No. 3 Virginia hosts No. 22 Georgia Tech in ACC action this weekend

Courtesy UVA Media Relations

No. 3 Virginia (23-2, 7-2 ACC) will host Georgia Tech (17-9, 4-5 ACC) in a three-game Atlantic Coast Conference series this weekend at Disharoon Park. The series opener is scheduled for Friday at 6 p.m. All three games are set to air live on ACCNX.

GAME COVERAGE: ACCNX is available to authenticated subscribers of the ACC Network through the ESPN app and ESPN.com. In addition, all three games can be heard locally in Charlottesville on WINA (98.9 FM/1070 AM) or anywhere on WINA.com. Links to live stats are available on VirginiaSports.com. Fans can get in-game updates on the team’s official twitter page (@UVABaseball).

WEEKEND PROMOTIONS

All Weekend – Fans can visit the Sombrero’s food truck that will be stationed near the LF gate entrance.

Saturday – Emoji Day, Free Virginia Baseball Emoji Posters and Emoji themed in-game promotions.

Sunday – Youth Day face painters, balloon artists, inflatable slides/obstacle courses and collectable poster No. 2.

Sunday – Heroes Day – Active duty military, veterans and responders receive complimentary admission

Sunday – $2 Concession items – Hot Dogs, Popcorn & 20 oz Pepsi products

PROBABLE STARTING PITCHERS

Friday – 6 p.m.

Georgia Tech: RHP Chance Huff (2-1, 5.17 ERA, 31.1 IP, 10 BB, 33 SO)

Virginia: LHP Nate Savino (4-0, 2.08 ERA, 35.0 IP, 8 BB, 40 SO)

Saturday – 4 p.m.

Georgia Tech: LHP Cody Carwile (2-1, 1.45 ERA, 18.2 IP, 4 BB, 15 SO)

Virginia: LHP Brian Gursky (5-0, 2.00 ERA, 27.0 IP, 10 BB, 33 SO)

Sunday – 1 p.m.

Georgia Tech: RHP Marquis Grissom Jr. (1-2, 3.27 ERA, 22.0 IP, 12 BB, 21 SO)

Virginia: LHP Jake Berry (3-0, 2.42 ERA, 22.1 IP, 8 BB, 38 SO)

LEADING OFF

• The series between Virginia and Georgia Tech is the only matchup of two top-15 NCAA RPI teams in college baseball this weekend. As of Thursday, Virginia enters the series with an RPI of 11 while Georgia Tech comes in as No. 15
• Virginia went 16-2 in the month of March, the sixth time Virginia has won 16 or more games under O’Connor in March (2014 – 17; 2013 – 17; 2011 – 19; 2010 – 16; 2008 – 16).
• Georgia Tech will be the first opponent this season ranked inside the D1Baseball.com Top-25 poll. Virginia went 5-10 against ranked foes in the 2021 regular season.
• UVA comes into the weekend with a school record, 19-straight wins at home.
• The 19 consecutive home wins is tied for the third-longest active streak in college baseball (Tennessee – 25; North Carolina – 21; UConn – 18)
• This weekend’s series pits two of the top 10 hitting teams in the country. The Cavaliers .331 team batting average is the fourth-highest in the nation and Georgia Tech’s .321 team average is the 10th-highest in college baseball.
• The Cavaliers have matched their single season-high in home runs at Disharoon Park since the facility opened in 2002 with 38. The 2017 team hit 38 home runs in 34 games played. UVA has hit a home run in 20 of the 25 games this season and all but two contests at home.

