/
.
Virginia Travels to No. 6 Florida State for Three-Game Series
Story Links
VIRGINIA CAVALIERS (11-5-1, 2-1)
Probable Starting Rotation
Sat. – LHP Scott Silverstein (1-1, 2.25 ERA)
Sun. – RHP Artie Lewicki (0-1, 5.09 ERA)
Mon. – RHP Branden Kline (3-2, 4.62 ERA)
FLORIDA STATE SEMINOLES (14-2, 3-0)
Probable Starting Rotation
Sat. – LHP Brandon Leibrandt (2-1, 3.44 ERA)
Sun. – RHP Mike Compton (4-0, 1.54 ERA)
Mon. – RHP Peter Miller (3-0, 1.08 ERA)
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – The Virginia baseball team returns to ACC play this weekend with a three-game series at sixth-ranked Florida State. The teams will play at 8 p.m. Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday and 7 p.m. Monday.
The series will mark the first of ESPNU’s new ACC Monday programming. The Saturday and Monday games each will be televised by ESPNU, while the Sunday game will be webcast by ESPN3. Justin Kutcher, Kyle Peterson and Jay Payton will call the action. Live statistics also will be available on VirginiaSports.com.
Winners of four straight games, Virginia (11-5-1, 2-1 ACC) comes off a pair of wins this week over Marist. UVa downed the Red Foxes 8-5 on Tuesday and 10-2 on Wednesday. The Cavaliers won their first ACC series of the year last weekend, rebounding from a game one loss to win the final two games and the series at home against Virginia Tech.
Reed Gragnani (Jr., Richmond, Va.) leads the Cavaliers with a .370 batting average, while Jared King (Sr., Radford, Va.) is right behind him at .359, while freshman Mike Papi (Tunkhannock, Pa.) checks in with a .344 average. UVa is batting .322 as a team, owns a 2.94 team ERA and a .968 fielding percentage.
Florida State (14-2, 3-0) marks the second ranked team UVa has faced this year. The Cavaliers won at then-No. 34 Coastal Carolina on Feb. 18 (Coastal has since dropped out of rankings). Virginia played 27 games against eight ranked teams last season (18-9 record). Virginia is 50-28-1 against ranked foes since 2009.
The Seminoles swept Duke last weekend in ACC action. James Ramsey leads the team with a .451 batting average and four homers, while Jayce Boyd owns a .417 average and 22 RBI. FSU has a .285 team batting average, 3.26 ERA and an ACC-best .977 fielding percentage.
Florida State owns a 45-19 advantage in the all-time series against Virginia. Virginia has won three straight series against FSU, including the Cavaliers’ first-ever series win at FSU in 2010. The Cavaliers have won eight of the last 11 meetings, including three of four in 2011. UVa defeated FSU, 7-2, in the 2011 ACC Championship Game. The Cavaliers are 5-24 all-time at Dick Howser Stadium.
The UVa-FSU regular-season series last season went down in the record books as the first ACC series where all three games went to extra innings. UVa won the series, two games to one. All three games were decided by one run. UVa won the opener, 4-3 in 11 innings, on a Steven Proscia walk-off hit. The Cavaliers took game 2, 5-4 in 11, on a King walk-off homer. FSU rebounded to win the finale, 12-11 in 10, on a Rafael Lopez solo home run.
UVa returns home at 5 p.m. Wednesday to take on VMI.