Charlottesville, VA (cvillerightnow.com): Virginia Baseball was one pitch away from a series victory this Sunday against NC State in Raleigh.  The offense was humming, multiple Cavaliers had multi-hit games, and the Wolfpack looked out of the game for the first two thirds of the contest, however, the home team’s bats would not stay down long.  One swing of the bat from Josh Hogue took advantage of ninth inning walks to swipe the win from the Hoos’ hands.   

 Now they will have to go against the grain once more looking to get back to winning ways facing the VCU Rams on the road tonight in Richmond.  Win tonight and the Hoos will earn a degree of momentum going into a must-win series at home against the Pittsburgh Panthers.  The Rams are already 0-5 against ACC competition this season, losing to UNC, Virginia Tech, Clemson, and Boston College.  They are 10-21 on the season with little that has gone right in the A10 slate.  They are hitting .242 as a team, with their best hitter, freshman catcher Jacob Lee, averaging .279.  He leads the team in almost every offensive category, 34 hits, seven doubles, a triple, eight homeruns, and 34 rbis.  Lee is one of the younger hitters on a young team in the midst of a transition period.  A lack of experience is not an issue on the pitching side for VCU tonight as graduate student Miles Garrett takes the hill coming off of a five hit, two-run outing last time out.  Those four innings were against William & Mary. Their top reliever is freshman Elijah Coston, who is pitching to a 2.31 ERA, and is coming off 3.1 innings against George Washington that saw him strike out 6 batters.  Whether or not the Hoos will see him today is questionable.  VCU’s staff ERA is 6.76 and opponents are hitting .283 against them as a unit.  The Rams will battle midweek starter Bradley Hodges for the Hoos.  The lefty has dropped his ERA to 1.74 over the course of some solid midweek outings as he continues to build back to full strength having missed all of 2024 with an injury.  His control has been good, and Brian O’Connor will hope it stays that way.   

 The Hoos have everything going for them in this game, an offense that has not slowed down since catching fire against Stanford, and a pitching staff needing a bounce-back performance going against a group of hitters that will likely be outmatched by the stuff they bring to the table.  Patience and composure will be crucial, this is a chance to do well what you are already doing well, and work through the problem areas of the game before coming home to the Dish for an all-important series with the Panthers this weekend beginning Friday at 6:00pm.  Pregame coverage for tonight’s game will begin at 5:45pm this evening on Newsradio WINA.