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No. 1 Wahoos Travel To Radford, Host Richmond in Midweek Games
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CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – The top-ranked Virginia baseball team will play a pair of midweek games this week, as the Cavaliers will visit Radford Tuesday and entertain Richmond Wednesday. Both games will commence at 6 p.m.
WINA 1070-AM will have the live radio broadcast of each contest. The audio also will be streamed online through a subscription service at VirginiaSports.com. Radford will provide a live video broadcast of the contest (subscription required); a link will be available at VirginiaSports.com.
Because of an another event Wednesday, the John Paul Jones Arena parking lots will be unavailable for baseball patrons. Baseball parking will be available in the University Hall lots as well as Emmet-Ivy Garage.
Virginia will visit the refurbished RU Baseball Stadium for the first time since March 2, 2003, on Tuesday night. The Cavaliers played host to Radford on April 5, scoring a 2-0 win over the Highlanders as Will Roberts (Jr., Richmond, Va.) fired seven shutout innings.
Virginia won all five of its games last week to push its record to 36-3, including a 16-2 mark in ACC play. The Cavaliers are ranked No. 1 in the Collegiate Baseball poll for the fourth straight week and also have moved into the No. 1 slot in the Baseball America, NCBWA and USA Today/ESPN Coaches polls this week.
UVa has fared well in midweek games this season, winning all 11 contests thus far. The game at Radford marks the Cavaliers’ first of two road midweek games this year. UVa also will travel to VCU on May 3.
Steven Proscia (Jr., Suffern, N.Y.) comes off a big week where he hit 12-for-21 (.571) with a pair of homers and eight RBI. In recognition of his strong week, Proscia earned ACC Player of the Week honors. Proscia now has a team-high 42 RBI this year and 165 in his career as he is two RBI shy of Sean Doolittle’s school record of 167. He also moved into the top 10 in UVa history in career hits on Sunday with his 225th career hit; he is tied for 10th with Chris Kughn (1987-90).
Reed Gragnani (So., Richmond, Va.) went 6-for-12 (.500) with a team-best .687 on base percentage last week, while John Hicks (Jr., Sandy Hook, Va.) was 9-for-20 (.450) with four doubles.
With a strong week at the plate, Virginia now is batting .310 this season (third in the ACC). The Cavaliers continue to lead the ACC in ERA (2.35) and fielding percentage (.982).
UVa will start RHP Cody Winiarski (Sr., Franksville, Wis.) Tuesday at Radford. The Cavaliers have not yet announced their starting pitcher for Wednesday. Radford and Richmond have not announced starters for either game.
Radford is 21-14 overall and 7-5 in the Big South this season after sweeping a three-game series with Winthrop last weekend. The Highlanders are 11-2 on their home field this year. Matt Mack leads the team with a .385 batting average, while Matt Hillsinger is hitting .380. Radford has a .298 batting average, 4.40 team ERA and .970 fielding percentage.
Richmond holds an 18-15-2 overall record and 5-4 mark in the Atlantic 10 this season after dropping two of three games last weekend at Dayton. Mike Mergenthaler has played all 35 games for the Spiders and owns a .319 batting average and a team-best 11 doubles and 24 RBI. Richmond is batting .287 as a team, holds a 4.12 team ERA and .961 fielding percentage.
UVa holds a 16-3-1 edge in the all-time series with Radford. The Cavaliers own a 77-58-2 advantage in their series with Richmond. UVa downed the Spiders 11-3 last season in Charlottesville.
The Cavaliers remain home this weekend as they play host to North Carolina State in a three-game series.