AMONG THE NATION’S BEST

• Virginia is a consensus top-5 team for the first time this year, coming in at No. 4 according to D1Baseball.com. The Cavaliers have jumped 15 spots since entering the top 25 at No. 19 on March 14.
• Virginia ranks in the top-8 nationally in batting average (4th – .331), earned run average (2nd – 2.12) and fielding percentage (8th – .984). Only one other program in the country (Texas) is ranked in the top-20 in each category.
• The UVA offense is scoring 11.0 runs per game, the second highest scoring attack in the country. The Virginia bats also rank fourth nationally in slugging percentage (.562), fifth in hits (297), sixth in home runs (46) and sixth in on-base percentage (.440).
• Virginia earned its highest regular season ranking from D1Baseball.com 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.
• The Cavaliers have racked up 23 wins in 25 games, the second most wins of any team in the country. There are only three teams nationally with less than three losses (Tennessee – 1; Purdue – 1; Virginia – 2).
• Sophomore Jake Gelof is the country’s leader slugging percentage (1.085) and is tied for the most home runs of anyone in college baseball. His 47 RBI are one behind Carlos Contreas of Sam Houston State for the national lead.
• Through just 25 games, Alex Tappen has already eclipsed career highs in RBI (38) and home runs (8). His 38 RBI in 95 at bats are tied for the sixth most in the country.

AGAINST GEORGIA TECH

• The turning point of the 2021 season came exactly one year ago. On April 1, 2021, the Cavaliers dropped the opener of a three-game set in Atlanta, 6-5 to then No. 6 Georgia Tech dropping UVA to 4-12 in ACC play. The Cavaliers went on to win 14 of its last 21 league contests and six of the last seven ACC series to finish 18-18 in league play.
• Under Brian O’Connor, Virginia is 32-22-1 against the Yellow Jackets.
• Georgia Tech leads Virginia 76-59-2 in an all-time series that dates back to 1924.
• The Yellow Jackets visit Charlottesville for the first time since 2018. UVA has won five-straight series against GT at Disharoon Park (2010, 2012, 2014, 2016, 2018).

HOME COOKING

• Virginia has scored 10 or more runs in all but two of its 16 games at home this season.
• The Cavaliers are outscoring opponents 219-47 at the Dish this season and have recorded a pair of shutouts at their home ballpark.
• Virginia eclipsed its previous mark of 18-straight wins at home set back in 2008 when the Cavaliers won its first 18 games of the season. The win streak ended with a 17-5 loss to George Washington in the midweek.

NOTING THE ROTATION

• The Cavaliers will have all lefthanders on the bump for the sixth-straight weekend. Sophomore Jake Berry enters the rotation for the first time and will pitch in Sunday’s finale.
• Friday night starter Nate Savino has produced four-straight quality starts that include ACC wins against Duke and Wake Forest. He limited the nation’s No. 5 offense to four hits over 6.1 innings last week in Winston-Salem.
• Saturday’s scheduled starter Brian Gursky was scratched last Saturday due to illness. The graduate transfer has won all five of his starts this season and is poised to see his first action since tossing six innings of one-run baseball against Boston College on March 19.
• Sophomore Jake Berry will make his second start of his career after pitching five hitless innings last weekend at Wake Forest. The lefthander struck out a career-high nine in a combined one-hitter against the Demon Deacons. Berry retired nine of the first 10 batters, six by way of the strikeout. Berry almost pitched in his second no-hitter after getting the final two outs of the eighth inning against Wake Forest in a combined no-no with Andrew Abbott and Griff McGarry last season.

CAVALIER TIDBITS

• Alex Tappen has hit six home runs in his last nine games played. Last Saturday he went deep twice at Wake Forest, the first multi-homer game of his career. He has reached base in 24-straight games and has 21 career home runs, the first Cavalier 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 had a 36-game reached base streak that carried over from last season end against Penn State on March 6th.
• The one-two punch of Griff O’Ferrall and Chris Newell on the basepaths have helped UVA rank second in the ACC in stolen bases with 39. O’Ferrall’s 11 swiped bags are the fourth most in the ACC and Newell is right behind him with 10, tied for the fifth most in the league. Newell is averaging 1.36 runs per game, the 16th most in the NCAA.