Game time 7 PM CT/8 PM ET TD Ameritrade Park, Omaha, Nebraska
TV: ESPN
Weather: Sunny 84, 0 % rain, Wind NNW @ 14 MPH
Could be blowing in some, so could impede the long ball, but maybe it’ll be blowing out to right with the westerly wind for our left handed hitters like Reynolds, Wiseman and Jeren.
Pitchers:
VU: RHP Carson Fulmer: 13-2, 1.95, 120 innings pitched, 48 walks, 159 strikeouts. 13 doubles given up, two triples and seven home runs. Opponents are batting .186 against him. Help needed if necessary in the bullpen from John Kilichowski, Ben Bowden, Jordan Sheffield and the incomparable Kyle Wright, our closer.
Virginia: RHP Connor Jones: 7-2, 3.05 ERA, 109 Innings pitched, 50 walks, 107 K’s, 13 doubles, 0 triples and four home runs. Opponents are hitting .222 against him
Know Carson is a power pitcher throwing it 95, 96 with a hard breaking curve and a tough change up. Carson needs to get ahead in the count and have good control in order to be successful. Haven’t seen Jones pitch, so not sure about his velo, but his numbers are good. Think he’s pretty fast to the plate, low to mid 90’s.
Dansby is leading us in hitting at .337, but Rhett Wiseman and Bryan Reynolds, particularly Reynolds, have been on fire. Reynolds is 18 for 36 in the postseason (.500). Both Rhett and Bryan are hitting .319. Dans, Rhett and Zander lead us in home runs with 15. Z leads us in ribbies with 67. Z is hitting .317.
We are hitting .292 as a team. Our fielding percentage is excellent at .978. I’ll have to check, but I’m not sure if we’ve committed an error in the CWS. I’ll check on that later.
Virginia’s leading hitter is catcher Matt Thaiss at .337. Thaiss has 10 homers and 64 ribbies. He hits third. Shortstop Daniel Pinero is an excellent player. He bats second and hits .316. He seems to get big hit after big hit and make big play after big play. Third baseman Kenny Towns is another key player for the Cavs. He hits .297 and has five homers and 66 Ribeyes. He’s an excellent third baseman as well. Their top hitter coming into the season, Joe McCarthy, has battled injuries all year, but he’s dangerous. He’s only hitting .206 with two homers and 11 RBIs, but he has only played in 30 games, and he is a big game performer. Carson needs to be careful with him and these other guys.
Their stud closer is Josh Sborz who is 6-2, with a 1.70 ERA and has 15 saves on the season. He has walked 23 and K’d 59. He pitched four innings in relief Saturday night and helped UVA defeat the Florida Gators, 5-4. He gave up only three hits, no runs with one walk and two K’s. He’s excellent.
UVA hits .273 as a team. They have hit 34 home runs this season. Their fielding percentage is .970.
They are a really solid team, so this is going to be a major challenge for our guys. We’ve hit 69 homers this season, 147 doubles and driven in 426 runs. They’ve hit 34 homers,96 doubles and have driven in 320 runs.
Our team ERA is 2.89 and their’s is 3.54.
On paper, we have better offensive, defensive and pitching numbers, but games aren’t won on paper. We’ve got to lock in and execute. This is a good baseball team we’re playing. We’re 50-19, and they are 42-23.
They struggled with injuries for a while this season, but they were a preseason top five team and were expected to be in Omaha and have a chance to win it all. They have a lot of momentum going into this series after beating what looked like an almost unbeatable team in the Florida Gators. So we’re going to have to be really good tonight on the mound and in the field and get some clutch hitting. The long ball always helps, but we’ll have to play some smaller ball at times, too, with base hits, stealing and bunting.
Tonight’s prediction:
VU 3, UVA 2
