No. 11 Baseball Welcomes Yale for Two-Game Midweek Series

Story Links

March 18, 2013

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – The No. 11 Virginia baseball team returns home this week to play a two-game midweek series against Yale. The teams will play at 5 p.m. Tuesday and Wednesday at Davenport Field.

Live audio for both games will be available through a Cavaliers Live subscription at VirginiaSports.com. GameTracker links also can be located on VirginiaSports.com.

Tuesday also is a $2 Tuesday at Davenport Field, with $2 hot dogs and 16-ounce sodas available.

Parking Information
Parking will be available in the University Hall, McCue Center and Cage lots.

Probable Starting Pitchers
Virginia Cavaliers (17-2)
Tue. – Fr. RHP Trey Oest (3-0, 1.12 ERA)
Wed. – Fr. RHP Josh Sborz (1-0, 1.69 ERA)

Yale Bulldogs (1-7)
Tue. – So. RHP Ben Joseph (1-0, 1.29 ERA)
Wed. – TBA

Virginia-Yale Series
Yale has dominated the all-time series with Virginia, 44-22-3, although the programs have not met in almost 30 years. The teams’ last meeting was March 20, 1983, when the Bulldogs scored a 13-7 win in Orlando, Fla.

Cavaliers Take Two of Three at Clemson
Virginia won its series at Clemson last weekend, capturing two of the three games. It marked UVa’s fifth straight series win over the Tigers. UVa rallied from three runs down in the ninth inning in Game 1, capped by a Mike Papi (So., Tunkhannock, Pa.) pinch-hit RBI single. He then gave the Cavaliers the lead with a solo home run in the 11th inning for a 6-5 UVa win.

The Cavaliers dropped Game 2, 7-6, on a Garrett Boulware walk-off single in the ninth inning, but UVa rebounded nicely, jumping to an early 5-0 lead in the rubber game en route to an 8-5 win.

Papi went 5-for-7 with four RBI in the series. Branden Cogswell (So., Ballston Lake, N.Y.) was 7-for-17 in the series, while Jared King (R-Sr., Radford, Va.) went 6-for-15 with five runs in the three games.

In the Rankings
Virginia moved up in all the national polls this week. The Cavaliers are ranked as high as No. 11 nationally by Collegiate Baseball. UVa stands 13th in the USA Today Coaches poll, 14th in Baseball America’s rankings and 15th in the NCBWA poll.

The Numbers
Virginia ranks second in the ACC with a .311 team batting average after a strong weekend at the plate at Clemson. The Cavaliers stand third in the conference with a 2.35 team ERA. UVa ranks eighth in the conference with a .965 team fielding percentage.

Cogswell leads the team and ranks fifth in the conference with a .397 batting average. He also stands third in the ACC in walks (20) and fourth in on base percentage (.543).

Triple the Fun
Virginia is tied with Arizona for the national lead in triples with 19. UVa had a trio of three-baggers last weekend at Clemson. Brandon Downes (So., South Plainfield, N.J.) leads the team with an ACC-best four triples, while nine Cavaliers have registered a triple this year.

Noting Yale
Coming off its spring break trip to Florida, Yale is 1-7 this season. Jacob Hunter and Nate Adams are tied for the team lead in batting at .364. The Bulldogs are batting .244 as a team, own a 5.37 team ERA and a .939 fielding percentage.

Cavaliers Tough at Home
Off to a 13-1 home start this year, Virginia is 137-29 at Davenport Field since 2009. That equates to an 82.5 winning percentage. UVa was 26-10 at home last year, after setting the school record for home victories each of the previous two years (34 in 2010, 35 in 2011).

Next Weekend
UVa entertains No. 16 NC State Saturday through Monday (March 23-25) for a three-game ACC series. The Monday contest is the first installment in ESPNU’s 2013 ACC Monday programming.