Virginia Welcomes Towson To Disharoon Park on Wednesday

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – Virginia (7-8) continues its homestand on Wednesday (March 17) when Towson (2-12) comes to Disharoon Park for a non-conference tilt. First pitch is set for 4 p.m. and the contest will air live on ACCNX.

Game Coverage: ACCNX is available to authenticated subscribers of ACC Network via the ESPN App. In addition, Wednesday’s game can be heard locally in Charlottesville on WINA 98.9 FM/1070 AM and anywhere on WINA.com. Links for the broadcast 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
Wednesday – 4 p.m.
Towson: RHP Kody Reeser (0-1, 1.35 ERA, 6.2 IP, 2 BB, 4 SO)
Virginia: LHP Billy Price (0-0, 6.75 ERA, 4.0 IP, 3 BB, 5 SO)

LEADING OFF

• Wednesday will be the final non-conference matchup of Virginia’s eight-game homestand. The next two midweek non-conference games will be on the road before hosting William and Mary on April 6.
• The Cavaliers are 1-3 on their current eight-game homestand, their longest stint at home this season.
• Virginia comes into Wednesday’s meeting against Towson with a 19-game midweek winning streak that dates back to the 2019 season.
• Towson and Virginia meet for the first time since the 2017 season.
• The Cavaliers are 5-1 against non-conference opponents in 2021.

AGAINST TOWSON

• Virginia has won 15-straight games against Towson and own a 21-2 overall mark in the all-time series that was first played in 1982.
• All 23 meetings between the two schools have occurred in Charlottesville and all but three games have occurred in the Brian O’Connor era.
• No one on Virginia’s current roster was on the 2017 team that came away with a midweek sweep of the Tigers. Eight pitchers combined for a two-hitter in the series finale, an 8-4 Cavalier victory

MIDWEEK MADNESS

• In three midweek games this season, Virginia has outscored its opponents, 32-6.
• Last Tuesday against Richmond, the Cavaliers recorded their first shutout since the 2020 season opener against Oklahoma.
• The Virginia pitching staff has surrendered just three earned runs, pitching to a 1.00 ERA in the midweek.
• Five UVA hitters are batting over .400 in the three midweek games – Brendan Rivoli (.462), Chris Newell (.455), Nic Kent (.429), Marc Lebreux (.429) and Logan Michaels (.400).

NOTES & TRENDS

• Junior Billy Price will make his fifth career start on the mound the first since April 24, 2019 where he pitched the first 1.2 innings of a 2-1 victory over James Madison at Disharoon Park. The lefthander has not factored in a decision in his 14 collegiate appearances.
• The Virginia pitching staff has 180 total strikeouts, the fifth most of any school in the country. The 12.9 strikeout/9 innings ratio is the eighth-highest in the country.
• Through 15 games this season Virginia pitchers have struck out 10 or more batters 11 times.
• In Sunday’s loss to Notre Dame, Logan Michaels registered his second four-hit day as a Cavalier with, going 4-for-4 with four singles. He coincidently is also the last Cavalier to have four hits in a game after he went 4-for-5 with two doubles and five RBI against Richmond on March 3, 2020.
• Blake Bales continued his lockdown pitching out of the Virginia bullpen this weekend with six strikeouts in a total of 4.1 innings pitched between Saturday and Sunday. He leads the ACC and is ranks sixth in the NCAA with nine appearances. Over 11.1 innings of work Bales has yet to yield an earned run and fanned 18 batters. Dating back to last season, Bales is 4-0 with a 0.90 ERA and 27 strikeouts in 21 innings pitched.
• Behind Bales in the bullpen Kyle Whitten, Zack Messinger and Matt Wyatt each have eight appearances, tied for the second most in the ACC.
• First year Kyle Teel has been the Cavaliers’ designated hitter for five of the last seven games and currently leads the team with two home runs. Both long balls came in the span of three at bats.
• Fellow first year Jake Gelof started the final two games of the Notre Dame series at second bases. In eight at bats against the Fighting Irish, Gelof racked up three hits, including a double and a pair of RBI.