The Virginia baseball team was able to do something that none of the other "Big 5 UVa Sports" (courtesy of @Fletcherjones: Men's Lax, Men's Bball, Baseball, Football, and Men's Soccer) were able to do. The Cavaliers beat Duke 3-2 and 18-4 on Sunday to compliment their 10-0 win from Friday to complete the sweep of the Blue Devils.
With the sweep, the 'Hoos move to 36-3 overall and a just ridiculous 16-2 ACC record. It goes without saying, but that is the best record through 39 games in Cavalier program history. They have 17 games left and it is certainly not out of the realm of possibilities that this team could set the single-season record for wins(51 in 2010) before the postseason even begins. Even if they don't set the single-season record for wins that early, they will almost certainly break the ACC wins record for the program (23 in 2010).
The pitching staff further exemplified this weekend why they should be considered one of the top staffs in the nation. Roberts, Hultzen, and Wilson combined to throw 19.2 innings and gave up only 4 runs amongst the three. What is more impressive is that none of three gave up a single walk while they were on the mound. Hultzen continued his case to be the top pitcher and player in the country by striking out 9 in his 7 innings of shutout ball on Friday. At this rate, I don't see how the voters can give The Golden Spikes award to any other player. #Hultzen4GoldenSpikes has clearly worked. Good job everybody!
If the starters were good, the relievers were downright unhittable. The relievers only allowed a single run on six hits in the 9.1 innings they pitched. Neither Justin Thompson nor Kyle Crockett, considered UVa's two best middle inning relievers, had to pitch this weekend because the rest of the staff was so dominant.
With the exception of the first game of the doubleheader on Sunday, the offense blew up and never allowed Duke to be in the game. The Cavaliers outscored the Blue Devils 31-6 on the weekend and beat Duke by 10 runs on Friday and 14 runs in the 2nd game on Sunday. The first game of the doubleheader turned out to be a bit of an anomoly since the Cavaliers were able to string together 11 hits and 3 walks but were only able to turn that into 3 runs. Fortunately for the offense, Brandon Kline and Tyler Wilson were stellar and held Duke to only 2 runs.
While the Cavaliers were taking care of business against Duke in Charlottesville, South Carolina and Vanderbilt were battling for SEC supremacy and a strong argument for the #1 spot in the rankings this week. South Carolina took the series winning Friday and Sunday. It seems that the logical argument would be that the Gamecocks and the Cavaliers will be up for the top spot this week. My vote (which only counts in the streakingthelawn.com poll), would be for the 'Hoos who have only lost 3 games this year and all three were to respectable opponents (ECU, FSU, GT). South Carolina on the other hand have lost 7 games and dropped games to Furman, The Citadel, and UGA. They also lost a game to Clemson, who UVa swept in South Carolina last month.
The boys travel to Radford on Tuesday to take on the Highlanders. The Cavaliers took the first meeting of the year 2 weeks ago 2-0 and will look to sweep the series.