No. 24 Virginia Hosts Towson in Midweek Series

March 19, 2018

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – No. 24 Virginia (13-7) will host Towson (3-15) in a two-game midweek series beginning on Tuesday (March 20) and concluding on Wednesday (March 21). Both contests are scheduled for 4 p.m. starts.

Game Coverage
Only Wednesday’s games will be carried live on ACC Network Extra, 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.

There will be an online-only radio stream of Tuesday’s game as well as a live stats feed with links available on VirginiaSports.com and fans can follow in-game updates on the team’s official twitter page (@UVABaseball).

Clear Bag Policy
Klöckner Stadium fans attending games at Disharoon Park this season must adhere to the department’s clear bag policy and entrance procedures. Details of the of the policy can be found here: http://www.virginiasports.com/facilities/clear_bag_Davenport_Klockner.html

Probable Pitching Matchup

Tuesday
Towson: RHP Alex Cuas (0-1, 33.00 ERA, 3.0 IP, 9 BB, 4 SO)
Virginia: RHP Grant Donahue (0-0, 7.20 ERA, 5.0 IP, 8 BB, 7 SO)

Wednesday
Towson: RHP Bo Plagge (0-1, 8.53 ERA, 12.2 IP, 11 BB, 12 SO)
Virginia: RHP Bobby Nicholson (1-0, 1.04 ERA, 17.1 IP, 6 BB, 17 SO)

Leading off
– Virginia and Towson will play a two-game midweek series for the third-straight season.
– Tuesday will the 24th meeting between the two schools in an all-time series that was first played in 1982. All 24 games have been played in Charlottesville and Virginia has won 21 of the 23 previous meetings.
– Including a midweek sweep last season, Virginia has won 15-straight against Towson dating back to 2009.
– The Cavaliers come into the series having won 20 of the last 21 midweek contests including a 4-1 mark this season.
– Virginia has only four losses in its last 30 home games against non-conference opponents.

Comeback Kids
– Two of the three wins last week came in walk-off fashion, including a series-clinching 10-inning victory over Boston College on Sunday (March 18).
– Of its 13 wins in 2018, Virginia has come-from-behind to win in six of them and four by way of the walk-off.
– Charlie Cody has been at the plate for two of Virginia’s walk-off wins this season. His sacrifice fly on Sunday plated Justin Novak to clinch the series against BC and his single in the first game a doubleheader against Yale on March 3 brought home Andy Weber in a 5-4 win.
– Virginia has now played three extra-inning games this season including the finales of both the Duke and BC series.

Conference/National Ranks
– Despite a 3-1 week, Virginia dropped three spots in the USA Today Coaches Poll to No. 24 but held steady at No. 22 in D1Baseball.com’s Top 25.
– After being plunked twice in the Boston College series, Caleb Knight is now tied for 10th in the country with nine hit by pitches. He has been hit 20 times since coming to Virginia prior to the 2017 season.
– Virginia pitchers have struck out 11.1 batters per nine innings pitched, the fifth highest ratio in the country. The Cavaliers have struck out a total of 226 batters the most in the ACC.
– The Cavaliers are tied for third in the ACC with a .284 team batting average

Player Notes/Trends
– Andy Weber went 7-for-14 with two doubles, a triple and three RBIs in the three-game series against Boston College. His 29 hits on the season are the eighth most in the ACC.
– Nate Eikhoff hit his second home run of the season on Sunday and in the process extended his hit streak to 15 games. He ended up walking four times in Sunday’s game has reached safely in all 20 games in 2018.
– Coming on as a defensive replacement in the series finale against Boston College, freshman Brendan Rivoli delivered at the plate a two-RBI double in the seventh inning to pull Virginia within a run. The at bat was the first of the series and first of the week for Rivoli.
– Freshman reliever Andrew Abbott tossed a total 3.2 innings in two games against Boston College. He earned his third save of the season on Saturday (March 17) and struck out five batters in his second win of the year on Sunday (March 18).

Noting Towson
– Towson is under the direction of first-year head coach, Matt Tyner, who has spent the last four seasons as an assistant at Richmond.
– The Tigers are in the midst of nine-straight games against 2017 NCAA Tournament qualifiers. The have squared off against UMBC, Marist and will play Virginia and Delaware in the coming week.
– Over the weekend, Towson was swept at home by Marist and will come into the series against Virginia with one win in its last nine games.
– Shortstop Richie Palacios, a preseason All-CAA selection, leads the team in batting average (.348), hits (24), doubles (7) home runs (3) and RBI (14). He had his streak of 20-straight games reaching base come to an end over the weekend against Marist.

Up Next
Virginia will resume Atlantic Coast Conference play on Friday (March 23) in the opening game of a three-game series at Miami.