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No. 3 Virginia Travels to Miami for Top-10 Showdown

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CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – Atlantic Coast Conference play continues this weekend for No. 3 Virginia (26-3, 9-3 ACC) when it travels to No. 8 Miami (23-6, 10-2 ACC) for a three-game series. Friday night’s contest is scheduled to air live on ACC Network at 7 p.m. The final two games can be seen on ACCNX with first pitch on Saturday (April 9) slated for 7 p.m. and Sunday’s finale set for a 1 p.m. start.

GAME COVERAGE: For information and providers that carry ACC Network visit GetACCN.com. Authenticated subscribers of ACC Network can also watch the entire series through the ESPN app and ESPN.com. Friday and Sunday’s contest can be heard locally in Charlottesville on WINA (98.9 FM/1070 AM) or anywhere on WINA.com. Saturday’s middle game will have an audio broadcast on VirginiaSports.com. Links to live stats are also available on VirginiaSports.com. Fans can get in-game updates on the team’s official twitter page (@UVABaseball).

PROBABLE STARTING PITCHERS
Friday – 7 p.m.
Virginia: LHP Nate Savino (4-1, 3.00 ERA, 39.0 IP, 11 BB, 43 SO)
Miami: LHP Carson Palmquist (5-1, 3.22 ERA, 36.1 IP, 15 BB, 56 SO)

Saturday – 7 p.m.
Virginia: LHP Brian Gursky (5-0, 2.61 ERA, 31.0 IP, 13 BB, 37 SO)
Miami: RHP Karson Ligon (4-1, 1.45 ERA, 37.1 IP, 14 BB, 39 SO)

Sunday – 1 p.m.           
Virginia: LHP Jake Berry (4-0, 3.54 ERA, 28.0 IP, 10 BB, 42 SO)
Miami: RHP Alejandro Rosario (1-1, 8.17 ERA, 25.1 IP, 7 BB, 22 SO)

LEADING OFF

  • Beginning Friday, Virginia will play seven of its next eight games on the road. Its lone home contest will be on Tuesday (April 12) against ODU, a rematch of the 2021 NCAA Columbia Regional Final.
  • The series between No. 3 Virginia and No. 8 Miami is the only top-10 matchup in the country this weekend according to D1Baseball. Only two other series this weekend feature a pair of top-25 teams – No. 22 North Carolina at Louisville and No. 23 Texas at TCU.
  • Virginia will play a nationally ranked opponent for the second-straight weekend after taking two out of three against then-No. 22 Georgia Tech in Charlottesville.
  • Virginia enters the weekend as the country’s No. 1 scoring offense (11.0 runs per game). The Cavaliers also tops in the country in runs (318), batting average (.336) and on-base percentage (.443).
  • The Cavaliers are ranked inside the top-3 in the country in all six major collegiate polls and garnered a No. 3 ranking from D1Baseball this week, matching its highest regular season ranking since week five of the 2015 season. The Cavaliers have been inside the top-5 of the Baseball America poll in all but one week this season.
  • A total of 25 of Virginia’s games have been decided by five or more runs. The Cavaliers have been involved in three one-run games (two losses), one two-run game (loss).
  • Virginia is the only team in the country to rank in the top-10 in batting average (1st – .344), earned run average (4th – 2.84) and fielding percentage (9th – .982).

AGAINST MIAMI

  • Virginia will visit Coral Gables for the first time since 2018 when Miami snapped UVA’s streak of seven-straight series wins against the Hurricanes (2010-2017) with a weekend sweep. The first two games were decided by one run, including a walk-off victory by Miami in 11 innings in the opener.
  • Since 2018, Miami has won nine of 10 meetings against Virginia.
  • Virginia forced a rubber match last year in Charlottesville with a 4-0 shutout in the middle game. The Cavaliers needed only one hit in the win, a bases clearing triple by Devin Ortiz that included an error allowing him to score. Andrew Abbott pitched eight shutout innings and struck out seven batters in the contest.

MIDWEEK MASHUP

  • Virginia improved to 17-0 in non-conference action with a 7-2 victory over Liberty on Wednesday at Disharoon Park.
  • The Cavaliers once again got a strong showing from two-way player Devin Ortiz who struck out five batters over 4.2 innings of work. At the plate, he was one of three Cavaliers with multi-hit efforts on the night finishing 2-for-4 with a run scored.
  • All nine batters in the UVA lineup recorded a hit in the contest. Four of the seven runs UVA scored came on two-out hits.

