Currently riding a 16-game home winning streak, the Virginia Baseball team (20-9, 6-4 ACC) will host No. 12 Miami (25-6) this weekend in a three game non-conference series.
Because Wednesday's scheduled home game versus the Virginia Tech Hokies was postponed until April 21 because of bad weather conditions, the Cavaliers' most recent action was a three-game series in Clemson, S.C. in which Virginia finished 1-2 against the Tigers, dropping the first and third games and winning the second. Following the 4-1 victory, the Cavaliers became the ACC's lone unbeaten team at home. Before their streak was broken, Clemson was a perfect 17-0 when playing at their Doug Kingsmore Stadium.
Miami is coming off a three-game series versus Oral Roberts University. The series was played in Coral Gables, Florida, and the Hurricanes won the series two games to three. After winning the first game 8-5 and dropping the second 10-1, Miami gathered to take the third and deciding game by a score of 11-8. Sophomore center-fielder Danny Figueroa led the offense for the Hurricanes going 3-for-5 at the plate with two runs scored, two RBI and his first career home run.
Virginia and Miami are meeting for the first time since the 2001 season when the Cavaliers and Hurricanes played a three-game series at Miami's Mark Light Field on April 27, 28 and 29. Virginia defeated Miami in the first game by posting a 5-0 shutout victory over the Hurricanes before falling 5-1 and 12-6 in the next two.
Miami may present a challenge for the Cavaliers in the 2003 season as well. Virginia currently stands 4-10 against Top-25 teams. In addition to the win over No. 20 Clemson, the Cavaliers beat No. 16 Richmond 11-4 on April 1 and picked up a pair of back-to-back victories over No. 25 UNC-Greensboro on March 11-12, winning by respective scores of 12-5 and 14-6. The wins over Richmond and UNCG all came in Charlottesville.
For the upcoming series against Miami, Virginia is expected to start right-handed junior Chris Gale at pitcher Friday and left-handed sophomore Andrew Dobies at pitcher Saturday. As of now, the team is uncertain of who Sunday's starting pitcher will be.
"We're still a little unsure about who is going to be our starter on Sunday," said junior pitcher/first baseman Joe Koshansky. "There are a few possibilities. We may throw Matt Avery who is a first year."
Coach Dennis Womack said he is optimistic about the upcoming series against Miami, and is moving on from the two losses in Clemson.
"I think we know what our goal is and a lot of that is just trying to win every game," Womack said. "We are trying to win as many games to give us an opportunity to get where we want to get to."
Virginia's current 16-game consecutive home winning streak is the longest known home winning streak in the program's history. The Cavaliers will attempt to make it 17 at Davenport Field this Friday at 7 p.m., and are looking to take advantage of the opportunity to extend their streak.
"We're going to try to keep that going," said senior outfielder Chris Sweet. "Tomorrow, we're going to go for 17-0 and on Saturday we're going to try to make it 18-0. We're just trying to take it one game at a time."
This home series will open a stretch of the Cavalier season, where Virginia will play nine out of their next 10 games at home.
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