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Even though their undefeated season might no longer be in tact, the Cavaliers still have quite an impressive season on their hands. This week they'll look to keep up their record, undefeated out of conference streak, and undefeated midweek record alive when Liberty comes to town.
Liberty looks to be a formidable Big South opponent again this season as they have in recent seasons past. They'll come to Davenport with an 11-5 record with four of those losses coming at the hands of Georgia and South Carolina, who both took two of three from the Flames. Their other loss came against William and Mary who they lost to last week in a tightly contested game. The Flames got revenge on the Tribe yesterday in Williamsburg in a 6-2 win.
The Flames have put up some strong hitting stats thus far and are lead by Sr. infielder Bryan Aanderud who is batting .379 on the season and is second on the team with 15 RBI. I think more impressive has been Jr. outfielder Ryan Cordell. Even though Cordell is only batting .328 (which isn't bad either), he is leading Liberty in RBI and home runs, and is second in triples, doubles, and slugging percentage.
Neither the Cavaliers or the Flames are deep enough into the season to be able to predict who will start or pitch in the game, but Liberty's pitching stats aren't too overwhelming. Judging from their numbers it looks like their staff likes to pitch around the plate which means a lot of pitches to hit for the Hoos. They're averaging about a two to one strike out to walk ratio, but give up almost a hit per inning.
More importantly, the Cavaliers need to not shoot themselves in the foot as they did a couple times this past weekend against Maryland. Errors and walks will be the downfall of any baseball club and certainly was on Sunday for UVa. Limit the mental mistakes and the Hoos should have no problem today against the Flames.
The Flames are a good team for the Big South, but not nearly as talented as this UVa team. I expect UVa to win fairly easily and build up a little momentum going into their first ACC road weekend this weekend when they travel to Clemson.