Virginia Battles Florida Monday in CWS Winners' Bracket

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June 14, 2015

VIRGINIA CAVALIERS (40-22)
Probable Starting Pitcher
Jr. LHP Brandon Waddell (3-5, 4.15 ERA)

FLORIDA GATORS (50-16)
Probable Starting Pitcher
So. LHP A.J. Puk (9-3, 3.96 ERA)

OMAHA, Neb. – The Virginia baseball team takes on No. 4 national seed Florida at 8 p.m. ET on Monday in a winners’ bracket game in the 2015 NCAA College World Series at TD Ameritrade Park Omaha. The Cavaliers downed Arkansas, 5-3, on Saturday, while Florida used an 11-run fourth inning to come back and rout Miami, 15-3.

The winner advances to the bracket championship game, which is scheduled for 3 p.m. Friday. The losing team will face the winner of the Monday elimination game between Arkansas and Miami on Wednesday at 8 p.m.

Broadcast Information
The Monday game airs on ESPN2 and also will stream online via the WatchESPN app. UVa’s live radio broadcast is available on VirginiaSports.com through a Cavaliers Live subscription. A link to live statistics also can be found on VirginiaSports.com.

WINA 1070-AM and WINA.com will have the live local radio broadcast for all postseason games. Each of the NCAA regional games will air across select stations on the Virginia Sports Radio Network:

Charlottesville – WINA 1070 AM
Lynchburg – WZZU 97.9 FM
Martinsville – WHEE 1370 AM
Richmond – WRVA 1140 AM
Roanoke – WFIR 107.3 FM/ 960 AM
Staunton – WTON 94.3 FM

Virginia and Florida Square Off in Winners’ Bracket
Virginia and Florida are meeting for the first time in 26 years. The Gators own a 4-1 series edge. The programs last met March 8 and 9, 1989, in Gainesville. Florida won both games convincingly by 13-6 and 18-0 counts.

The teams have met twice previously in NCAA tournament play, with both coming in the 1985 NCAA Atlantic Regional in Coral Gables, Fla. Virginia won the tournament opener, 14-1, on May 24 but the Gators bounced UVa from the regional with a 15-2 win on May 26.

UVa-Florida Connections
Both coaching staffs have ties to the opposing schools. UVa assistant coach Karl Kuhn graduated from Florida in 1992 and played one season at UF (1990) after starting his career at Valencia Community College, where he played from 1987-89.

Florida head coach Kevin O’Sullivan lettered at UVa in 1990 and 1991 and returned to serve as then-head coach Dennis Womack’s pitching coach in 1996 and 1997. UVa won its first-ever ACC tournament title in 1996 in reaching the third NCAA tournament in program history (and the last before the Brian O’Connor tenure).

Thrill Seekers in NCAA Tournament
Virginia has scored the go-ahead runs in the seventh inning or later in each of its six NCAA tournament wins this season. UVa has come from behind in each of its last five wins. UVa has scored the eventual winning run in its last at-bat in three of those games (SDSU, USC regional championship, Maryland G2 super regional). UVa has scored 28 of its 38 runs in the NCAA tourney after the fifth inning.

Aggressive Cavaliers Fire Up the Running Game
Virginia stole five bases against Arkansas, matching a season high set on March 17 against Towson. UVa attempted eight stolen bases – its most since April 7, 2010, against Radford.

Daniel Pinero stole a career-high three bases, most ever by a UVa player in an NCAA tournament game. It was the first three-stolen base game by a player in the CWS since 2004. He had six steals on the season prior to Saturday.

UVa had stolen four bases in the previous 17 games and 38 for the season coming into the CWS.

Noting Florida
The Gators have won 10 straight games to reach the 50-win plateau. They are batting .300 as a team, led by Josh Tobias at .370. Shortstop JJ Schwarz is batting .335 with a team-leading 18 homers and 73 RBI. Harrison Bader has cranked 15 homers and driven in 62 runs. The Gators also have a strong pitching staff which owns a 3.20 team ERA, as well as one of the nation’s top defenses with a .985 fielding percentage.