No. 10 Baseball Entertains VCU at 7 p.m. Tuesday
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CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. The No. 10 Virginia baseball team plays its final regular-season home game of 2009 at 7 p.m. Tuesday when VCU comes to town in both teams’ last non-conference game of the year. The teams are meeting in the back end of a home-and-home series, with UVa taking the first game, 8-1, April 21 in Richmond.
WINA 1070-AM will have the live radio broadcast, and it also will streamed online at VirginiaSports.com through V Pass. Tuesday night is ’90s Night at the stadium, with ’90s movie, music and TV trivia all evening.
Virginia (37-10-1, 15-9-1 ACC) won two of three games against Duke last weekend, marking the fifth straight ACC series that UVa has won or tied. John Hicks (Fr., Sandy Hook, Va.) had a big weekend, going 6-for-13 with two homers and six RBI. Jarrett Parker (So., Stafford, Va.) went 6-for-14 with a grand slam, five RBI and four runs scored.
With 37 wins, the Cavaliers are one of just 12 teams in the nation to boast 37 or more wins this season. Coastal Carolina (39) and Arizona State, George Mason, Kansas State, LSU and North Carolina (38 each) are the only teams to have more victories in 2009.
Virginia is finishing another successful season at Davenport Field. UVa has amassed a 28-6 mark at home this year, including a 20-1 record in non-conference games.
Doug Otto and Matt Leskiw, each with .352 batting averages, top VCU (20-22, 8-13 CAA) in batting. Joe Van Meter also is hitting .346, while Justin Wright has a team-high eight homers and 39 RBI. The Rams dropped two of three to Old Dominion last weekend.
In the April 21 UVa win, Steven Proscia (Fr., Suffern, N.Y.) hit a grand slam as part of a 2-for-5, five RBI performance. Hicks, Danny Hultzen (Fr., Bethesda, Md.) and David Coleman (So., Richmond, Va.) each added a pair of hits. Matt Packer (Jr., Germantown, Tenn.) started and pitched five scoreless innings to earn the win.
Virginia wraps up the regular season with a three-game ACC series Thursday through Saturday at Virginia Tech. The teams will play at 5:30 p.m. Thursday and Friday and 1 p.m. Saturday.
Virginia Factoids
– UVa has won or tied five straight ACC series for the first time since 2007 when the Cavaliers won or tied seven straight. It is the third-longest streak of ACC series wins or ties under Brian O’Connor since 2004. UVa won six straight series in 2006.
– Dan Grovatt has an 11-game hitting streak in ACC play. Overall he is riding an eight-game streak, marking his third hitting streak of eight games or more this season.
– In 48 games, Virginia has already topped its 2007 total in runs (410), triples (20) and home runs (45). UVa scored 384 runs and hit 18 triples and 25 home runs last year (62 games).
– Jarrett Parker is having a season for the record books. His 2009 totals in runs (66 1st), doubles (18 T8th), triples (5 T6th), home runs (14 T 5th) and total bases (143 T-3rd) all rank among the top 10 in UVa single-season history. He is just shy of the top 10 in RBI and stolen bases.
– Virginia continues to lead the conference in batting (.342), pitching (3.26) and stolen bases (95).
– Parker’s grand slam Sunday was the Cavaliers’ fourth this season. UVa had four grand slams in the previous four seasons combined.
– John Hicks made his first career appearance in left field on Sunday. He played first base, catcher and left field in his three starts this weekend.