ON THE MOUND

  • Virginia will have three lefthanders in its weekend rotation for the seventh-straight week. Prior to this season, head Coach Brian O’Connor has never had three lefties in his rotation.
  • In addition to the fourth-lowest ERA in the country, UVA has allowed 6.58 hits per game, the fifth fewest of any NCAA team.
  • The Cavalier bullpen has been in one save situation this season, opening day against Bellarmine played in Boiling Springs, N.C. Matt Wyatt was credited with an eight-pitch save in a 1-0 UVA victory. Sophomore Avery Mabe pitched the final 3.1 innings against Rider on March 15 to earn UVA’s only other save on the season. Closer Will Geerdes has finished nine of Virginia’s 29 games and has yet to record save.
  • The Cavaliers are one of four teams with an NCAA-best six shutouts this season – Vanderbilt, UCF, Tennessee.
  • Virginia has struck out 331 batters in 260 innings pitched, the fifth most in the country. The Cavaliers set a program record with 687 last year.
  • UVA pitchers have struck out 10 or more batters in 21 of 29 games this season including 23 against Cornell on Feb. 25, the most in a nine-inning game by any team in the NCAA this season.

NOTING THE CAVALIER ROTATION

  • Junior Nate Savino has got the series-opening nod each weekend since week two of the season. He owns four of the staff’s five quality starts, including a complete game shutout in the series opener against Duke on March 11. Already this season he has totaled 43 strikeouts, a career-best.
  • Saturday starter Brian Gursky returned to the mound last weekend after skipping his start at Wake Forest due to an illness. The southpaw won his first five starts of his Cavalier career and the UVA offense is outscoring opponents 79-20 in games that he starts.
  • Sophomore Jake Berry was inserted into the rotation last Sunday after dazzling in an emergency start against Wake Forest on March 26. He tossed five hitless innings against the nation’s fifth-highest scoring offense at the time. The Cavaliers took the no-hitter into the ninth and lost it with two out on an infield single.

HOOS IN FRONT

  • UVA has trailed a total of 10 times this season. On five of those occasions, it has either tied or regained the lead in the bottom half of same inning. Two other times it tied or took the lead in the next inning. The remaining three times, Virginia did not regain the lead.

AMONG THE NATION’S BEST

  • Virginia is a consensus top-5 team for the second-straight week. The Cavaliers have climbed 16 spots in the D1Baseball poll since entering the top 25 at No. 19 on March 14.
  • The Cavaliers own a .897 winning percentage in 2022, second only to 28-1 Tennessee (.966). The Cavaliers and Volunteers, who met in last year’s College World Series (6-0 UVA victory), are the only two teams in the country with three or less losses.
  • The Cavaliers have racked up 26 wins in 29 games, the second most wins of any team in the country.
  • Sophomore Jake Gelof is the country’s leader in home runs (14), RBI (53), RBI per game (1.83), slugging percentage (.981) and total bases (101). He leads the Cavaliers and ranks 10th nationally with a .437 batting average (43-for-98).
  • Right behind Gelof in the national RBI race is teammate Alex Tappen who has driven in 44 runs, the fifth most in the country. The graduate student has already eclipsed career-highs in highs in RBI and home runs (8) this season.

CAVALIER TIDBITS

  • Alex Tappen has reached base in 28-straight games. The streak is the longest in a single season by a Cavaliers since Zack Gelof reached base in the first 28 games of his career back in 2018. He’s looking to become the 15th Cavalier since 2000 to put together a reached base streak of 30 games or more. Kyle Teel had a reached base streak of 36 games that spanned over the course of two seasons (2021 and 2022).
  • Tappen leads all active UVA players with 21 career homers, he’s the first UVA hitter to reach the 20-career homer plateau since Pavin Smith (28) and Adam Haseley (21) in 2017.
  • Catcher Kyle Teel has reached base in all but one game this season and has started every contest for the Cavaliers behind the plate. He has hit three grand slams this season and four in his career.
  • The one-two punch of Chris Newell and Griff O’Ferrall on the basepaths have helped UVA rank second in the ACC in stolen bases with 43. Newell’s 13 swiped bags are the fourth most in the ACC and O’Ferrall is right behind him with 11, tied for the sixth most in the league.
  • O’Ferrall has led off and played shortstop in all 29 games this season. He was named the Brooks Wallace Shortstop of the Week on Tuesday (April 5) after he hit .578 (9-for-17) with two doubles, a triple, five runs scored and eight RBI in four games. In Saturday’s game against Georgia Tech, he gave UVA its first lead of the series with a bases clearing, three-run double. On Sunday erased a three-run deficit with one swing, recording his first triple of the season. All eight of his RBI came in the last two games against the Yellow Jackets.
  • Junior Max Cotier recorded a career-high five RBI in the finale against Georgia Tech, three came over the course of two at bats in a 10-run UVA fourth inning. Including Wednesday’s midweek win over Liberty, Cotier has six RBI in the last two games.

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