Charlottesville Regional Breakdown
The Charlottesville regional is hosted by a University of Virginia team that comes into the NCAA Regional with some nice momentum beating Florida State 7-0 in the ACC Tournament as part of a 2-1 showing overall in Greensboro. The Cavaliers have some rock solid offensive numbers, hitting .299 as a team, paced by Stephen Bruno who is leading the team in batting average at .362. Derek Fisher leads the Cavaliers in homeruns and RBI’s as freshman. The Cavalier offense has averaged an impressive 7 runs per contest and against the quality of the ACC this season. On the mound, Branden Kline and the developing Artie Lewicki, provide a nice 1-2 punch in starting pitching that will be vital to Virginia’s success in navigating the double-elimination regional.
The #2 seed in the Charlottesville Regional is Oklahoma who lost in the Big 12 Tournament Championship game to Missouri 8-7. The Sooners return to Charlottesville for the second time in three years as they knocked out the Cavaliers in the 2010 Super Regional by playing some of the best baseball in their program in a long time. The Sooners are paced offensively by Max White who is batting .356 with 54 RBI. The keynote series for Oklahoma was a sweep of Baylor after the Bears had already locked up the regular season Big 12 Championship. On the mound the Sooners are holding opponents to a 3.35 earned run average and are definitely battle tested from playing in the Big 12 against the likes of Baylor and Texas A&M.
The 3 and 4 seeds are Appalachian State and Army. Appalachian State is an intriguing mid-major as they went on the road to LSU and took two games in the hostile environment of Alex Box Stadium in Baton Rouge. Daniel Kassouf is the main offensive weapon for the Mountaineers as he has 17 homeruns in 2012. As the Southern Conference champions, Appalachian State should not be too intimidated by playing in Davenport Field. The depth of their pitching could be an issue if they don’t get the opener against Oklahoma. Army, as the number four seed, is the Patriot League Champion. Chris Rowley leads the way for the Black Knights on the mound with an 11-0 record and a 1.97 earned run average. Rowley will probably get the ball in game one against Virginia in what could make for a more interesting game than expected between a number one and four seed.
