The No. 6 Virginia baseball team is coming off an emotional roller-coaster ride in their 1-1 series split with Georgia Tech last weekend. Virginia lost game one on a suicide squeeze Friday but then rebounded to take game two on a walk-off homerun. Since Sunday's game was canceled because of inclement weather, the team is able to take a deep breath before finishing its short home stand tonight against Richmond. This is the second time the two teams have met this season, with Virginia taking the first meeting 11-1 March 20.
Virginia (31-8, 11-6 ACC) will look to build off of the momentum they got from Saturday's game, courtesy of sophomore David Adams. With two outs in the bottom of the ninth and Virginia down by two runs, it was Adams who scorched the three-run bomb to send Georgia Tech packing. Following the heartbreaking 11-inning loss to the Yellow Jackets the night before, Adams' game winner couldn't have been more timely.
"David Adams had a huge hit obviously for us last night," freshman Neal Davis said. "It would have been nice to take both games, but we're obviously happy to come from behind yesterday and get the victory."
With all of the momentum in the Cavaliers' favor, the showdown with Richmond may appear to be a break for Virginia. This midweek game sits in between the impassioned series with Georgia Tech and what promises to be a difficult series on the road against No. 14 Clemson. The Cavaliers, however, should not see their convincing victory over Richmond (22-14) earlier in the season as a reason to take the Spiders lightly. Richmond has been streaking of late, winning five of their last seven games, including a series sweep of Temple last weekend. Virginia will have to come to Davenport Field with the same intensity they did against Georgia Tech to get the win.
"I looked at how well they've done since we played, and they've played very hot since we beat them down there, so it's a good opponent," Virginia coach Brian O'Connor said. "We're going to have to be ready to play on Tuesday night."
The probable starter for Richmond is freshman Chris Sullivan. Sullivan, who has yet to start this year, has a 4.86 ERA in 16.2 innings pitched, with an impressive 15 strikeouts. In the last matchup with Virginia, Sullivan was called on to pitch in the sixth inning and threw three innings of scoreless relief before allowing three runs in the ninth.
Toeing the mound for Virginia will likely be freshman Jeff Lorick, who has started in the team's last two midweek games. Lorick was outstanding on both occasions, allowing just two earned runs in 9.2 innings pitched. On the year, the freshman has thrown 27 innings with an ERA of 3.00.
In addition, O'Connor may also look to junior and usual No. 3 starter Sean Doolittle to come out of the bullpen. After not seeing any work over the weekend because of the canceled game Sunday, Doolittle will be available to make his first relief appearance.
"There's a chance he might throw an inning or so out of the bullpen, we're going to talk about it tomorrow and see what the best thing to do is," O'Connor said.
With Clemson looming this weekend, the Cavaliers are looking to capitalize on their momentum tonight before they take on a tough ACC opponent in a harsh environment.
"I like our position right now," O'Connor said. "We've got a big challenge in front of us at Clemson this weekend, and if we come out and play good baseball we'll be in a good position."
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