In a weekend where everyone expected the Cavaliers to flash the muscle that has given them their #1 ranking, they did not disappoint. Over the three game series the Hoos outscored the Terps 43-7. UMD never scored more than 4 runs, and when that happened the Hoos had scored 27 to counter those measly 4 runs.
On the first game of their doubleheader on Friday, Danny Hultzen showed again why he is considered one of the top starting pitchers in not only the conference, but the nation as well. Danny went deep into the 8th inning going 7.2 innings while only allowing 1 ER on 6 hits and striking out 5. Tyler Wilson relieved Hultzen to close out the 8th and threw the 9th after the Hoos scored more in the top of the 9th to take away what would have been a save situation for Kevin Arico. Offensively the Hoos were lead by first year Reed Gragnani and Kenny Swab, both had 2 hits during the game. Reed had a pair of RBIs while Swab countered with a pair of runs scored. Jarrett Parker also added to the offense bit jacking his 4th Home Run of the year. The Hoos won by a score of 5-1 and gave Hultzen his 6th win of the season.
The second game of the doubleheader was far from close, to say the least. After giving up a home run to Terp's Rodriguez to begin the bottom half of the 1st, it looked like the Hoos were in for a dogfight. Over the next 7 innings the Cavaliers scored 27 runs on 28 hits, 2 Maryland errors, 10 doubles, 1 triple, and 3 Home Runs (two coming from Steven Proscia). Their were way to many standouts to go over each of them. However, Phil Gosselin, Dan Grovatt, Jarrett Parker, Steven Proscia, Dave Coleman, John Barr, John Hicks, Stephen Bruno, and Kenny Swab all had multi-hit games. All but two of the Cavaliers who made plate appearances had at least one hit. Those two, only had 3 at bats combined between the two. On the mound, Robert Morey had another great outing giving up only 2 runs in 7 innings on 3 hits. Neal Davis closed out closed out the final 2 innings for the Hoos giving up 2 runs on 4 hits. In the end, the Hoos won 27-4 and scored the most in nearly 3 years(if memory serves me correctly).
The final game on Saturday was a bit closer than the second game of the doubleheader on Friday but, still wasn't that close. I know I say this every week but, on the mound, Cody Winiarski gave one of his best pitching performances yet as Cavalier going a strong 8 innings and only gave up 1 run on 5 hits. 8 innings actually is Cody's longest outing of the season. Corey Hunt closed out the 9th by giving up only a run on 3 hits. At the plate Phil Gosselin continued his All-American season by going 3 for 5 and scoring a run. John Hicks and Danny Hultzen also helped by giving multi-hit games as well as Steven Proscia hitting his third home run........OF THE WEEKEND. The Hoos ended up winning 11-2 and sweeping all three games from the Terps.
On the weekend, Miami and Georgia Tech lost their respective series' which allowed the Hoos to gain valuable ground on the two. UVA is now tied with Miami in 2nd place and only a game behind GT in the Coastal Division standings.
The Hoos swept the series (as I predicted) which gives me a 39/42 predicting percentage for the Hoos season this year. For all the Hokie grads out there, that is a .929 winning percentage. The Hoos take on Georgetown and Coastal Carolina this week before traveling to Duke. Usually I would say that the Hoos would lose to Coastal because its impossible for a Cavalier baseball team to beat the Chanticleers but this year I think we will overcome the kryptonite and take that game then beat the Hoyas pretty handedly. As always, stay tuned to the only UVA Baseball twitter out there at @STLUVABaseball for all your up to the minute UVA Baseball coverage.