Virginia (35-10, 13-8 ACC) will close out the road portion of its conference schedule this weekend with a three-game set at Maryland (20-25, 7-17 ACC). With four weeks remaining until the ACC Tournament starts in Jacksonville, the Cavaliers have won 10 of their past 11 games and are ranked as high as No. 13 in the national polls.
Virginia's recent hot streak has coincided with increased offensive productivity from two key players, freshman catcher Beau Seabury and sophomore third baseman Patrick Wingfield.
Seabury, a Washington state native, has started 40 games behind the plate this season for the Cavaliers. He has been solid in terms of both defense and game management all season, but in recent weeks his bat has picked up as well. He is currently working on a 10-game hitting streak during which he has gone 13-35 at the plate with nine runs batted in.
"About two weeks ago, [assistant] coach [Kevin] McMullan, [freshman] David Adams and I worked a lot in the batting cage," Seabury said. "We ironed some things out, and I'm feeling really good and a lot more confident at the plate. I struggled a lot early in the season with falling behind in the count. Lately, I've been swinging a lot more early in the count and getting good pitches to hit."
Seabury's greatest contributions still come from his defensive work behind the plate, and he has earned the confidence of Virginia's pitching staff.
"He's great," sophomore middle reliever Michael Schwimer said. "I don't know how many times I've thrown third-strike sliders in the third, and he's blocked it and thrown the guy out every time. It's great to know that we have a rock behind the plate who also has a cannon of an arm. We don't care how he hits. He's not coming out of the lineup."
Wingfield has started the past four games for Virginia at the hot corner, during which he has gone 7-16 at the plate while driving in five runs. The Winchester native was stuck behind Ryan Zimmerman last year and has had to battle with freshman Jeremy Farrell for playing time at third base this year. ingfield has been in the starting lineup 11 times this season.
"He's a funny guy," Schwimer said of Wingfield. "He does his job. He gets clutch hits and makes every play defensively. I can't say enough good things about him."
While Virginia holds a nine-game winning streak over Maryland since 2002, coach Brian O'Connor expects a formidable test this weekend in College Park.
"We've played six ballgames in the past two years against Maryland, and I think four of those have been extra-inning games," O'Connor said. "They've all been tight, low-scoring games. It's going to be Senior Day for them on Sunday, so it's going to be a challenging weekend ahead."
Maryland's Shipley Field features some of the smallest dimensions in the ACC, which may prompt O'Connor to tweak his normal offensive game plan. The fence is 325 feet down the lines and a mere 380 feet to dead center field.
As O'Connor's squad heads into the stretch run, every conference contest will be of vital importance towards determining seeding for the ACC Tournament to be held May 24-28. The top two teams in both the Atlantic and Coastal divisions are guaranteed the first four seeds in the eight-team tournament while the four latter seeds will be granted to the teams with the next four best records, regardless of division. Virginia is currently tied with Georgia Tech for second place in the Coastal division, two games behind North Carolina. The Cavaliers made it to the conference championship game last season after entering the tournament as the No. 7 seed.
"I don't really pay attention to the seeding," O'Connor said. "I don't think it matters. All eight teams are going to be great."
The Cavaliers appear to be on track to make a run at the school record for wins in a season. The 1996 squad under coach Dennis Womack went 44-21, while the 2004 squad under O'Connor went 44-15.
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