Know Your Baseball Enemy: Virginia

South Carolina plays Virginia on Tuesday night at 7.  The winner has to be beaten twice; the loser will have to come through the longer loser’s bracket.  Virginia is a complete team with pitching slightly more dominant than hitting.  They, like South Carolina, have spent most of the season at or around the number 1 spot.  They were the ACC regular season co-champs and the tournament champions.  In short, they are the number one seed for a reason.

Pitching…Virginia will send Will Roberts to the mound.  Roberts, a junior right hander, made headlines early in the year when he threw a perfect game against George Washington.  After that outing, he moved into the weekend rotation.  Roberts is 11-1 with a 1.58 ERA and a 91 to 13.  Opponents are batting just .204.

If Roberts can’t go the distance, the next Cavalier pitcher will be determined by the situation.  The likely middle relievers are LHP Kyle Crockett, RHP Justin Thompson and RHP Whit Mayberry.  Like most of the staff, these guys have good strike out to walk ratios.  They also have ERAs below 3.50.

The Virginia closer is sophomore right hand pitcher Branden Kline.  Kline has 18 saves and a 2.13 ERA.  His strike out to walk ratio is 49 to 18, and opponents are batting .211 against him.

The two wild card possibilities are Cody Winiarski and Tyler Wilson.  Those two are usually the other UVa starters.  Wilson, who threw 39 pitches against Cal, has an ERA of 2.33.  Winiarski is 6-3 with a 3.04 ERA.

Batting:  Virginia hit .307 on the season as a team with only 24 home runs.  They have some strong batters whose numbers pretty much speak for themselves.  There won’t be many easy outs in the line up.

 
LOHD Preview Extra – Take a listen to our Gamecocks Podcast as we preview this game with a UVa blogger – HERE.