Virginia Welcomes No. 10 Clemson to Disharoon Park

April 26, 2018

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – Virginia (24-17, 9-12 ACC) returns to action on Friday (April 27) as it begins a three-game Atlantic Coast Conference series against No. 10 Clemson (31-11, 14-7 ACC) at Disharoon Park.

Game Coverage: The entire series will air 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.

In addition, all three games can be heard locally on 1070 AM / 98.9 AM and on WINA.com. Links for the radio broadcast as well as the game’s live stats feed are available on VirginiaSports.com. Fans can follow in-game updates on the team’s official twitter page (@UVABaseball).

Wahoowa Weekend

The inaugural Wahoowa Weekend takes place in conjunction with the Cavalier football program’s final spring practice and features special ticket pricing for the series versus Clemson. General admission tickets for each game are available for just $2.

Game Promotions
Friday – Flashback Friday: 90s Night, pregame student tailgate behind left field bleachers.
Saturday – Princess & Super Hero Day – children in attendance in costume will be invited down to the field pregame for a parade
Sunday – Trading Card Set No. 4 giveaway to the first 1,000 fans in attendance, post-game autograph session and children are invited to run the bases. Little League day, any teams that come together can stand on the field for the National Anthem.

Friday/Sunday Parking

Fans are encouraged to arrive to the ballpark early on both Friday and Sunday’s games with the ACC Men’s Lacrosse Championship (Friday/Sunday) occurring at Klöckner Stadium and the Casting Crows concert (Sunday) at John Paul Jones Arena.

Friday: Reserved parking (permit only) will be in the Cage lot while free, first come, first served parking will be available in the U-Hall, JPJ Garage/Surface lot, McCue lot and Emmett-Ivy Garage.

Friday Map: http://grfx.cstv.com/photos/schools/va/sports/m-lacros/auto_pdf/2017-18/misc_non_event/ParkingMap42718.pdf

Sunday: Reserved parking (permit only) will be in the Cage lot while free, first come, first served will be available in the U-Hall, McCue lot and Emmett-Ivy Garage.

Sunday Map: http://grfx.cstv.com/photos/schools/va/sports/m-lacros/auto_pdf/2017-18/misc_non_event/ParkingMap42918.pdf

Clear Bag Policy
Consistent with what is already in place at Scott Stadium, John Paul Jones Arena and 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 Starting Pitchers

Friday (April 27 – 6 p.m.)
Clemson: LHP Jacob Hennessy (3-2, 3.25 ERA, 55.1 IP, 14 BB, 43 SO)
Virginia: RHP Derek Casey (5-2, 3.15 ERA, 68.2 IP, 15 BB, 82 SO)

Saturday (April 28 – 4 p.m.)
Clemson: RHP Brooks Crawford (4-2, 3.54 ERA, 48.1 IP, 12 BB, 29 SO)
Virginia: LHP Daniel Lynch (3-3, 3.99 ERA, 67.2 IP, 16 BB, 79 SO)

Sunday (April 29 – 1 p.m.)
Clemson: LHP Jake Higginbotham (6-1, 3.44 ERA, 52.1 IP, 15 BB, 40 SO)
Virginia: RHP Noah Murdock (1-0, 3.00 ERA, 3.0 IP, 1 BB, 1 SO)

Leading Off
– Like Louisville last week, Clemson comes into the weekend series on a five-game win streak.
– Virginia and Clemson split the four meetings last year, including a 10-2 Cavalier victory in the ACC Tournament. The Tigers won the final two games of the series at Doug Kingsmore Stadium in mid-March.
– The Cavaliers have won five of the last six games coming into the series, four of them have been one-run victories.
– Five of the six ACC series for Virginia this season have been decided on the final game of the weekend.
– Under Brian O’Connor, Virginia is 27-9 against Clemson and 13-2 against the Tigers at Disharoon Park since 2004.

All-time Series Notes
– Virginia and Clemson first played on April 7, 1955.
– The series loss last year at Clemson was the first against the Tigers since 2005 and only the second in 10 total series with Brian O’Connor at the helm.
– Virginia avenged its worst loss in terms of run margin of the 2017 season, a 12-1 setback in Clemson on March 19, by scoring eight runs in the first inning in a 10-2 victory over the Tigers in last year’s ACC Tournament.
– The Cavaliers are 5-1 in the ACC Tournament against Clemson and 22-8 overall in ACC play since 2004.

