The Virginia baseball team will try to regain their winning ways this week as they host George Mason Tuesday afternoon and Longwood Wednesday.
The Cavaliers (22-5, 5-4 ACC), currently No. 5 in the country, won this weekend's series against Miami, taking two out of three, but missed their chance for a sweep with a 4-2 loss Sunday afternoon.
"If you want to win this league, you've got to take advantage of opportunities like the one we had [Sunday], to sweep a series at home and put yourself in a good position in the league," Virginia coach Brian O'Connor said after the game.
The Cavaliers also saw their perfect home record of 15-0 fall with that loss.Virginia remains one game behind first place North Carolina in the ACC Coastal Division with a conference record of 5-4. The Cavaliers hope to start a new winning streak against the Patriots and Lancers before meeting up with ACC and in-state rival Virginia Tech this weekend. Both George Mason and Longwood are coming off weekend series wins against Georgia State and Princeton, respectively.
The Cavalier offense will try to get back on track after tallying only two runs and leaving eight men on base, including the bases loaded in the 6th inning, during Sunday's game.
"If there's anything we can look at, it's how we weren't able to manufacture runs when we had guys on base with less than two outs," junior pitcher Sean Doolittle said after the loss Sunday. "We've got to focus on the positives that we had in the first two games, especially the little things -- the way we were able to execute and win close ball games."
One such positive for the team over the weekend was the phenomenal job of the pitching staff. Friday's starter sophomore Jacob Thompson went eight innings, giving up only one run and striking out 10.Saturday, freshman Matt Packer and sophomore Andrew Carraway combined for eight shutout innings and fanned a combined 11 batters. Both days, senior closer Casey Lambert shut the door in the ninth, striking out five without giving up a single hit. Sunday saw Doolittle take the mound and throw six innings and only give up two runs while striking out seven.
The pitching staff will be tested this week, however, as the Cavaliers have two midweek games before a weekend series.
"It's going to be taxing on them," O'Connor said. "We're going to need to use a lot of guys to keep guys fresh on the mound and offensively."
O'Connor doesn't plan to throw one of his usual starters on Tuesday; rather, he will use the day to work his relievers that didn't get to throw over the weekend. Junior Pat McAnaney will start the Wednesday matchup against Longwood. McAnaney is 1-0 this year with a 1.12 ERA and opponents are hitting a mere .207 against him in two outings.
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