What UVA Baseball fans need to know about the Greenville Regional

Virginia Baseball fans, prepping for the Greenville Regional this weekend are familiar, generally, with East Carolina and Coastal Carolina.

Both have been regular dance partners for the ‘Hoos in regular-season matchups in recent years.

If Coppin State seems familiar, Virginia hosted the Eagles in men’s hoops in November.

And if you’re thinking football, Virginia hosts Coastal Carolina in Scott Stadium in November.

So, good job, NCAA, putting a group of familiar foes together in a regional.

Common opponents

First up for Virginia in Greenville on Friday night is Coastal Carolina (36-18-1), which got an at-large bid out of the Sun Belt, and is ranked 30th in the RPI.

The Chanticleers and Cavaliers have a handful of common opponents. UNC swept three from Coastal back early March, taking a pair of 4-3 games, sandwiched around a 4-0 win in Game 2 of that series.

Virginia swept a three-game series with the Tar Heels in April, the highlight being an 11-7 win in Game 2, in which the ‘Hoos scored seven runs in the bottom of the 10th, the walkoff coming on a Devin Ortiz grand slam.

CCU split a home-and-home with Wake Forest (Virginia took two of three from the Demon Deacons in Winston-Salem), and swept a home-and-home with Clemson (Virginia took two of three from the Tigers in Charlottesville).

Coastal Carolina also took two of three in Statesboro from Georgia Southern, which is hosting a regional this weekend.

The host team, East Carolina (42-18), won the AAC Tournament last week, and is ranked eighth in the RPI, and is the #8 national seed in this year’s NCAA Tournament.

In terms of common opponents between the ‘Hoos and ECU, there’s UNC again, which took two of three from the Pirates in Chapel Hill back in February.

ECU took both ends of a home-and-home with Duke, which lost two of three at home to Virginia in early March, and lost at Virginia Tech, which took two of three at Virginia in April.

The Pirates dropped both ends of a home-and-home to ODU, which won at Virginia in April, and took two of three at home against VCU, which split a home-and-home with the ‘Hoos.

Yeah, a lot of common opponents there.

The four seed, Coppin State (24-28), which opens on Friday against ECU, is the AQ from the MEAC. Virginia and Coppin State had three common opponents.

First up, Cornell, which Virginia swept in emphatic fashion in a three-game February series, and took two of three from Coppin State in early March,.

Next, George Washington, which beat Coppin State on March 9, and lost at Virginia, actually a day earlier.

And then finally, George Mason, which defeated Coppin State and lost at Virginia in one-off midweek games.

Players to watch

East Carolina

• OF Bryson Worrell: .316/.383/.560, 14 HR, 48 RBI, 9-9 SB
• 1B/OF Jacob Jenkins-Cowart: .327/.360/.553, 12 HR, 52 RBI
• UT Alec Makarewicz: .279/.354/.464, 9 HR, 42 RBI
• INF Zach Agnos: .324/.395/.488, 7 HR, 37 RBI, 7-7 SB
• OF Lane Hoover: .354/.441/.438, 0 HR, 30 RBI, 12-18 SB
• LHP CJ Mayhue: 4-1, 2.90 ERA, 0.95 WHIP, 64K/15BB in 62.0 IP, .198 oppBA
• RHP Ryder Giles: 4-1, 2.86 ERA, 1.14 WHIP, 35K/7BB in 44.0 IP, .246 oppBA
• RHP Garrett Saylor: 6-3, 5 saves, 4.85 ERA, 1.19 WHIP, 96K/21BB in 68.2 IP, .233 oppBA
• RHP Carter Spivey: 7-0, 5 saves, 2.42 ERA, 1.12 WHIP, 68K/18BB in 67.0 IP, .232 oppBA
• RHP Ben Terwilliger: 2-0, 5 saves, 3.48 ERA, 1.10 WHIP, 42K/13BB in 31.0 IP, .191 oppBA

Coastal Carolina

• UT Tyler Johnson: .366/.471/.771, 17 HR, 56 RBI
• INF Eric Brown: .332/.456/.563, 7 HR, 37 RBI, 12-17 SB
• OF Austin White: .296/.401/.370, 1 HR, 38 RBI, 33-37 SB
• INF Dale Thomas: .294/.384/.577, 13 HR, 49 RBI
• INF Matt McDermott: .267/.330/.424, 5 HR, 37 RBI, 18-23 SB
• LHP Reid VanScoter: 9-2, 3.06 ERA, 1.15 WHIP, 80K/22BB in 82.1 IP, .235 oppBA
• RHP Michael Knorr: 5-0, 2.81 ERA, 0.97 WHIP, 84K/10BB in 64.0 IP, .216 oppBA
• RHP Jacob Maton: 1-1, 3 saves, 3.29 ERA, 1.46 WHIP, 29K/11BB in 27.1 IP, .271 oppBA

Coppin State

• OF Jordan Hamberg: .355/.464/.630, 8 HR, 34 RBI, 11-13 SB
• INF Corey Miley: .333/.494/.447, 0 HR, 26 RBI
• OF Marcos Castillo: .330/.420/.511, 5 HR, 40 RBI, 18-22 SB
• OF Wellington Balsley: .294/.416/.371, 0 HR, 32 RBI, 26-34 SB
• INF Brian Nicholas: .278/.395/.457, 5 HR, 37 RBI, 16-16 SB
• INF Josh Hankins: .267/.355/.320, 0 HR, 24 RBI, 13-17 SB
• LHP Jordan Hamberg: 6-2, 4.08 ERA, 1.48 WHIP, 86K/33BB in 62.1 IP, .251 oppBA
• RHP Tyler Nichol: 2-2, 5.10 ERA, 1.67 WHIP, 71K/44BB in 67.0 IP, .259 oppBA

Story by Chris Graham