Coming off a thrilling series during which the No. 5 Virginia baseball team claimed two out of three games against No. 4 Florida State, the Cavaliers (19-2, 5-1 ACC) host Towson today and tomorrow for a midweek two-game series.
The Tigers (6-12-1, 2-4 CAA) limp into Charlottesville, having won only three of their last 12 outings. During this rough stretch, the Towson offense has failed to find a consistent level of success at the plate. Currently, only three Tigers boast a batting average above .300, while the team collectively bats .259 on average.
Towson's opponents, meanwhile, hit .311 at the plate and have scored eight or more runs eight times this season. The pitching staff, led by senior Charlie Cononie and sophomore Michael Trionfo, yields 8.1 runs per game on average.
Although the Tigers do not appear to be a challenge on paper, coach Brian O'Connor warned the Cavaliers about the tendency for clubs to suffer from an emotional and physical hangover following an intense conference series. All three of Virginia's games against Florida State went into extra innings last weekend. The Cavaliers managed to come out on top Friday and Saturday, but allowed the Seminoles to steal a 12-11 victory during the top of the 10th inning Sunday afternoon.
"You always got to keep your guard up," O'Connor said. "It was a very, very emotional weekend ... I'll be challenging our guys to be ready to go."
O'Connor hopes to rely on the leadership of junior third baseman Steven Proscia and junior catcher John Hicks to continue their strong play against Towson.
Proscia, who notched five hits during last weekend's series, bats .318 while Hicks boasts a .400 average, the highest among Cavaliers with at least 30 at-bats.
"The last couple of weeks, [Proscia] has been swinging the bat extremely well, him and John Hicks both," O'Connor said.
The hot-hitting Hicks believes that the squad will respond to its coach's challenge to avoid a misstep against Towson, in hopes that a win will ease the pain associated with falling just short of sweeping the Seminoles last weekend.
"You may have some emotional letdowns, but I think we're going to get out [tonight] and be kind of upset about how things ended [against Florida State] Sunday," Hicks said, "[We're going to] be ready to make somebody pay for it."
The first pitch is slated for 5 p.m.
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