Virginia Travels to Clemson for Weekend Series

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – Virginia (14-14, 6-12 ACC) will be on the road this weekend for a three-game series at Clemson (14-11, 8-7 ACC) beginning Friday (April 9). The series is opener will be carried live on ACCNX. Game two on Saturday (April 10) will be broadcast live on ACC Network while the series finale on Sunday (April 11) can be seen live on ESPN2.

NOTE: Due to forecasted inclement weather this weekend, the Virginia vs. Clemson baseball series at Doug Kingsmore Stadium has revised start times for the Friday and Saturday games.

• Friday – 3 p.m. on ACCNX (was previously 6 p.m. on ACCN)
• Saturday – 7 p.m. on ACCN (was previously 8 p.m.)
• Sunday – 1 p.m. on ESPN2 (as scheduled)

Game Coverage: ACC network is available through participating TV providers. For more information on how to get ACC Network, visit GetACCN.com. In addition, Friday’s and Sunday’s games 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 – 3 p.m.
Virginia: LHP Andrew Abbott (3-4, 2.49 ERA, 43.1 IP, 15 BB, 59 SO)
Clemson: RHP Mack Anglin (0-1, 3.07 ERA, 14.2 IP, 4 BB, 23 SO)

Saturday – 7 p.m.        
Virginia: RHP Mike Vasil (4-2, 2.54 ERA, 39.0 IP, 4 BB, 40 SO)
Clemson: LHP Keyshawn Askew (1-0, 1.83 ERA, 19.2 IP, 2 BB, 25 SO)

Sunday – 1 p.m.
Virginia: LHP Nate Savino (1-1, 1.93 ERA, 14.0 IP, 5 BB, 12 SO)
Clemson: RHP Nick Hoffman (3-0, 4.57 ERA, 21.2 IP, 1 BB, 16 SO)

LEADING OFF

• Virginia comes into the series winners of three-straight games, its first three-game win streak of the season and the first since stringing together three consecutive wins to close out the 2020 season.
• The Cavaliers finish a stretch that includes seven road games in a 13-days this weekend. The Cavaliers return home Wednesday to take on Old Dominion and will play nine of the next 10 at Disharoon Park.
• Clemson is the first team not ranked inside the D1Baseball Top 25 that Virginia will play on the Weekend since ACC play started.
• Virginia is 5-6 on the road in 2021 and has won three of the last four away from Charlottesville.

MIDWEEK NOTES

• Virginia climbed back to the .500 mark for the first time since March 17 with a 7-6, 12-inning win over William & Mary on Tuesday at Disharoon Park.
• The Cavaliers registered their third comeback win of the season, rallying from two runs down in the ninth to stay unblemished at home (5-0) against midweek opponents.
• Devin Ortiz delivered a one-out, two-run double in the bottom of the ninth to tie the game at six and Zack Gelof drove in the game-winning run in the 12^th on a bases loaded sacrifice fly. It was the first Cavalier walk-off since 2018.
• William and Mary put the go-ahead run on in the 10^th, 11^th and 12^th innings but the combination of Stephen Shoch, Luck Schauer and Matt Wyatt did not allow a run to score. Wyatt was credited with the win, pitching the final 1.1 innings.

AGAINST CLEMSON

• The Tigers own a 108-56 advantage in the all-time series that was first played in 1955. Under Brian O’Connor, Virginia is 27-12 against Clemson.
• This weekend will be Virginia’s first visit to Clemson since 2017. The Cavaliers have won three of the last four series at Clemson.
• The two schools played three, one-run games in their last ACC series against one another in 2018. It marked a stretch of six consecutive one-run contests against ACC opponents for UVA that season.
• Clemson has won five of the last six against Virginia, its only blemish coming in thee 2017 ACC Tournament, a 10-2 UVA victory.

ON THE MOUND

• As a staff, Virginia has struck out 296 batters, the 10th most in the NCAA this season. Collectively, its 10.7 strikeouts per nine innings ranks 24^th in all of college baseball.
• Two of the lowest six ERAs among qualified ACC pitchers will start on the mound this weekend for Virginia. Andrew Abbott carries a 2.49 ERA and is the fourth-lowest ERA in the league while Mike Vasil’s 2.52 ranks sixth.
• Through 28 games this season, Virginia pitchers own a staff ERA of 3.58 the second lowest in the ACC. The Cavaliers and Florida State are the only two teams in the league with three shutouts this season.
• Andrew Abbott comes into Friday with 224 career strikeouts, nine shy of cracking Virginia’s top-10 all-time. His 13.29 strikeouts for nine innings are the third highest among active NCAA pitchers. The lefty ranks second in the league in strikeouts (59) and third in innings pitched (43.1)
• Saturday night starter Mike Vasil has produced a quality start in five of seven chances this season. He has not walked a batter in consecutive starts and has the lowest walks per nine innings ratio (0.92) in the ACC.
• Nate Savino will make his first ACC start of the season and second of his career. Virginia is 6-0 in his six career starts, including a 10-3 series clinching win over NC State in 2020.
• Blake Bales pitched three innings of scoreless relief and stranded both inherited runners in the sixth inning by retiring three-straight batters. He has allowed two of his 16 inherited runners to score this season and has yet to allow an earned run in 22.1 innings.

NOTES/TRENDS

• Virginia is 4-1 in its last five games and averaging 7.6 runs per game in that span.
• The Cavaliers sport a .977 fielding percentage, the fourth-highest in the league. Virginia has committed just two errors in the last five games.
• In the last 10 games, Devin Oritz is batting .351 (13-for-37) with three homers, 13 RBI and 10 runs scored. The first baseman has scored a run and hit safely in his last eight games.
• Senior Alex Tappen was 5-for-6 with three doubles, four runs scored and 2 RBI against Georgia Tech. He doubled in each game, two of them came as a pinch-hitter. He is sitting on 99 hits for his career.
• Zack Gelof produced has produced back-to-back three-RBI efforts including the walk-off sacrifice fly to win on Tuesday. He leads the team with six multi-RBI games and has put together multi-hit efforts in three of his last four games.