Preview: Cavaliers get set to host Regional this weekend
For the first time since 2016, UVa will host regional play in the NCAA Tournament this weekend. The four-team, double-elimination regional will get underway at noon on Friday, with the No. 7 overall seed Wahoos taking on Army (ESPN+). ECU and Oklahoma will play in the second game, with first pitch slated for 7 p.m. (ESPN2).
The Cavaliers have an intriguing regional where they’ll enter as favorites but will have to contend with some dangerous opponents, all four programs having come to Charlottesville previously for regional play. The road to Omaha will go through Disharoon Park and as a national seed, the Wahoos know they won’t have to leave home between now and the College World Series should they make it that far.
Heading towards the weekend, we’re previewing regional play by looking at the three contenders that will be coming to town looking to get hot and challenge for a Super Regional bid.
No. 4 Army Black Knights (38-16, 21-4 Patriot League)
Virginia will open regional play on Friday afternoon against the Army Black Knights, who qualified for the tournament as the Patriot League champion after going 21-4 in conference play and cruising to the league’s auto-bid. Army enters the postseason on a four-game winning streak, handling Bucknell in the league title series, beating the Bison 20-5 in the first game, and 21-6 in the second.
Army showed plenty of offensive firepower throughout the season, scoring 20+ runs on five occasions. The Black Knights hit .304 as a team, with an .891 OPS and 74 homers in 54 contests.
The Black Knights have plenty of power in the lineup overall, with four hitters with nine home runs or more. Senior 1st baseman Ross Friedrick leads the team with 17 home runs, and is second on the team in RBIs with 58. Senior infield Kevin Dubrule is the most consistent hitter, batting .411 for the season in 219 at bats, with a team-high 68 RBIs and 19 doubles.
Army has had solid pitching, though not as stellar as things have been at the plate. The Black Knights have a 4.11 ERA as a team, with four regular starters. Righty Matthew Ronnebaum started a team-high 14 games this year, leading the club in strikeouts with 82. Robbie Buecker leads the regular starters in ERA at 2.84, while junior Tanner Gresham led the team in batting average allowed at .194.
No. 2 ECU Pirates (45-17, 18-6 AAC)
For the second straight year, UVa is matched up with ECU in regional play. We’ll see if the two end up squaring off on Saturday or beyond, but the Pirates did top UVa 4-2 in the winner’s bracket last season. ECU would go on to advance out of regional play and lost to Texas in three games in the Super Regionals.
This year ECU won 45 games, 29 coming on their home field. The Pirates had a solid 18-6 season in the American but fell short of the league title, losing to big underdog Tulane in the title game.
ECU has averaged 7.4 runs per contest this year, batting .292 over their 62-game season. The Pirates, like Army, hit 74 home runs, with a .392 on-base percentage. ECU’s regulars didn’t play every day like Army’s did, as they rested veterans and dealt with injuries. Second baseman Jacob Starling is the team’s most-consistent performer at the plate, hitting .314 win 223 trips to the plate, with 50 RBIs and 10 home runs. Starling, along with outfielder Luke Nowak, have the ability to get aggressive on the base paths too, with 18 and 19 steals, respectively. First baseman Josh Moylan is another standout at the plate, hitting .302 in 59 games played, with a team-high 66 RBI’s.
On the mound, ECU has three starters that we’ll probably see at the Dish this weekend, led by sophomore righty Trey Yesavage. A Pennsylvania native, Yesavage is 6-1 in 13 starts this year, with a 2.80 ERA and a .99 WHIP. He leads the team in K’s with 98 and allowed opponents to hit just .193 in his appearances. Fellow starter Josh Grosz led the team in starts with 15, striking out 79 in 74 innings pitched, with the most innings pitched on the roster. Carter Spivey is 7-3 in 10 starts; his stats aren’t quite on the level of the previous two pitchers, with a 4.40 ERA, 1.36 WHIP and 64 K’s.
No. 3 Oklahoma Sooners (31-26, 11-13 Big 12)
It wasn’t the prettiest season but the Sooners got into the dance on Monday, earning one of the last at-large spots in the 64-team field. Oklahoma went just 31-26 in 2023 with a losing record in conference play, but played enough quality opponents to have a suitable resume to earn a selection. OU went 1-2 in the Big 12 Tournament and doesn’t exactly enter the postseason with a lot of momentum. If anything, the Sooners made the field in large part because of a four-game series split with national seed Stanford, a sweep of Texas and an early-season series win over TCU. They have a history at Disharoon Park, having won both a Regional and Super Regional in Charlottesville (2010 and 2012).
Despite an up-and-down season overall, Oklahoma still has a talented lineup that can do damage when they’re “on.” The Sooners hit .283 for the season but unlike the other three teams in the regional, they don’t do a lot of damage with power. Oklahoma hit just 44 home runs on the season with just one hitter in double digit long balls. OU does have a .404 on-base percentage though, which speaks to its ability to keep the line moving and draw walks (338 on the year).
Junior outfielder Bryce Madron, a lefty, is the team’s most-dangerous hitter. Madron is hitting .308 with a 1.024 OPS, a team-high 11 home runs, and 45 RBI, second on the team to junior infielder Dakota Harris (46).
Oklahoma’s pitching will likely determine how well the club can do this weekend. On the season, the Sooners struggled to a team ERA of 5.90, with a 1.59 WHIP. The Sooners had just one complete game from a pitcher all year, and allowed 67 home runs, 118 doubles, and 328 earned runs (5.8 per game). Left-hander Braden Carmichael is OU’s top starter, leading starters in ERA (3.15) and strikeouts with 59. Carmichael had the aforementioned complete game, shutting out a good Oklahoma State team on May 19, and comes to Charlottesville with a perfect 7-0 record.
