The UVA baseball team opens NCAA tournament play at 6 p.m. ET on Friday as it takes on Southern California in the NCAA Lake Elsinore Regional in Lake Elsinore, Calif. UCSB is the region’s top seed and will host the event at Lake Elsinore Diamond, home of the Lake Elsinore Storm, the high-A affiliate of the San Diego Padres.
Following the UVa-USC game Friday, UCSB and SDSU will play at 10 p.m. ET. The regional will continue with doubleheaders at 6 p.m. and 10 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday. If necessary, a second regional final would be played at 9 p.m. Monday.
The winner of the Lake Elsinore Regional will advance to play the champion of the Los Angeles Regional in an NCAA Super Regional June 5-7 or 6-8. The Los Angeles Regional consists of host UCLA, Ole Miss, Maryland and Cal State Bakersfield.
Broadcast Information
All games in the regional will stream online on ESPN3. UVA’s live radio broadcasts are available on VirginiaSports.com through a Cavaliers Live subscription. A link to live statistics also can be found on VirginiaSports.com.
WINA 1070-AM and WINA.com will have the live local radio broadcast for all postseason games. Each of the NCAA regional games will air across select stations on the Virginia Sports Radio Network:
Richmond – WRVA 1140 AM
Charlottesville – WINA 1070 AM
Martinsville – WMVA 1450 AM
Tickets
Tickets are available online through the Lake Elsinore Storm’s box office.
Virginia in the NCAA Baseball Championship
Virginia is competing in its 15th NCAA tournament, including its 12th straight trip to the Big Dance. UVa is 42-32 in the tournament, including 30-16 over the last six seasons.
Under Brian O’Connor (since 2004), UVa is 36-26 in the NCAA tourney. UVa owns five regional championships – all in the last six seasons (2009, 2010, 2011, 2013, 2014) – and advanced to the College World Series in 2009, 2011 and 2014, taking runner-up honors to Vanderbilt in the 2014 CWS Finals.
First Road Regional Since 2009
Virginia is hitting the road for an NCAA Regional for the first time since 2009. UVa swept through the Irvine Regional in 2009 for its first-ever regional championship, defeating San Diego State (and ace pitcher Stephen Strasburg) before twice beating sixth-seeded UC Irvine.
UVa’s last three regionals on the road all have come in the state of California (2008 Fullerton, 2009 Irvine). UVa had hosted five straight regionals prior this season, joining South Carolina as the only schools to host regionals each of the previous five years.
Virginia is 10-10 while on the road for a regional (1972, 1985, 1996, 2005, 2008, 2009).
Virginia One of Six Schools in Last 12 NCAA Tournaments
Virginia is one of six Division I baseball programs to reach the NCAA tournament each of the last 12 seasons (including 2015). The Cavaliers are one of three teams in the ACC to hold that distinction, joining Florida State and Miami.
Current NCAA Tournament Streaks
Miami, 43
Florida State, 38
Cal State Fullerton, 24
Rice, 21
Arkansas, 13
Virginia, 12
Virginia Against the 2015 NCAA Field
Virginia faced seven teams this year that advanced to the NCAA tournament (East Carolina, Florida State, Louisville, Miami, NC State, Notre Dame, VCU). Twenty-two of Virginia’s 56 games were against NCAA qualifiers – UVa went 11-11 against those teams.
New Foes Dot the Regional Field
Virginia has played just one game previously against the NCAA Lake Elsinore Regional field. UVa played San Diego State in the opening game of the 2009 Irvine Regional (May 29), downing the Aztecs and Stephen Strasburg, 5-1. UVa has not played USC or UCSB previously.
The Cavaliers’ lone games in the state of California all came during their NCAA tournament games in 2008 and 2009 (4-2 record).
Recapping the Cavaliers
Virginia enters the tournament with a 34-22 record, including a 15-15 mark in ACC play. The Cavaliers won three of their final four ACC series, including a home series win over Miami and a sweep at North Carolina to cap the regular season. Named a third-team All-American on Thursday by Collegiate Baseball, Matt Thaiss leads the team in batting (.324) and home runs (9) and is tied for the team lead in RBI with Kenny Towns with 55. Towns is batting .308 on the year.
Noting USC
Virginia and USC are playing for the first time. The Trojans finished in a three-way tie for third place in the Pac-12 Conference with Arizona State and California. Twelve-time national champions, the Trojans own their best regular-season record since 2001 and are appearing in their first NCAA tournament since 2005. USC boasts a potent offense, as the Trojans are batting .294 this year as a team, led by Bobby Stahel at .379. USC also likes to run and owns a Pac-12-leading 93 stolen bases.
2015 NCAA Lake Elsinore Regional Schedule (all times Eastern)
Friday, May 29
Game 1 – No. 2 USC vs. No. 3 Virginia, 6 p.m.
Game 2 – No. 1 UCSB vs. No. 4 San Diego State, 10 p.m.
Saturday, May 30
Game 3 – Loser Game 1 vs. Loser Game 2, 6 p.m.
Game 4 – Winner Game 1 vs. Winner Game 2, 10 p.m.
Sunday, May 31
Game 5 – Winner Game 3 vs. Loser Game 4, 6 p.m.
Game 6 – Winner Game 5 vs. Winner Game 4, 10 p.m.
Monday, June 1
Game 7 – Winner Game 6 vs. Loser Game 6 (if necessary), 9 p.m.
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Chris Graham
