No. 16 Virginia Continues ACC Play at Florida State

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – No. 16 Virginia (5-3, 1-2 ACC) will begin a three-game series at Florida State (2-4, 0-3 ACC) on Friday (March 5). First pitch for the opener is set for 6 p.m. and will air live on ACCNX. 

Game Coverage: All three games in the series will be carried on ACCNX, available to authenticated subscribers of ACC Network via the ESPN App. In addition, Friday’s and Sunday’s game can be heard locally in Charlottesville on WINA 98.9 FM/1070 AM and anywhere on WINA.com. Links for broadcasts and in-game live stats are available on VirginiaSports.com. Fans can also follow the Virginia baseball official twitter account (@UVABaseball) for in-game updates.

PROBABLE STARTING PITCHERS

Friday – 6 p.m.

Virginia – LHP Andrew Abbott (1-1, 2.13 ERA, 12.2 IP, 2 BB, 15 SO)
Florida State – LHP Parker Messick (0-2, 7.36 ERA, 7.1 IP, 5 BB, 12 SO)

Saturday – 2 p.m.

Virginia – RHP Griff McGarry (0-1, 3.00 ERA, 9.0 IP, 5 BB, 18 SO)
Florida State – RHP Bryce Hubbart (1-1, 3.18 ERA, 5.2 IP, 2 BB, 11 SO)

Sunday – 1 p.m.

Virginia – RHP Mike Vasil (2-0, 0.00 ERA, 12.0 IP, 0 BB, 11 SO)
Florida State – RHP Conor Grady (1-0, 4.82 ERA, 9.1 IP, 5 BB, 10 SO)

LEADING OFF

• ACC play resumes for the Cavaliers after three-straight one run affairs at North Carolina last weekend.
• Virginia will play three of its five road games in the month of March this weekend at Florida State. Virginia returns home on Tuesday to open up a season-long, eight-game home stand.
• The Cavaliers come into the series having allowed three or less runs to six of its eight opponents.
• Florida State has won six of the last 10 meetings against Virginia, including a 3-2 extra-inning loss in the 2018 ACC Tournament.
• Under head Coach Brian O’Connor, the Cavaliers are 291-182-1 in ACC play. His 291 wins are the 8th most in league history and third most among active ACC coaches. His winning percentage (.615) in ACC play is the sixth-highest in league history and second-highest among active ACC coaches (min. 4 seasons).

AGAINST THE SEMINOLES

• Florida State owns 57-30 advantage in the all-time series that began in 1972. Since Brian O’Connor took over the program in 2004, Virginia is 22-22 against the Seminoles.
• In Virginia’s last trip to Tallahassee in 2017, it dropped the opener 6-4 before rallying to win the series winning game two, 8-2 and the finale, 7-5.
• No one on the current roster Virginia has played at Dick Howser Stadium

ON THE HILL

• All three starting pitchers last weekend – Andrew Abbott, Griff McGarry and Mike Vasil – pitched five or more innings and allowed three or fewer runs.
• The Cavalier pitching staff has limited its opponents to three or less earned runs in six of the first eight games this season. Without the nine earned runs allowed to the UConn offense on Feb. 20, the Virginia pitching staff holds an ERA of 1.48.
• Converted to a starting pitcher in 2021, Abbott produced his first career quality start, going a career-high seven innings, allowing three runs against North Carolina. The lefthander struck out six batters in his fifth career start.
• Saturday starting pitcher Griff McGarry produced his second-straight nine-strikeout performance to start the season last weekend at North Carolina. Six of his nine strikeouts came in the second and third innings. He is the first UVA pitcher to have nine or more strikeouts in his first two starts of the year since Danny Hultzen in 2011.
• Mike Vasil improved to 2-0 on the young season and produced his fifth-straight quality start to help Virginia salvage the series at UNC. He sat down 11-straight batters after surrendering a leadoff single to start the game.
• Vasil is the only pitcher in college baseball with 12 innings pitched, no walks and no earned runs.
• As a staff Virginia is tied 13^th in the country in strikeouts with 94 and ranked 17^th with 12.1 strikeouts per nine innings

MIDWEEK MADNESS

• Virginia erupted for 11 runs against George Washington in its lone midweek contest of the week.
• The Cavaliers have won 18-straight games against midweek opponents dating back to the 2019 season.
• Similar to VMI on Feb. 23, George Washington played it first game of the 2021 season at Disharoon Park.
• Seven Cavalier pitchers did not surrender an earned run in the 11-1 victory over the Colonials.
• Starting pitcher Nate Savino retired the first 10 batters he faced and pitched a career-high 4.2 innings.

CLOSE CALLS

• The Cavaliers were involved in five, one-run decisions in their first seven games of the 2021 season, matching a school record set in 1938 and 1951.
• Virginia and North Carolina were engaged in three, one-run affairs last weekend in Chapel Hill. The Cavaliers took the finale, 3-2 behind the fourth-straight quality start from Mike Vasil and a two-run homer by Nic Kent.
• It marked the first time Virginia played an ACC series with each game decided by a run since 2018 when it played six-straight starting with Louisville on the road and ending with a three-game set against Clemson at Disharoon Park.
• The Cavaliers have played a total of six ACC series in which all three games were decided by a run in the Brian O’Connor era.

TRENDING

• Nic Kent recorded his 100^th career hit on Tuesday as part of his team-best fifth two-hit game of the 2021 season. On the basepaths he swiped his fourth bag of the year and has been successful in his last 10 attempts dating back to 2019.
• Reliever Blake Bales is tops in the ACC with five appearances out of the bullpen. He has not allowed a run in five innings pitched and has fanned 10 of the 18 batters he’s faced this season.
• Closer Stephen Schoch has saved three games this year, tied for the most in the ACC. He has eight saves in a Cavalier uniform and his 21 career saves are tied for the third most among active pitchers in the NCAA.
• Marc Lebreux walked in the sixth inning of Tuesday’s win over George Washington and extended his reached base streak to 23 games. Both Lebreux and Zack Gelof have reached base in all eight games this season.