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Baseball
Virginia Travels to No. 4 NC State for Weekend ACC Series
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Leading Off
• Virginia and NC State both come into the weekend with six-game win streaks, the longest current streaks in the ACC. Only 10 teams in DI college baseball have win current win streaks of six games or more.
• NC State will be the fourth nationally ranked opponent the Cavaliers have faced this season and the first since opening weekend at the MLB4 Collegiate Baseball Tournament.
• Virginia is 0-3 against ranked opponents in 2019 and went 2-6 last season. The last Virginia win over a ranked opponent came against NC State last season in the ACC Tournament.
• Virginia and NC State are the top two teams in the ACC in terms of average, both batting .297 as a team going into the weekend.
• NC State owns a 119-78-1 all-time record against Virginia in a series that was first played in 1903. Saturday’s game will be the 200th meeting between the two programs. North Carolina is the only other school Virginia has played 200 times.
• Head Coach Brian O’Connor has a winning record against all but two ACC schools – NC State (18-24) & North Carolina (25-26).
Midweek Recap
• Virginia matched a season-high, 17 hits in a 13-4 win over Longwood on Tuesday (March 26). The Cavaliers scored 12 of their 13 runs in the three middle innings, including a six-run rally in the fourth.
• Eight of the nine Cavaliers recorded a hit in the contest, including three-hit efforts from Nate Eikhoff and Zack Gelof.
• Against Longwood on Wednesday, Virginia completed a perfect, six-game home stand with a 5-1 victory. Six pitchers combined limited the Lancers to one run on five hits. Grant Donahue earned his first win of the season after three scoreless frames.
Comeback Kids
• Virginia has erased a deficit in each of its last seven wins and have a total of 10 come-from-behind victories in 2019.
• On Friday (March 15), Virginia erased a two-run deficit in the top of the ninth, scoring three runs and taking the series opener against Georgia Tech, 9-8. The last time Virginia erased a two or more run deficit in the ninth inning or later was almost a year to the day earlier, when Virginia scored three in the 10th to defeat Boston College on March 18, 2018.
• The Cavaliers have scored 30 runs in the eighth inning this season, only the fourth inning (32 runs) has been more productive.
Last time vs. the Wolfpack
• Virginia is one of four teams (Army, Auburn, FSU-twice) to defeat NC State in the last 32 games.
• In the 2018 ACC Tournament in Durham, Virginia came away with a 4-2 victory in the what turned out to be the final game of the season for the Cavaliers.
• Derek Casey pitched into the ninth inning and struck out nine before giving way to classmate Bennett Sousa for the four-out save. Sousa stranded a pair of runners in scoring position in the eighth before retiring NC State in order in the ninth.
Gelof Trending
• Virginia freshman Zack Gelof carries a team-best 14-game hit streak into the weekend and has reached base in all 25 games this season.
• He singled in the eighth inning against Richmond on Wednesday to prolong both streaks. It marked the fifth time he’s used his final turn at the plate to extend his reached base streak alive and the third time to keep the hit streak going.
• Since 2000, he and Joe McCarthy (36 games) are the only two Virginia freshmen to reach base in the first 25 games of their career. The reached base streak is the second longest of any UVA freshman.
• Gelof has used a hit in 21 of the 25 games this season to reach base.
Team Notes
• As a team, Virginia is tops in the ACC in batting (.297) and second in the league fielding percentage (.977).
• Virginia has struck out 155 times, the fewest among the 14 ACC teams.
• The Cavaliers lead the ACC in both sacrifice flies (16) and sacrifice hits (19).
Player Notes
• Over the last 10 games, senior Cameron Simmons leads all Cavaliers with a .485 batting average with five doubles, two homers and 12 RBI. In ACC play, he is batting .455 (19-for-40), the third highest of average of any ACC hitter. He’s reached base in 11-straight games
• Sophomore Tanner Morris had two doubles in the midweek, upping his total to 12, the second most in the ACC and tied for eighth most in the country
• Nic Kent has been a multi-hit machine, recording two hits in four of the last five games. He’s 9-for-15 (.600) with three doubles, a home run and seven RBI. He’s batted ninth in 16 of the last 17 games.
Noting the Pitchers
• Reliever Paul Kosanovich leads the team with four wins, two in ACC play. He’s logged 18.2 innings in nine appearances.
• Right-hander Griff McGarry will get the start on Friday and look to continue Virginia’s success in series-opening games. The Cavaliers have won all three ACC series openers.
• Saturday starter Noah Murdock recorded his first win of the season last weekend in his second-longest outing of the year. He co-leads the team with McGarry logging three quality starts. Virginia is 4-2 in games in which Murdock starts.