Charlottesville, VA (cvillerightnow.com): Virginia Baseball, despite their best efforts against Liberty this past Tuesday, have their backs against the wall in the ACC.  The Hoos are 12-11 going into a three-game series against the #20 Stanford Cardinal at Disharoon Park this weekend.   UVA’s current five game losing streak is the joint-longest in the 21 years of Brian O’Connor’s tenure as Head Coach of Virginia Baseball.  They will need to break it facing one of the better hitting teams in the ACC.   

The Cardinal, as they prepare themselves for their first ever appearance at Disharoon Park, enter play 16-6 on the season. They are fresh off of a tough conference sweep at the hands of the California Golden Bears last week at home, the Bears being a squad that lost two of three to the Cavaliers.    The Cardinal are hitting .304 as a unit, five of their nine regular starters are hitting over .300, and only one has an on-base percentage under 38%.    The core is led by senior infielders Temo Becerra, who leads the team with a .351 average, Trevor Haskins, team homerun leader with 7, sophomore outfielder Brady Reynolds, who has the top slugging percentage amongst regular starters with .632, and the most hyped-up freshman in recent memory in college baseball, fresh from dominance of the Koshien High School Baseball tournament in Japan, Rintaro Sasaki, top three in most offensive categories on the team.  The hitters have won Stanford the 16 games they’ve won, and their vulnerabilities lie in the starting pitching staff.   Opposing hitters have not put up excellent numbers against Stanford’s three starters, Matt Scott, Christian Lim, and Joey Volchko (oppBA hovering around .260 for all three).  However, none of their respective ERAs (4.71, 7.39, and 6.56 respectively) are low enough to breath easy when their on the mound, and all three have struggled giving up extra base hits (16 doubles and 5 triples between them).  They have done well at keeping the ball in the yard, but games have gotten away from them early on, and their excellent bullpen is not able to factor into the result.  Ben Reimers has a 1.80 ERA and a .180 OppBA in nine appearances. Ty Uber is pitching to a 1.65 ERA and a .158 OppBA in 10 appearances.  Their best pitcher is Aidan Keenan, who in 10 apperances out of the pen, has a 0.71 ERA, and opponents are hitting just .098 against him.   

Naturally, the key to a series victory begins with starting pitching.  Stanford’s hitters are stepping up with the hot hand, zeroes on the board will be key to establishing momentum for Virginia.  The Hoos have been excellent scoring in the early innings this year as well (especially the second inning), and should they strike with hot iron, they can neutralize Stanford’s bullpen early, taking control of the game and keeping it.  If Stanford wins any games at the Dish, they will win it late, or in the middle innings.  Should Virginia’s offense swing the bat early, and the starting pitchers can make it through five innings without major issues, they will be able to break the streak.  Tonight at 7:00pm, its a matchup between aces, Jay Woolfolk vs Matt Scott.  Christian Lim takes on Tomas Valincius on Friday at 6:00pm.  Finally, Joey Volchko battles Evan Blanco on Saturday at 1:00pm.  We will have pregame coverage 15 minutes before games one and two here on Cvillerightnow.com, but we will only be carrying two of three games of the series on WINA.  Its a simple fix though, head to the Dish live if you can on Saturday and check back with us for written postgame coverage following the game!