No. 11 Cavaliers Visit VCU, Host Georgetown This Week
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CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. Coming off a key ACC series win at Boston College, the No. 11 Virginia baseball team returns for two midweek games this week. The Cavaliers travel to Richmond to face VCU at 7 p.m. Tuesday at The Diamond before returning home to take on Georgetown at 7 p.m. Wednesday at Davenport Field. The games mark the first of 13 straight in Virginia to end the regular season.
The VCU game will be available online by webcast and can be accessed through the baseball schedule page on VirginiaSports.com. Live statistics for both games also will be available.
The Cavaliers took two of three games last weekend in an ACC series at Boston College. It marked Virginia’s second ACC series win on the road this year. The Cavaliers opened the ACC season with a road sweep of Wake Forest.
UVa currently is 30-8-1 (11-7-1 ACC) and joins Georgia, North Carolina, New Mexico, Coastal Carolina and George Mason as the only teams in the country with 30 wins or more this season.
After a 4-for-10 weekend, Dan Grovatt (So., Tabernacle, N.J.) leads the Cavaliers with a .399 batting average. That mark is tied for third in the ACC. Jarrett Parker (So., Stafford, Va.) and Phil Gosselin (So., West Chester, Pa.) ranks eighth (.383) and 10th (.374), respectively, in the ACC in batting.
Virginia continues to lead the conference in batting (.349) and pitching (3.17). UVa also is tops in the ACC in stolen bases with 79 stolen bases. NC State is the only team in the ACC to have attempted more stolen bases (80) than the Cavaliers have stolen.
VCU is 18-14 this year (6-6 CAA) after dropping two of three to No. 25 George Mason over the weekend at The Diamond. Joe Van Meter (.364) and Matt Leskiw (.363) top the team in batting average, while Andrew Dimino (.354) and Doug Otto (.350) are not far behind. The Rams are batting .313 as a team and have a 5.60 team earned run average.
The teams last played on March 25, 2008, with the Cavaliers scoring a 5-3 win at home. UVa leads the all-time series, 28-19, and has not lost to the Rams since 2003. The Cavaliers last played at The Diamond in 2007 and came away with an 8-1 win.
Georgetown is 11-24 (4-11 Big East) after losing two of three games at Connecticut last weekend. The Hoyas will face UMBC Tuesday evening before their trip to Davenport Field on Wednesday. Erick Fernandez leads the squad with a .371 batting average. The Hoyas are batting .275 as a team and have a 6.32 team ERA.
The Hoyas and Cavaliers played one year ago to the day in Charlottesville, with Virginia prevailing, 9-1. The all-time series is tied at 16-16.
The Cavaliers will play at home this weekend with an ACC series against North Carolina State. The teams will play at 7 p.m. Friday and 1 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. Temperatures are forecast to be in the 70s and 80s for the entire weekend.