The Virginia baseball team hosts a three-team round robin tournament this weekend at Davenport Field as the squad looks to bounce back from Tuesday's 8-0 home loss to Liberty, the team's first regular-season shutout against a non-conference foe in more than a decade.
The Cavaliers (5-2-1) open the weekend against Wright State (1-5) this afternoon before facing Seton Hall (2-5) for the nightcap of a doubleheader. Tomorrow, Virginia plays Wright State again, and Sunday the team wraps up with a second match-up against Seton Hall.
Both Wright State and Seton Hall started last year's season with records identical to their current ones after six and seven games, respectively, but rebounded to qualify for the NCAA tournament.
Virginia, meanwhile, hopes to pick up its own play after the loss to Liberty ended a six-game winning streak.
"Our goal is to improve throughout the season," junior shortstop Chris Taylor said.
Wright State's current trajectory does not reflect the preseason expectations and accolades heaped on the Raiders. Conference coaches unanimously selected Wright State as the number-one seed in the Horizon League after it won the conference's regular season and tournament titles last year.
"We've performed very well historically against a lot of the top teams," coach Brian O'Connor said before the season. "When you're a competitor as a player or a coach, you want to play the best, and we'll certainly have that opportunity this year."
The Raiders' coach, Rob Cooper, is in his eighth year and has won the Horizon League's Coach of the Year award the past two seasons. Wright State also has 19 returning letter winners, including senior infielder Jake Hibberd.
Hibberd was named the 2011 Horizon League Player of the Year after he led the league in batting average, home runs and RBIs. He is also one of 30 candidates for the Lowe's Senior Class Award, an honor former Cavalier pitcher Tyler Wilson won last year.
Wright State looks for Hibberd to continue last year's success this weekend to shake off its rough start to the season. The Raiders' offense has struggled in the early season, only scoring eight runs in six games. Wright State lost its season opener to Monmouth, a team the Cavaliers swept easily in a three-game series last weekend.
Seton Hall, Virginia's second opponent this weekend, was fifth in the Big East preseason poll after finishing last season as the conference champion. Junior pitcher and preseason All-Big East selection Jon Prosinski leads the Pirates into Charlottesville looking to test Virginia's suddenly silent bats.
Last season Prosinski led the Big East in ERA with a mark of 1.91 while posting a 7-4 record. This season he has pitched two games, churning out a win and a loss and giving up seven earned runs.
It may take a team effort for Virginia to break through against Prosinski.
"I trust everyone in the lineup one through nine and all the pinch-hitters - everyone that comes up," freshman outfielder Brandon Downes said.
Seton Hall has an ace not only on the pitching staff but also in the dugout. Coach Rob Sheppard was NCAA Coach of the Year in 2011, and earlier this month pitching coach Phil Cundari earned Collegiate Baseball's National Pitching Coach of the Year award.
Virginia's own all-star coaching staff is not to be forgotten as it seeks to help the Cavaliers continue their strong performance despite significant roster turnover from last year's squad. O'Connor is in his ninth season leading the team and has made Virginia baseball nationally-recognized by guiding it to two College World Series appearances in the past three seasons.
O'Connor is counting on junior righthander Branden Kline to continue Virginia's tradition of strong pitching. The National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association named Kline a preseason First-Team All-American. Kline allowed two first-inning runs in his last start but settled down to go 6.1, yielding three runs on six hits and three walks.
The first pitch of the tournament will be thrown 11 a.m. today at Davenport Field.
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