Welcome to the 2021 college baseball season, Wahoo fans!
So much has transpired since we last had a UVA Baseball game to look forward to. It’s certainly a relief to be able to anticipate the start of a new season. And especially a season that contains so much potential.
Us fans aren’t the only ones chomping at the bit to get the 2021 season started. The UVA grounds crew is moving heaven and earth to ready the field for this weekend despite some tricky weather conditions. Let’s give them an acknowledgment for their hard work.
The grounds crew, the @UVABaseball staff and 20 added laborers worked silly hard to give your team opening at home the best chance possible. The grass at Davenport is green. Know that we are trying! Fingers crossed for tomorrow. Ok…. going to warm up my feet.
— Jesse Pritchard (@HoosTurf) February 19, 2021
And our opponent, UCONN, is certainly making a championship effort as well to make sure this series happens. A tip of the cap is due the Huskies too.
✌️ Connecticut, here we come Virginia! pic.twitter.com/AwiBoVxvBb
— UConn Baseball (@UConnBSB) February 18, 2021
Speaking of the Huskies, they’re back in the Big East after playing seven seasons in the American Athletic Conference. While the Big East features more traditional rivals for UCONN (St. John’s, Seton Hall, Georgetown, and Villanova), it’s a weaker overall conference. During the abbreviated 2020 season, the AAC finished as the 4th ranked conference in the RPI. The Big East finished as the 14th ranked conference in the RPI. And during the 2019 season, the AAC topped the Big East in the conference RPI rankings 5 to 17.
Based on that context, it should come as no surprise that UCONN is the favorite to win the Big East this season. Already a solid program that’s coming off of regional appearances in 2018 and 2019, UCONN should run up the win total in conference play this year. That shouldn’t diminish the opinion of the quality of this UCONN team, however. They should provide a worthy challenge for the Hoos to open the season.
#HookC are the preseason favorites in the BIG EAST! pic.twitter.com/98h7MYSGv5
— UConn Baseball (@UConnBSB) February 17, 2021
Game Schedule
Friday, February 19: 3:00 PM
Saturday, February 20: 1:00 PM
Sunday, February 21: 1:00 PM
Attendance Policy
From VirginiaSports.com…
The current guidelines for sports venues provided by the Commonwealth of Virginia under the “Forward Virginia” plan (updated Nov. 13, 2020), allow for the lesser of 30 percent occupancy of the facility or 250 patrons.
Due to health and safety considerations, in addition to the current guidelines for sports venues set by the Commonwealth of Virginia, attendance for UVA home baseball competitions will be limited to the family of student-athletes and coaching staff until further notice.
Should the Commonwealth of Virginia adjust the protocols for spectator attendance, the UVA athletics department will announce new capacity guidelines and other protocols to attend events.
Series History
UCONN and Virginia have met six times previously in baseball. The Hoos currently own a 4-2 advantage in the series which began in 1963.
The clubs last met in 2019 for one game. The Hoos came away with a 6 to 3 victory in the midweek contest.
Projected Starting Pitchers
Friday
UCONN RHP Ben Casparius vs UVA LHP Andrew Abbott
Casparius joins the UCONN program as a transfer from North Carolina. Due to NCAA transfer rules, the junior right-hander sat out the 2020 season at UCONN.
In two seasons as a Tar Heel, Casparius made 22 appearances on the mound. However, this will mark his first start as a collegiate pitcher. During those 22 appearances, Casparius has 27.0 innings under his belt.
Casparius will enter this matchup with a career ERA of 3.33 and a 1-0 career record. He also had 2 saves to his credit at UNC. Casparius has walked 16 batters and struck out 23 during his pitching career.
A foot injury during his freshman season at UNC also cost Casparius a month of the season. When not pitching at UNC, he also had 96 at bats as an infielder. UCONN lists him as an Infielder/RHP on their roster as well, so it’s possible we’ll see him in the field this weekend too.
This will be his first appearance against the Hoos.
Ben Casparius dominated on the bump this fall!
4 Games: 12 IP, 22 K's, 1 ER, 0.75 ERA pic.twitter.com/IsN3M7rtk3
— UConn Baseball (@UConnBSB) November 16, 2020
Saturday
UCONN RHP Joe Simeone vs UVA RHP Griff McGarry
The junior right-hander from Groton, Massachusetts started UCONN’s season opener against Cal Poly during the 2020 season. The veteran will take the swing position in the weekend rotation to open the 2021 season for the Huskies.
Last season, Simeone made 4 starts in as many appearances for UCONN. He posted a 1-1 record in 15.0 innings pitched for the Huskies. In those 15.0 innings, Simeone’s ERA was 3.00. He struck out 23 while walking 13. Batters posted a .189 average against Simeone.
His 23 strikeouts were second best on the team while his 15.0 innings were third most for UCONN.
During UVA’s win over UCONN in 2019, Simeone was the final Huskies pitcher to appear in the game. In 0.1 innings pitched, he gave up one hit.
Sunday
UCONN TBD vs UVA RHP Mike Vasil
The Huskies have yet to settle on a starter for the series finale. Possible options for UCONN include redshirt sophomore RHP Jimmy Wang, freshman RHP Pat Gallagher, or junior RHP Austin Peterson.
Injury and illness limited Wang to just 3 appearances in 2020. He posted 6 strikeouts in 4.2 innings pitched in those 3 appearances. Wang posted an ERA of 7.71 while walking 4. Opposing batters hit .294 against Wang last year.
