After two weeks of hunting down the top teams in the country, the Virginia baseball team has become the hunted. This weekend, the Cavaliers host Wake Forest in a three-game series with hopes of defending their newly acquired national ranking.
The No. 21 Cavaliers (20-4, 4-2 ACC) are coming off a 12-0 rout of Marshall. Wednesday's win made it six straight for Virginia and the fourth victory in the Cavaliers' 10-game homestand. More importantly, the victory marked the return of the dominant pitching that coach Brian O'Connor considers key to his team's success.
"It is important to have a good entire pitching staff," O'Connor said. "You have to have those middle guys to get the ball to the closer. Those guys are going to be key guys as we continue to move forward."
If Virginia plans to continue its winning ways against Wake Forest, the pitching staff will have to do much better than they did last year against the Demon Deacons. In their ACC series opener last year, Wake Forest swept three games from the Cavaliers. Virginia surrendered 35 runs, including seven unanswered runs in a game that ended 7-6 in Wake Forest's favor.
This year, Wake Forest (18-5, 4-2 ACC) comes into the weekend series having won five straight games, including a 7-0 thrashing of High Point Wednesday. Ranked 24th in the country, the Demon Deacons are not a team to be taken lightly.
"I think the Wake Forest series is going to be every bit as difficult as the Clemson one was," O'Connor said. "They're every bit as good of a team. They've done some really good things. If we come out and play like we did last weekend, with that same energy, then I believe we'll have success. But, I know it will be a tough series. They're much improved, even from last year."
The Wake Forest offense closely resembles Virginia's in that both feature talented freshmen. The Demon Deacons are led by freshman first baseman Allan Dykstra (.325 avg, .662 slg) and freshman infielder Dustin Hood (.367 avg, .436 slg).
While freshmen like Jeremy Farrell and David Adams have been in the spotlight most of the season, Junior College transfer Brandon Marsh is starting to gain attention. The Alpharetta, Ga. native is hitting .508 with a .651 slugging percentage in the 20 games he has played. This is not to say, though, that Farrell and Adams are on the decline. Farrell is hitting .446, with a .643 slugging percentage and Adams is hitting .370 with a .543 slugging percentage.
The starting rotation will remain the same as in last weekend's series against Clemson. Sophomore Sean Doolittle (4-0, 1.15 ERA), will take the hill Friday. Doolittle will face Wake Forest's Brad Kledzik (3-1, 2.43 ERA). Freshman sensation Jacob Thompson (5-0, 2.11 ERA) will start opposite the Demon Deacons' Charlie Mellies (4-1, 3.50 ERA) on Saturday. Senior co-captain Mike Ballard (3-1, 2.67 ERA) will make the start Sunday for the Cavaliers. Wake Forest's Sunday starter is still to be determined. Game times are 5 p.m., 4 p.m. and 1 p.m., respectively.
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