Weekend Preview: Hoos Baseball Hosts Georgia Tech

The Cavaliers find themselves in some unchartered waters coming off their yearly exam break.

As they enter the final two regular season weekends, most prognosticators have left the Hoos dead in the water with seemingly no shot to make the NCAA Tournament outside of winning the ACC Tournament.

While some, including Coach O’Connor, believe this team is eerily similar to the 2015 team that went 5-1 down the ACC stretch to make the ACC tournament and get into the NCAA Tournament, this year’s team faces an even steeper hill to climb. According to D1baseball, UVa’s RPI sits at 77. Two more ACC series could help boost that number, but Georgia Tech is only at 48, and Wake Forest is at 71. Even series sweeps of both series might not boost the RPI high enough for an at-large bid entering the ACC Tournament.

Which brings us to our next hill to climb: getting to the ACC Tournament. The ACC Tournament lets in 12 of the conference’s 14 teams. Virginia is currently in 12th, just a game ahead of 13th place Virginia Tech and 3.5 games ahead of 14th Boston College. Luckily UVa holds the tiebreaker over the Hokies thanks to winning the series. Georgia Tech and Wake aren’t world beaters, and Virginia Tech has to play Miami and North Carolina to end the season. As it stands, UVa should get in the ACC Tournament.

Speaking of this weekend, Georgia Tech will enter with an 11-13 ACC record and 27-22 overall record. Most predictions have the Yellow Jackets on the outside looking in on the NCAA Tournament as well thanks to the previously mentioned 48 RPI. The Yellow Jackets are 5-2 over their last seven, but three of those wins came at the hands of an off-weekend series against Radford. They’re just 3-6 in their last three ACC series against Wake, UNC, and Pitt.

Both teams are going to be playing for their postseason berths in Charlottesville this weekend. Both need a series sweep to seriously make a statement.