CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA (CVILLERIGHTNOW) – On the field at Disharoon Park this weekend will be a pair of ACC squads who need a conference series win badly. The Virginia Cavaliers are coming off the most disappointing defeat of their season so far, dropping their record to 12-7 after a four-run loss to the Richmond Spiders of the A-10 by a score of 6-2. The series defeat to the Boston College Eagles weeks ago remains top of mind as well.

Their opponents, the Duke Blue Devils, were swept off the West Coast this past weekend at the hands of the #18 Stanford Cardinal. The Devils did get back on track quickly with a 12-2 defeat of the UCONN Huskies on Tuesday night, but much the same as the Hoos, the Devils have not had the season their preseason expectations suggested they would.

Veteran shortstop Wallace Clark leads the hitting core. Last season, the Tulsa, Oklahoma native started all 60 games at shortstop and has yet to miss a game this season through 13 wins and 9 losses. Clark is slashing .353/.514/.532 with a 1.046 OPS. He leads the team in hits and is joint top in runs scored. Clark is about as stellar a leadoff man as there is in the ACC. Slugging third baseman Ben Miller leads the team in homers with 10 and has 28 RBIs on the year.

The Hoos are hitting better as a team at .297 compared to the Devils’ .270, but the Devils have the edge in slugging and on-base percentage (.497 and .412 to .443 and .397). As a unit, though, the Hoos have the edge in pitching, 3.77 to 5.18, largely because Virginia’s starting pitching has lasted longer in ballgames than Duke’s. The Devils have had three pitchers with more than four starts, and all have ERAs over 5. Veteran Ryan Higgins leads the way with 20 strikeouts but has not made it out of the 5th inning yet this year. Their Saturday starter, Andrew Healy, has had similar struggles. His longest start of the year was 3.2 innings against Stanford a week ago, where he took the loss.

Healy will oppose first-year starter Tomas Valincius this Saturday beginning at 4:00 PM. Third-year lefty Owen Proksch goes on Friday to take on Jay Woolfolk. Proksch has made seven appearances out of the bullpen this year and is currently pitching to a 1.64 ERA in 11 innings pitched while striking out 19. He was hit around by Stanford last Sunday but has stuff not to be trifled with.

Five regular starters are still hitting over .300 for the Hoos. It’s hard to argue the talent on display on offense, especially in those big innings against Boston College, Maryland, and California. Coach Brian O’Connor believes in his players, and they will need to find a way to vindicate their manager’s faith soon. Against a team in the exact same boat, this should be an entertaining series.

Game one coverage starts at 5:45 here on Cvillerightnow.com, with Woolfolk vs. Proksch beginning at 6:00 PM tonight (Friday, March 21st). Game two between Valincius and Healy starts at 3:45 Saturday, and Game three — which will see Evan Blanco make his second Sunday start of the year against a yet-to-be-named Duke pitcher — begins at 12:45 PM Sunday.