In 2004, an underdog Cavalier baseball squad swept ACC favorite Georgia Tech in Atlanta, breaking a five-game losing streak against the Yellow Jackets. The series provided a signature win for coach Brian O'Connor during his first season with the team.
"That was a statement that ... Virginia baseball is here," O'Connor said.
Seven years and more than 300 wins later, O'Connor and the No. 1 Cavalier team return to Atlanta, facing No. 8 Georgia Tech with similarly high stakes. The series pits the ACC's top two teams against each other in a marquee midseason showdown.
Virginia (29-2, 11-1 ACC) has compiled a 10-game winning streak, smoking through opponents with alternating displays of offensive and defensive prowess. Last weekend, the Cavaliers swept Virginia Tech at Blacksburg, outscoring the Hokies by a 37-8 margin. The Cavaliers then won a midweek matchup against Radford at home, as reigning National Player of the Week, junior pitcher Will Roberts, brought his scoreless streak to 21 consecutive innings with a 2-0 win.
The four-game stretch featured a breakout performance from senior right fielder David Coleman, who went 7-for-11 with seven RBIs against the Hokies and the Highlanders.
"I feel like I'm seeing the ball a little better," Coleman said. "And it's always good to have a good offense behind you."
Meanwhile, the Yellow Jackets (23-7, 11-1 ACC), just dropped their first conference game this past weekend against Duke, and have dropped their past two midweek matchups.
Georgia Tech looks to rebound from that rough patch on the strength of its weekend pitching. Yellow Jacket junior pitcher Mark Pope comes into this weekend at 7-0 with a 0.66 ERA, striking out 48 in 54.2 innings. He will square off against Cavalier junior ace Danny Hultzen, who is 6-0 with a 1.36 ERA. Hultzen currently ranks second in the nation with 78 strikeouts in 46.1 innings.
"I'm really excited - we're throwing Hultzen Friday, and they've got great pitching," Coleman said. "It's going to be a good matchup."
The Saturday matchup sets Georgia Tech junior pitcher Jed Bradley, who is 3-0 this season with a 1.85 ERA, against Virginia's senior pitcherTyler Wilson, who enters the weekend 4-0 with a 1.90 ERA.
"[Pope] has great numbers ... and [Bradley] is a very good pitcher," junior catcher John Hicks said. "{Georgia Tech] has a very good staff, and they've always been able to hit the ball very well. [It's] going to be a fun series, two good teams going at it."
The Cavaliers and Yellow Jackets lead the ACC with 11-1 records, setting the weekend up as critical for the Cavaliers to repeat as conference champions. Virgina refuses, however, to differentiate this ACC team from any other in the league.
"Every weekend that we go out there we play a good team in the ACC; it's one of the best conferences in the country," Hicks said. "We're just going to go out and play, and we don't think anymore of it because they're at the top"
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