No. 21 Virginia Hosts JMU on Wednesday

March 13, 2018

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – No. 21 Virginia (10-6) will begin a six-game home stand on Wednesday (March 14) when it welcomes James Madison (10-6) to Disharoon Park. The game will be broadcast live on ACC Network Extra.

Game Coverage: ACC Network Extra is a dedicated digital channel for ACC sports which is available to authenticated subscribers of ESPN3 through WatchESPN and the ESPN app at no additional charge.

The contest will feature live stats with a link available on VirginiaSports.com. Fans can follow in-game updates on the team’s official twitter page (@UVABaseball).

Probable Pitching Matchup
Virginia: RHP Bobby Nicholson (1-0, 0.79 ERA, 11.1 IP, 6 BB, 10 SO)
James Madison: RHP Kevin Kelly (1-1, 4.61 ERA, 13.2 IP, 6 BB, 16 SO)

Leading Off
– Virginia and JMU will meet for the eighth-straight year and 69th time overall.
– The Cavaliers have won the previous eight meetings against the Dukes and 20 of the last 22. JMU’s last win against Virginia came in 2007, a 7-6, 14-inning affair at Disharoon Park.
– The all-time series against JMU began in 1976 and favors Virginia, 42-25-1.
– Virginia is 3-1 in midweek contests in 2018 and has won 19 of its last 20 midweek games.

Last meeting vs. JMU
– Then sophomore Daniel Lynch pitched a complete game and struck out seven batters in a 7-2 Virginia victory on April 19, 2017. Lynch was the first Virginia pitcher since Will Roberts’ perfect game in 2011 to go the distance in a midweek contest.
– The Cavaliers batted around and scored five runs in the bottom of the second inning. Robbie Coman delivered a two-out, two-RBI single to highlight the big inning.

Good from the Start
– Sophomore Bobby Nicholson is slated to make his third start of the 2018 season on Wednesday. In his first two starts, the right-hander has allowed just one earned run in 10.1 innings pitched.
– Nicholson made just one start in 10 appearances as a true freshman last season. He has gone at least five innings in all three career starts.

Pitching Superlatives
– The Virginia pitching staff is ranked fourth in the country with 11.1 strikeouts per nine innings.
– In the nightcap of a doubleheader against Duke, Evan Sperling (12) and Bennett Sousa (9) combined to strike out a single-game school-record 21 batters in 10.2 innings pitched.
– Senior Derek Casey has struck out 41 batters in 26.1 innings pitched, the most in the ACC and the fourth most in the country.
– Casey, Daniel Lynch and Evan Sperling have each put fourth two quality starts in four tries.

Close Calls
– Virginia has played in six, one-run games this season and own 4-2 mark in those contests.
– Sunday’s series finale was the second extra-inning contest for Virginia over the first 16 games. The Cavaliers had only played four extra-inning contests in their previous 119 games coming into the 2018 season.

Player Notes/Trends
– Senior Justin Novak is 11th on the NCAA’s toughest to strikeout list and has only fanned twice in 52 at bats this season.
– Nate Eikhoff comes into Wednesday’s game riding an 11-game hit streak. He extended it to 11 games on an 11th inning infield single in the nightcap of a doubleheader against Duke. He has also reached safely in all 16 games this season.
– Alex Tappen was 4-for-11 (.364) with two runs scored in three games against Duke. Over his last 5 games, he leads the team with a .389 batting average.
– Tappen and Charlie Cody each recorded outfield assists in Friday night’s series opener against Duke. Tappen has two of the team’s three outfield assists this season.
– Reliever Andrew Abbott recorded his second save of the season after pitching two scoreless innings in game one of Saturday’s double dip vs. Duke. The freshman struck out four of the seven batters he faced.
– Cameron Comer caught all 20 innings of Saturday’s doubleheader against Duke. In the first game the junior accounted for two of the team’s three runs (run scored & RBI) and doubled twice in the contest.

Noting JMU
– The Dukes are coming off a home series win against St. Bonaventure, narrowly missing a sweep after a 1-0 loss in the Sunday finale.
– James Madison split with Tennessee in a midweek road series on March 6 & 7. The Dukes scored 21 runs on 21 hits last Wednesday (March 7) against the Volunteers, scoring two or more runs in six of the nine innings.
– Senior Adam Sisk was named the Colonial Athletic Association Player of the Week after batting .409 (9-for-22) with two triples, a home run and seven RBI. Freshman shortstop Josh Jones was named the CAA Rookie of the Week with multi-hit games in three of his four games played last week. He leads the team with a .348 batting average going into Wednesday’s game.