No. 1 Cavaliers Battle Radford Tuesday on Throwback Night
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CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – The top-ranked Virginia baseball team returns home at 6 p.m. Tuesday when it plays host to Radford at Davenport Field. Winners of nine straight games, the Cavaliers will celebrate Throwback Night, as the players will wear special throwback uniforms for the first time.
Tuesday also is a $2 Tuesday at the park – all hot dogs and sodas will be $2 each.
WINA 1070-AM in Charlottesville will have the live radio broadcast. The audio broadcast also will be streamed online at VirginiaSports.com.
Will Roberts (Jr., Richmond, Va.) makes his return to the mound Tuesday night for the Cavaliers. Roberts fired the school’s first-ever perfect game last week against George Washington. It was the eighth nine-inning perfect game in NCAA Division I baseball (since 1957), the 19th perfect game of any length in NCAA Division I history, the second in ACC history and the first for any pitcher in Division I since 2002.
After his perfect game-effort last week against George Washington, Will Roberts (Jr., Richmond, Va.) has been named one of Collegiate Baseball’s National Players of the Week, as well as ACC Pitcher of the Week.
Roberts will be opposed by RHP Cassidy McDaniel of Radford; it marks the third time McDaniel has started against the Cavaliers.
Virginia is off to a 28-2 start this season, which is the best 30-game start to a year in program history and ties the best 30-game start in ACC history. This is the fourth time an ACC team has started 28-2 – Florida State began the 2007 season 28-2, while the 1977 and 1995 Clemson teams also started 28-2.
The Cavaliers continue to lead the ACC with a 2.00 ERA. UVa’s starting staff was particularly impressive last week, allowing just two earned runs in 27 innings (0.66 ERA) during four wins. Virginia also paces the conference with a .984 fielding percentage. UVa is yielding just 2.4 runs per game – tied for the fewest in Division I baseball with Texas A&M.
The Cavaliers rank fourth in the ACC with a .300 batting average. John Hicks (Jr., Sandy Hook, Va.) leads the team with a .369 batting average (seventh in the ACC), while Steven Proscia (Jr., Suffern, N.Y.) has upped his average to .331 (17th in the conference). Prosica was 7-for-19 (.368) in four games last week; Kenny Swab (Sr., Kernersville, N.C.) and David Coleman (Sr., Richmond, Va.) were UVa’s top hitters last week – Coleman was 6-for-10 (.600) with seven RBI, while Swab went 6-for-13 (.462).
Radford holds a 16-11 record this season. Matt Hillsinger is second in the Big South with a .414 batting average and tied for the league lead in stolen bases with 19. Radford is 2-2 against teams from the ACC this season, with wins over Wake Forest and Virginia Tech and a pair of losses to NC State.
Virginia leads the series with Radford, 15-3-1. The teams met once last year, a 12-2 Virginia win on April 7 in Charlottesville. The Highlanders’ coaching staff contains a pair of former UVa assistants – Brian Anderson and Kyle Werman. Anderson assisted Brian O’Connor on the UVa staff from 2005-07, while Werman played for the Cavaliers for four seasons (2002-05) and was the UVa volunteer assistant coach in 2008.
Virginia travels to No. 8 Georgia Tech this weekend for a key three-game ACC series with the Yellow Jackets. The teams will play at 7 p.m. Friday, 6 p.m. Saturday and noon Sunday.