Virginia Baseball Heads to Louisville for Pivotal Final Regular Season Series

The Cavaliers conclude the regular season with a crucial road series against the top-ten Cardinals

Author:
Matt Newton
Publish date:
May 18, 2022 2:23 PM EDT

The 2022 college baseball regular season comes to an end this weekend and the No. 12 Virginia baseball team will conclude the season with a pivotal road ACC series at No. 10 Louisville. Both teams enter the final weekend of the regular season ranked in the top 20 of every college baseball poll and there is a great deal at stake in this series.

College Baseball Rankings
Poll	Louisville	Virginia
D1 Baseball	10	12
Collegiate Baseball	9	19
Baseball America	14	11
USA TODAY Coaches Poll	9	10
Perfect Game	13	15
NCBWA	7	15

Virginia is 37-13 this season, including a 16-11 mark in ACC play. The Cavaliers are currently third in the ACC Coastal standings behind Miami (18-9) and Virginia Tech (16-9). This season, UVA has swept Boston College, Georgia Tech, North Carolina and won two out of three against Duke, Wake Forest, and Clemson. The Cavaliers were swept by Miami and lost series against Pittsburgh and Virginia Tech. UVA is third in the ACC in team batting average (.321), third in fielding percentage (.976), and first in team ERA (3.68).

Louisville is 36-15-1 this season and 16-10-1 in the ACC. The Cardinals tied the rubber match of a three-game series at Wake Forest on May 8th due to a travel curfew that ended the game with the game tied at 5-5 after 12 innings. Louisville has swept Clemson, Boston College, and Notre Dame and won series against North Carolina and NC State. The Cards were swept by Florida State and lost series against Pittsburgh and Virginia Tech. Louisville is currently second in the ACC Atlantic standings behind Notre Dame (15-9).

A lot can change this weekend in terms of seeding for the 2022 ACC Baseball Championship, which begins Tuesday at Truist Field in Charlotte, North Carolina. The top 12 teams in the ACC standings will be organized into four pools of three teams each based on conference record:

Pool A: No. 1 seed, No. 8 seed, No. 12 seed
Pool B: No. 2 seed, No. 7 seed, No. 11 seed
Pool C: No. 3 seed, No. 6 seed, No. 10 seed
Pool D: No. 4 seed, No. 5 seed, No. 9 seed

The ACC is a very competitive baseball conference this season with six teams currently ranked in the D1Baseball top 25. Only one team from each pool advances to the semifinals of the ACC Tournament, making this final weekend of the regular season paramount for seeding purposes.

Even more importantly, the opportunity to host a regional at the NCAA Tournament is on the line for both Virginia and Louisville. The Cavaliers and the Cardinals are currently in line to host a regional, but that could easily change in the next week and a half before Selection Sunday. Losing the final series of the season and having a poor showing in the ACC Tournament could cost either of these teams the chance to host an NCAA Tournament regional, which would be incredibly damaging for both UVA and Louisville, as these teams have been very hard to beat at home this season. Virginia holds a record of 29-5 at home (6-8 away) and Louisville is 27-5 at home (8-9-1 away).

The winner of this series will take some much-needed momentum into postseason play with the ACC and NCAA tournaments right around the corner.

Series Schedule

Game 1: Thursday, 6pm (ACC Network Extra)

Game 2: Friday, 4pm (ACC Network)

Game 3: Saturday, 12pm (ACC Network)

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Series Schedule

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