After a very hot start in extremely cold weather, the Virginia baseball team will look to build on its 2-0 record when it hosts the Old Dominion Monarchs. The contest is the first home game of the season for the Cavaliers.
Not even the biggest snowstorm of the year could cool the Cavaliers off this past weekend, although it did cause Saturday's game against Coastal Carolina to be cancelled.
Virginia started its season Friday at the Springmaid Beach Resort Tournament with a 5-3 victory over the Citadel. In the second game of the tournament, Virginia unleashed an offensive onslaught. The Cavaliers pounded out 16 hits en route to an 8-3 victory. After allowing just one hit through seven and two-thirds innings, Virginia ran into some trouble in the ninth when Shooter Hunt began to struggle. The freshman gave up two runs on three hits and threw a wild pitch in two-thirds of an inning. Despite Hunt's struggles, coach Brian O'Connor remains optimistic regarding Hunt's future.
"It was his first college performance and he will have great days ahead for us," O'Connor said. "We have complete confidence in him."
Lambert, traditionally the team's closer, echoed O'Connor's sentiments.
"Shooter's going to be fine," Lambert said. "It was just one of those first-time jitters, but we know he will do fine and pitch well for us this season."
After a dominant weekend, the Cavaliers are clicking on all cylinders as they head into today's showdown with Commonwealth rival Old Dominion.
Last year, Old Dominion finished only 22-33 but managed to win one of two games against Virginia. The loss left a bad taste in the Cavaliers' mouths, as it was a game many thought Virginia should have won.
"It's always tough to lose games to your state rivals," Lambert said. "We kind of let that game slip away from us. We are just going to go out there and make sure that if we get a lead that we don't let them come back."
Old Dominion is on a streak of its own as it swept Iona over the weekend to open the season 3-0. The Monarchs racked up 15 hits in game one and tallied 16 hits in game three.
It will be up to sophomore starter Pat McAnaney to cool the hot Monarch bats. The left-hander out of Syracuse, NY made his first career start against the Monarchs last Febuary. After drawing a no-decision against ODU, McAnaney finished the season 7-0 with a 1.55 ERA, good for Louisville Slugger Freshman All-America honors. O'Connor feels confident with the Syracuse native on the mound.
"He's had a great preseason and he had a great year last year," O'Connor said. "We expect him to come out and give us a good start on Wednesday."
Ironically, the last time the Cavaliers failed to win their home opener was in 2000 against Old Dominion. The two teams played to a 14-14 tie before the game was called due to darkness in the eighth inning. Virginia will not have to worry about the setting sun this time around.
"We are really excited to play our first home game" Lambert said. "It's always nice to be able to win that home opener in front of the home crowd. We're just going to look to go out there and play the solid baseball that we know how to play and if we do [that] than we should do fine."
The game starts at 3 p.m. at Davenport Field.
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