Providing Quality
– Virginia starting pitchers have produced 16 quality starts (6 IP, 3 ER or less) this season, 10 have occurred in the 21 ACC games this season.
– Derek Casey and Daniel Lynch each have totaled six on the season to lead the staff. Casey has produced three-straight quality outings and four of his six have come against ACC foes.
– Lynch has pitched into the seventh inning in each of his last seven starts.

Down but Never Out
– Sunday’s 2-1 series-clinching win over Louisville was the 12th come-from-behind win of 2018 for the Cavaliers.
– The late inning rally was the second time in three weeks Virginia has mounted a comeback in the eighth inning or later to clinch a series. The Cavaliers scored four runs over its final two turns at the plate to defeat rival Virginia Tech on April 8 and scored two in the ninth to defeat Louisville last Sunday.
– Virginia has played in 16 one-run games this season and owns a 10-6 record in those contests.
– Brendan Rivoli has been in the thick of three, late game rallies. He tied the game against Virginia Tech with a triple in the bottom of the ninth of an eventual 6-5 walk-off win, delivered a walk-off double down the right field line to top George Washington in the 12th inning on April 17 and put Virginia ahead 2-1 with a run-scoring single in the top of the ninth against Louisville.

ACC/National Rankings
– The Virginia pitching staff ranks fourth in the country in strikeouts per nine innings (10.5) and seventh in shutouts (6). Three of the six shutouts have come against ACC cohorts.
– Virginia has struck out 10 or more batters in 26 games and own a 16-10 record when fanning 10-plus batters.
– As a team, the Cavaliers rank fourth in the league in hits with 381 and fifth among ACC teams with a .271 team batting average.
– Andy Weber is the conference’s third-best hitter with a batting average of .359. He ranks second in the league with 16 doubles, second in hits (60), fourth in total bases (89) and fifth in RBI (37).
– Derek Casey (82) and Daniel Lynch (78) are ranked second and fourth in the ACC in strikeouts.
– In ACC play this season, Cayman Richardson is batting .375, the third-highest average in the conference. Six of his seven multi-hit games have been in league play including a four-hit effort against Virginia Tech on April 6.
– As a team Virginia has struck out the least of any ACC team, 236 times. Only two others, Notre Dame and Louisville, have gone down on strikes less than 300 times.

Player Notes/Trends
– Bennett Sousa recorded the save in game two against Louisville and was credited with the win in the series finale. He pitched 3.2 innings of scoreless relief in the two contests and struck out six batters of the seven batters he faced in the middle game.
– Richardson had his 15-game hit streak come to a close in the finale against Louisville. He was the third Cavalier to run a streak past 10 games this season (Eikhoff-16, Weber-13, Novak-11).
– With a single in the top of the ninth to start the game-winning rally on Sunday, Weber extended his reached-base streak to 27 games.
– Richardson had three of the team’s four outfield assists in last weekend’s series against Louisville. He leads the team with seven in 24 outfield starts this season .
– Including Sunday’s game-winning RBI, freshman Brendan Rivoli has 10 RBI in 16 games as the team’s designated hitter, the most of any other Cavalier.

Noting Clemson
– The Tigers won both of its midweek games, coming away with wins over Kennesaw State (9-4) and Presbyterian (14-4) at Doug Kingsmore Stadium. Clemson swept Wake Forest in Winston-Salem last weekend and have series victories over Georgia Tech (3-0), Louisville (2-1), Boston College (3-0) and Notre Dame (2-1) this season.
– The Tiger lineup does not feature a hitter with a batting average over .300 but are fifth in the country in home runs (61) and seventh in the nation in walks (235).
– The power-hitting duo of two-time All-American Seth Beer and senior Chris Williams have combined to hit 22 home runs, 11 each.
– Clemson has used the same three starting pitchers Jacob Hennessy, Brooks Crawford and Jake Higginbotham have used the same rotation in that order for all 10 weekend series in 2018.