No. 10 Baseball Concludes Regular Season at Virginia Tech
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CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. The No. 10 Virginia baseball team finishes the regular-season portion of its schedule as it plays at Virginia Tech in a three-game ACC series Thursday, Friday and Saturday. The first two games will be played at 5:30 p.m., while the Saturday contest will start at 1 p.m.
All three games will be carried live on WINA 1070-AM and streamed online at VirginiaSports.com through V Pass. The Thursday and Saturday games also will be available through ACC Select’s webcast.
Virginia enters the weekend with a 38-10-1 record and 15-9-1 mark in the ACC. The Cavaliers currently have the fourth-best record in the ACC with one weekend to go before the ACC Baseball Championship. The Cavaliers still are in the hunt for the Coastal Division championship and could land as high as a No. 2 seed in the conference tournament or as low as a No. 6 seed.
With two wins this weekend, UVa would clinch at least the 5-seed. Virginia Tech (30-20, 10-16) also is in the hunt for a tournament berth and needs to sweep UVa and have Duke or Boston College get swept as well in order to reach the field.
The Cavaliers continue to play good baseball. Virginia has piled up five straight ACC series wins or ties, marking the first time UVa has done so since 2007 when the Cavaliers won or tied seven straight ACC series. It is the third-longest streak of ACC series wins/ties under Brian O’Connor since 2004. UVa won six straight series in 2006.
Virginia’s offense keeps putting up big numbers. In 49 games, Virginia has already topped its 2008 total in runs (414), triples (20) and home runs (45). UVa scored 384 runs and hit 18 triples and 25 home runs last year (62 games). Overall, UVa leads the ACC in batting (.338), ERA (3.22) and stolen bases (99).
Here are the pitching matchups for the weekend (UVa starters listed first):
Thu. – LHP Danny Hultzen (6-1, 2.39 ERA) vs. RHP Rhett Ballard (7-4, 4.02 ERA)
Fri. – RHP Andrew Carraway (5-0, 4.27 ERA) vs. LHP Justin Wright (6-2, 3.73 ERA)
Sat. – RHP Robert Morey (2-0, 2.74 ERA) vs. TBA
Virginia Tech’s Steve Domecus is in line for the ACC batting crown as he leads the conference with a .408 batting average. Austin Wates is batting .381, while the Hokies are hitting .320 as a team third-best in the ACC. The Hokies have a 5.21 team ERA, which ranks 10th in the conference.
Virginia leads the series with Virginia Tech, 82-72. The Cavaliers have won 12 straight in the series dating to their last loss on April 16, 2003, in Blacksburg. This includes all 10 ACC games since the Hokies entered the conference in 2005. UVa swept a three-game series at home against Virginia Tech last season (10-1, 9-2, 2-1).
After this weekend, UVa will compete in the ACC Baseball Championship next week in Durham, N.C. The tournament runs Wednesday through Sunday at the Durham Bulls Athletic Park.