. For the third straight game, every Virginia starter had at least one base hit, and the Cavaliers finished the series with 61 hits, including a season-high 25 Sunday.
UVa has six hitters batting .400 or better Steven Proscia (.479), Dan Grovatt (.468), Jarrett Parker (.458), Franco Valdes (.448), Tyler Cannon (.442) and John Hicks (.405). After the outburst last weekend, the Wahoos are hitting .397 for the season tops in the ACC. UVa also leads the ACC in pitching, sporting a 1.92 ERA while opposing hitters are batting just .192 against the Cavaliers.
Navy is 4-4-1 after a Sunday doubleheader sweep of Iona and Central Connecticut State in which it scored 29 runs. Jonathon Berkowitz leads the team with a .391 batting average, while the Midshipmen are hitting .260 as a team. Navy has pitched well thus far with a team ERA of 4.50 while opponents are hitting just .240 against the Mids.
VMI is 5-7 entering its game at Norfolk State on Tuesday. The Keydets are led by Jordan Ballard, who is hitting .367 with two home runs and a team-best 13 RBI. VMI has a team batting average of .298 and a team ERA of 7.07.
UVa continues its homestand this weekend when Florida State, ranked as high as 14th nationally, comes to Davenport Field for the first time in five years. The teams will play at 6 p.m. Friday and 1 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.