The good news: Virginia took care of business this past weekend with a sweep of Wake Forest. The reality: gonna have to do it again this weekend on the road at Boston College.
UVA (25-21, 16-17 ACC) actually dropped three spots in the RPI ratings, from 44 to 47, even with the sweep of the Demon Deacons (17-26, 7-22 ACC, RPI: 96).
Boston College (20-25, 9-21 ACC, RPI: 94) is another weekend fraught with RPI peril for the ‘Hoos. For one, this is a team that took two of three from Miami (29-16, 17-15 ACC, RPI: 22), Duke (24-20, 13-17 ACC, RPI: 43), has single wins over Notre Dame (26-10, 22-10 ACC, RPI: 13), Pitt (22-16, 16-14 ACC, RPI: 41), UNC (24-22, 17-16 ACC, RPI: 45), Florida State (28-19, 19-14 ACC, RPI: 48) and Virginia Tech (27-20, 27-20, 16-17 ACC, RPI: 52).
Notice a trend there? The Eagles have been eliminated from contention for one of the 12 spots in the 2021 ACC Tournament in Charlotte coming up next week, but they’ve got some serious pelts.
And BC has a Friday night guy in Emmet Sheehan (5-4, 3.89 ERA, .202 opp BA, 1.16 WHIP, 102K/30BB in 71.2 IP) who is the real deal.
In his last four starts – against FSU, Notre Dame, Miami and Pitt – Sheehan has a 2.48 ERA, 43K/11BB and 14 hits allowed in 25.1 IP.
Dude can deal, basically.
And the Saturday guy, Mason Pelio (3-6, 5.79 ERA, .284 opp BA, 1.71 WHIP) might not scare you with his numbers, but the past three weekends, he has been effective – going at least six innings in each start, with a 3.00 ERA, with 16K/9BB and 18 hits allowed in his 18 innings against Notre Dame, Miami and Pitt.
Point being, it won’t be easy, and even taking two of three likely has Virginia dropping another spot or two in the RPI.
Sort of a lose-lose, when you think of it that way.
Story by Chris Graham
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