Charlottesville, VA (cvillerightnow.com): The players of the Virginia Baseball team get back into action following a week off for final exams this evening!  The Hoos have work to be done going into the regular season’s final month.  It begins tonight against Towson.  This weekend, during their final home series of the season, the red-hot Miami Hurricanes will come to town for three games.  Virginia finishes on the road, with a battle against George Mason mid-week next week, and ending in Blacksburg with three games against the Virginia Tech Hokies.  ACC Tournament Play follows the VT series no matter what happens, but insurance would be ideal for the Hoos to plan for whatever happens with the conference tournament. 

Towson is 19-30 on the season going into this game.  However, despite their early struggles, they are currently on a six-game win streak coming into Charlottesville, most recently besting the Richmond Spiders 7-6 yesterday, a Spiders team that handily beat the Hoos months ago.  This Tiger squad wins its games mostly at the plate, with five of its nine regular starters hitting at least .270.  Leading the way is sturdy catcher Brian Heckelman, top three in all relevant offensive categories, including a stellar .358 average and a team-leading 35 RBIs.  Also hitting over .300 for the season are junior outfielder Max D’Alessandro (.304), who has hit eight doubles, a triple, and a team-leading nine homeruns, and freshman utilityman Nich Francuzenko (.303), who has a solid on-base percentage at 40%.  As a team, they are hitting well at .272, and have stolen 102 bases, averaging and have scored 299 runs this season.   

Pitching is where they have struggled, with their staff ERA just over 7 and opponents hitting .286 against them.  That has had opposing hitters licking their lips.  For the Hoos, its a chance for the offense to get back into a rhythm quickly, charging up and focusing in after a week off.  This will be a team effort for sure, should the offense to their bit, that will allow for a pitching relay to save as many arms as possible for the Miami series ahead.  The Hoos are out of midweek games to drop however, so they need to do whatever it takes to win to have a chance when it comes to NCAA tournament selection to insure playoff baseball following the ACC tournament.  Pregame coverage begins tonight at 5:45pm on WINA, and first pitch at Disharoon Park is scheduled for 6:00pm.