The unique thing about the college baseball season is the very quick turnarounds between games. The Virginia men's baseball team will experience this aspect of the game firsthand this weekend.
Two days after falling to a surging VCU team, the Cavaliers (15-10, 4-2 ACC) will have to turn right back around and host the red-hot North Carolina Tar Heels (17-8, 6-0), who have won 11 straight and sit atop the ACC. Tonight's game will start at 7 at U.Va. Baseball Stadium.
After the three-game series, the Cavaliers will host JMU Monday afternoon and then travel to Harrisonburg to face the Dukes Tuesday.
However, their primary concern will be to contain the high-octane North Carolina offense, whose numbers thus far have been astounding.
The 24th-ranked Tar Heels put up 35 runs in two games against Towson, including six homers Wednesday. They have racked up 51 round-trippers in 25 games. Even junior outfielder Adam Greenberg, who led the ACC in stolen bases last season but had yet to have a multi-homer game in his career, got into the act, hitting three bombs against Towson. Greenberg is second this year in stolen bases with 18. Teammate Russ Adams, a preseason All-American and all-ACC second baseman, leads the conference with 26.
North Carolina senior right fielder Chris Maples, last week's conference player of the week, anchors the attack with an ACC-leading 12 homers and 35 RBIs. Maples also serves as a relief pitcher, not having allowed an earned run in nine appearances.
Virginia junior first baseman Robert Word downplayed the offensive firepower of North Carolina, saying that the Cavaliers must focus on themselves.
"You're always playing against yourself," Word said. "I don't think our strategy in the field is going to change. We just have to go out and play."
Virginia swept Duke last weekend but struggled offensively and defensively against VCU.
"Were going to have to play better than we did" against VCU, Virginia coach Dennis Womack said. "Primarily we've got to be much more efficient offensively than we were."
The Cavaliers have committed 15 errors in their last five games and will need to improve on that to beat North Carolina, who swept then-No. 1 Florida State earlier this season.
"We seem to have this problem every year about this time," Word said. "It's just a bug we have to work through."
Virginia will look for its offense to remerge as well after stranding eight runners against VCU in putting up only one run.
"We hit the ball well" against VCU, Word said. "It's pretty amazing to have 10 hits and only one run. We're just didn't play good baseball offensively."
Virginia will rely on Word and senior third baseman Dan Street to spark the offense. Street leads the team in every major offensive category with a .379 average, eight homers, 28 runs and 33 RBIs. Word is second in average homers and RBIs.
The Cavaliers also hope that sophomore pitcher Jeff Kamrath builds on his strong performance thus far, compiling a 4-1 record with a 2.30 ERA. Sophomore Chris Gale, Kamrath and Street are the likely starting pitchers for Virginia this weekend.
While the Cavaliers hope to bounce back this weekend against the Tar Heels, shutting down the North Carolina offense will be a tall order.
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