This begins our week of coverage of the Charlottesville Regional. This is part I acquainting you with the basics of the regional. Check back later today for other installments.
Is this big enough to host a regional? I mean, come on....
Now that we know whom we will be playing and where we will be playing, let's discuss a little bit about each team in the Charlottesville Regional.
The #4 seed is Virginia Commonwealth University. They are the Rams, and they play in the Colonial Athletic Association. Most of you have never heard of that, but they won the conference tournament last weekend. They began the season with a 9-10 record, and it looked like their season was going down the drain. However, they were on fire to begin conference play, and after an 11-1 start, they finished third in their conference with a 16-7 record. Overall, they have a 31-24 record. Like every team in the field, they have a couple of good players. Offensively, they are led by Joe Van Meter (.433) and Richard Gonzalez (.391). Their best pitcher is Seth Culter-Voltz who has an 8-3 record and 3.20 ERA.
The #3 seed is St. John's University. They are known as the Red Storm and put together a quality run in the Big East. The posted a 40-18 record overall and 16-11 record in conference play. They were the definite underdogs coming into the Big East tourney last weekend, but they defeated Louisville twice and Connecticut once en route to the tourney title. In terms of offense, they bat .327 as a team, and freshman Jeremy Baltz had a monster season with a .393 average, 20 HRs, and 74 RBI. Their pitching staff is also headlined by a freshman. Six-foot-seven-inch Kyle Hansen has had a solid year with a 3.09 ERA and 8-1 record.
The #1 seed is dream-crushing University of Virginia. We are well acquainted with the Cavaliers of the ACC who are also known as the Wahoos. They had a phenomenal season going 47-11 overall and 23-7 in the ACC. I don't really know what else to say about this team as they returned almost all of their players from last year's Omaha team. They have LHP Danny Hultzen on the mound who compiled a 9-1 record with a 2.43 ERA. Offensively, they have a .333 average and 10 players with significant playing time who bat above .300.