No. 7 Baseball Battles No. 2 UNC in Regular-Season Finale

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May 15, 2013

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – The No. 7 Virginia baseball team completes regular-season play Thursday through Saturday with a three-game conference series at No. 2 North Carolina. The series at Boshamer Stadium begins at 6 p.m. Thursday, to be followed by 7 p.m. Friday and 2 p.m. Saturday contests.

Virginia (43-8, 20-7 ACC) trails North Carolina (46-6, 20-5 ACC) by one game in the ACC Coastal Division standings. UVa needs to sweep the Tar Heels this weekend in order to overtake them for the top spot in the division and clinch the No. 1 seed in the upcoming ACC tournament, as the first division tiebreaker is based on winning percentage.

Broadcast Information
ESPN3 will have live webcasts for all three contests, while live audio will be available on VirginiaSports.com through a Cavaliers Live subscription. Live statistics also will be available on VirginiaSports.com.

WINA 1070-AM will have the live radio broadcast of all the entire series. Select stations across the Virginia Sports Radio Network will air the UVa Baseball “Game of the Week” each Saturday. The following stations will carry UVA baseball this spring:

Charlottesville: WINA 1070-AM
Richmond: WRNL 910-AM
Lynchburg: WZZI 97.9-FM
Mount Jackson: WSVG 790-AM
Martinsville: WHEE 1370-AM
Petersburg: WHAP 1340-AM
Winchester: WXVA 610-AM

Virginia in the Latest National Rankings
Baseball America, Collegiate Baseball, NCBWA, USA Today Coaches – 7

Virginia Cavaliers (43-8, 20-7 ACC)
Probable Starting Rotation
Thu. – Fr. LHP Brandon Waddell (4-1, 3.88 ERA)
Fri. – R-Sr. LHP Scott Silverstein (8-1, 3.21 ERA)
Sat. – R-Jr. RHP Whit Mayberry (4-0, 1.66 ERA)

North Carolina Tar Heels (46-6, 20-5 ACC)
Probable Starting Rotation
Thu. – Jr. LHP Kent Emanuel (9-2, 2.03 ERA)
Fri. – So. RHP Benton Moss (8-1, 2.96 ERA)
Sat. – Jr. LHP Hobbs Johnson (4-0, 1.99 ERA)

Virginia-North Carolina Series
North Carolina holds a 175-98-4 edge in its all-time series with Virginia. UNC swept the Cavaliers each of the last two years in the regular season. UVa defeated the Tar Heels, 3-2, in the 2011 ACC tournament. Thirteen of the last 17 games have been decided by three runs or fewer.

Pitching Dominates Recent UVa-UNC Series
Pitching has been the focal point of the recent Virginia-UNC series. In the teams’ 14 meetings since 2009, there has been just one instance where a team scored more than six runs in a game: UVa scored 11 runs in the 2009 ACC Tournament.

Cavaliers Hit 40 Wins for Eighth Time in 10 Years
Virginia recorded its 40th win of the year last Friday, reaching the 40-win plateau for the eighth time in the last 10 seasons. UVa had one season of 40 wins or more prior to 2004 (1996).

UVa has recorded 39 wins or more in all 10 years under the current coaching staff (39 wins in 2008, 2012). The 43 wins in 2013 ranks eighth in program history.

Noting the Tar Heels
North Carolina has been impressive this season, holding a No. 1 national ranking all season until this week, following its series loss last weekend at Georgia Tech.

UNC’s top hitter, freshman Skye Bolt, returned to the Tar Heels’ lineup Tuesday after missing a month with a broken foot. He is batting .391 on the year. Colin Moran is batting .379 with 13 homers and 78 RBI, while Cody Stubbs is hitting .365 with 65 RBI. The Tar Heels are batting .310 as a team, which ranks second in the ACC.

The Tar Heels’ pitching staff has been equally impressive; UNC leads the league with a 2.39 team ERA, with three pitchers ranking among the ACC’s top seven in ERA. UNC also has a .975 fielding percentage, which is second among league teams.

Hot UVa Bats
Virginia’s been scorching at the plate since returning from its exam break last week. UVa has hit .430 as a team in the four games since coming back, while recording double-figure hits in each game.

UVa has scored 48 runs over the last three games, its most in a three-game stretch since March 8-11, 2009, when the Cavaliers tallied 48 against Wake Forest (21), Navy (17) and VMI (10). In addition to the big hit totals, Virginia batters did not record a strikeout Tuesday and fanned just once in their last two games.

Virginia Stands Third in RPI
Virginia holds a No. 3 standing in the latest NCAA RPI report. The Cavaliers fall behind Vanderbilt and UNC. UVa is 12-6 against the RPI top 25 and 18-7 against the top 50.

Up Next
Virginia will compete in the ACC Baseball Championship next week, May 22-26, at Durham Bulls Athletic Park in Durham, N.C. The schedule for the tournament will be announced Sunday.