Don't look now but the Cavalier baseball team is on what we like to call "a winning streak." They've won their last four games, eleven of their last thirteen, and their last fourteen home games (a lot different sentence than I was typing a month ago). If I am on the UVa schedule in the upcoming weeks, I am not looking forward to the matchup. This team seems to finally have hit its stride and winning the games they are supposed to.
Historically, the Cavaliers have a fairly even record with the Colonials. Overall, the two teams have played 30 times with UVa taking 18 of those games. Luckily for everyone in Charlottesville, Coach O'Connor showed up ten years ago and things haven't been the same. O'Connor is 7-1 against the Colonials with the only loss coming in 2008 when GW came to Charlottesville and played like the Yankees (I swear, we didn't beat a damn team in 2008).
This year, the Colonials have a 12-19 record and seem to have some problems. They have however, won six of their last nine and their last two midweek games against UMBC and Towson (not exactly Florida and FSU but hey, work with me here). GW will send Junior RHP JT Wauford to the mound to face UVa (poor guy). Wauford will make his sixth start of the year and enters with a 2-2 record and 4.40 ERA. He doesn't strike out many but he sure does walk a lot of batters. In his 30.2 IP he has 17 walks. The Colonials as a whole staff give up a lot of hits. They average more than a hit per inning, so base runners should not be hard to come by tonight for the Hoos.
Much like their counterparts on the mound, the Colonials' hitters are not overwhelming either. With only two hitters batting over .300 on the season (Cavaliers have 8), their .261 team average is not exactly intimidating. They also strike out quite a bit as a team, averaging eight strike outs per game. Not putting the ball in play usually means your team is struggling quite a bit.
With the way the Hoos have been playing over the last couple games, I don't think they will struggle to much with GW. The boys have been hitting the ball well and the pitchers have limited their walks significantly. I expect the Cavaliers to win this game fairly handedly and move their home winning streak to 15. Til then, enjoy your day at work (ugh), ask God why he decided to make it 10 degrees today in DC (SERIOUSLY!), and of course GO HOOOS!