Today, the Virginia baseball team will travel to face the Virginia Tech Hokies in a three-game series as part of the Commonwealth Challenge at English Field in Blacksburg.
This week, Virginia (24-5, 5-4 ACC) collected two wins, flooring George Mason 17-6 Tuesday before a tight victory against top-ranked Longwood, 4-3, Wednesday.
The Cavaliers brought in eight runs during the first inning Tuesday, but had to rally from an early 3-0 deficit for Wednesday's win.
"[The Longwood game] showed the depth of our bullpen," Virginia coach O'Connor said. "We can use five guys out of our bullpen, they didn't all pitch lights out, but they did the job, held the game in check and made big pitches."
After senior Casey Lambert pitched out of a bases-loaded, one-out corner at the top of the ninth, senior out-fielder Brandon Marsh came through deep in the ninth with the single score to freshman Tyler Cannon that pushed Virginia to a victory.
"[Lambert has] got his really good stuff going," O'Connor said. "He has for a few weeks, now. He's very sharp. His breaking ball is very tight on rotation. You'd like to feel that your Friday night starter is a guy that can pitch deep in to ball games."
O'Connor also said that Rule and Lambert should be ready to go Friday and Schwimer and Carraway Saturday against Virginia Tech.Reputation aside, the Hokies are 15-11 overall and 4-5 in the ACC. They are eager to prove critics wrong and move out of the middle of the ACC.
Nate Parks leads the Hokies in hitting with a .336 batting average, and Sean O'Brien closely follows at .323. Coach Pete Hughes faces the Cavaliers in his first season as a Hokie, after spending the past 12 years of his career at Boston College, where he posted a 250-181-2 mark.
Though Virginia has lead the all-time series with Tech, 76-72 with six consecutive wins dating back to 2003, the series remains crucial for the Cavaliers in the Commonwealth Challenge.
Virginia faces a different breed of competition this weekend than that of Miami or UNC.
"It's going to be a tough series," O'Connor said. "It's obviously our in-state rival, and they've been playing very good baseball. They've got confidence in themselves and we've got to come down and play good baseball. The plan is the same: clutch hits, execute, have good starting pitching, and if we can pitch deep in to ball games, I like our chances."
As for the Cavaliers, the story is in the bullpen. Virginia's roster includes a strong lineup of relief pitchers.
"There aren't many words that can describe what our bullpen has done this year," Lambert said. "We have the confidence going in that if our starter has a rough day, we have three or four guys that can come out of the pen and keep our team in the game."
Lambert has pitched dominantly during the last few games, including his performance against Longwood.
"I don't know what it is," Lambert said. "I'm feeling good knowing that my team has confidence in me. "
Lambert noted the reinforcement he receives from not only the entire team, but the coaching staff, as well.
Hitting averages have experienced a slight shift downward, but the team still manages to do what is needed to bag wins and have energy stored from the game Wednesday.
A win in the series will result in the Cavalier's 25th overall win and add a point to Virginia's tally in the Challenge.
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