Gallagher is still classified as a freshman by UCONN courtesy of the NCAA’s eligibility waiver for spring sports during the 2020 season. Gallagher made 4 appearances out of the bullpen for the Huskies last year. He pitched a total of 9.0 innings and struck out 15. In those 9.0 innings, Gallagher posted an ERA of 4.00 while walking 4 and surrendering a batting average against of .257.
Finally, Peterson joins the UCONN program as a JUCO transfer from Wabash Valley Community College in Mount Carmel, Illinois. Prior to his season at Wabash, Peterson pitched for Purdue during the 2019 season. At Wabash, Peterson made 2 starts in 5 appearances. He posted an ERA of 3.05 while going 2-0. In 20.2 innings pitched, Peterson struck out 29.
Weather Forecast (Courtesy of Weather.com)
As always with February baseball, the weather will play a factor this weekend.
By Friday morning, the precipitation should be out of the area. By game time, temps are expected to be in the mid 40s with mostly cloudy skies. Winds will be negligible. By the end of the game, temps should be in the upper 30s.
For Saturday’s game, the skies should be sunny. But it’s going to be a brisk afternoon for baseball. Expect temps in the upper 30s at first pitch with winds around 10 MPH. The weather should be constant throughout the contest.
For Sunday’s finale, the weather should split the difference between Friday and Saturday. Partly cloudy skies with temps in the low to mid 40s is the current forecast. Winds should be light.
Media Coverage
Here’s the good news – all three games will have live video coverage via ACC Network Xtra. You can access ACC Network Xtra via any of ESPN’s streaming platforms.
Now for the bad news – ACC Network Xtra requires that you have access to the ACC Network via your provider.
Here are the streaming options that currently carry ACC Network and should get you access to the game broadcast via ACC Network Xtra.
Our annual college baseball streaming guide is BACK.
See where you can watch every major conference this year: https://t.co/ahyDQJ3lCY pic.twitter.com/R0aiEd16ns
— Baseball America (@BaseballAmerica) February 18, 2021
The radio broadcast will be available for the Friday and Sunday games. If local to Charlottesville, you can hear that on WINA (1070 AM or 98.9 FM). WINA.com will also stream the radio broadcast for Friday and Sunday.
Around The ACC
It’s opening weekend for all of Division 1 baseball. And our conference mates will be busy as well. Here’s a look at the opening weekend series for the rest of the league.
Everyone in the conference but Notre Dame is playing. The Irish were scheduled to visit Baton Rogue for games against Air Force, Louisiana Tech, and Notre Dame. Instead, they’re on a COVID pause.
Eastern Kentucky at Georgia Tech (3 games)
Indiana State vs Pitt (3 games – Port Charlotte, Florida)
Boston College at Charleston Southern (3 games)
VMI at NC State (3 games)
Miami at Florida (3 games)
James Madison at North Carolina (3 games)
Duke at Coastal Carolina (3 games)
Kent State at Virginia Tech (3 games)
Cincinnati at Clemson (3 games)
Northeastern at Wake Forest (3 games)
Bellarmine at Louisville (3 games)
North Florida at Florida State (3 games)
Huskie To Watch
Third-year sophomore outfielder Kyler Fedko is UCONN’s best player. Before even playing a game in the Big East, Fedko was honored with Co-Preseason Player of the Year honors along with Seton Hall’s Tyler Shedler-McAvoy.
During his initial sophomore season, Fedko led or tied for the lead in several offensive categories for UCONN. Fedko topped the Huskies in hits (21), runs (tied, 12), triples (tied, 1), homers (tied, 2), and slugging percentage (.627). Fedko was second on the Huskies in batting average (.412), RBI (tied, 12), on base percentage (.434), and OPS (1.061).
And when the 2020 season ended, Fedko owned a six-game hitting streak.
Prediction
Depending on your source, the homestanding Hoos are ranked anywhere from 5 to 16. The visiting Huskies are a fringe Top 25 team. They received votes in the NCBWA (writers), USA Today Coaches, and Collegiate Baseball preseason polls.
UCONN profiles as a probable postseason regional team as either a 2 seed or 3 seed. And if they come through as Big East favorites, they’ll receive a stress-free auto bid.
On paper, the Hoos have to be favored. But UCONN is more than capable of pushing UVA if not winning a game or more.
I’ve got the Hoos as considerable favorites for Saturday and Sunday. UVA’s pitching staff advantages will really shine there.
It’s Friday that’s more of a tossup because of the solid fall numbers from expected starting pitcher Ben Casparius. This should be a low scoring affair if Casparius is dealing like the Huskies expect. If the Hoos don’t jump on him early, they’ll look to make him work hard during each at bat with the goal of reaching the UCONN bullpen. UVA will like their chances when matching their talented batting lineup versus the UCONN bullpen.
It’s the season opener after nearly a year of no college baseball. The Hoos are fielding a deep, talented team that was starting to roll in 2020 before the season ended prematurely. There are a lot of expectations and enthusiasm surrounding the team. The coaching staff is highly confident and that’s a great sign.
UCONN is a solid team that will test any weaknesses for the Hoos. This weekend will be a nice test and learning experience. Ultimately, I think the Hoos will prove to be the superior club.
UVA sweeps the series, 3 to 0.