The Hoos had a successful start to their 2022 postseason as they defeated Coastal Carolina 7 to 2 to open their stay in the Greenville Regional.

Their reward is a matchup against regional top seed / number 8 national seed and host East Carolina.

It should be an exciting game in what promises to be a raucous college baseball atmosphere.

Let's run it back again tomorrow night ?️?️ pic.twitter.com/2KwX2gAoUf

— ECU Baseball (@ECUBaseball) June 3, 2022

Game Schedule

Saturday, June 4 – 7:00 PM

Team Records

Virginia: 39-17 (Overall), 17-13 (ACC)

East Carolina: 43-18 (Overall), 20-4 (American)

Stat Comparison

Stats and rankings are as of games completed through May 29 which concluded conference tournament season.

Batting

OBP = On Base Percentage

SLG = Slugging Percentage

Pitching

K/9 = Strikeouts Per 9 Innings

BB/9 = Walks Per 9 Innings

Miscellaneous

FLD % = Fielding Percentage

SOS = Strength Of Schedule

Note that all stats are from NCAA.com. RPI and strength of schedule data is from D1Baseball.com and is as of games played through May 29.

Venue

The Greenville Regional will be played at East Carolina’s Lewis Field at Clark-LeClair Stadium.

Media Coverage

The ACC Network will broadcast the game.

ESPN will also stream the game. I have not seen specific streaming details, but if that is your preferred method of watching you’re likely going to need either access to ACC Network through your provider (most likely) or access to ESPN +.

The UVA radio broadcast will be on WINA (98.9 FM/1070 AM) in the Charlottesville area. It will also be available online at WINA.com.

Projected Starting Pitchers

Virginia: LHP Brian Gursky

7-2 / 4.04 ERA / 64.2 Innings Pitched / 31 Walks / 82 Strikeouts / .254 Batting Average Against

Gursky made the most of his grad transfer from Southern Cal to Virginia. Used mostly as a reliever at USC (38 relief outings in 53 career appearances), Gursky was a weekend starter the entire 2022 season for the Hoos. His work on the season earned him Second Team All-ACC honors.

??????? ???? ???-????@brian_gursky carries on a pitching tradition like no other. UVA has the most All-ACC pitchers in the league since 2004.#GoHoos pic.twitter.com/G049GIrXUw

— Virginia Baseball (@UVABaseball) May 23, 2022

Late in the season, Gursky and Nate Savino flip-flopped the Friday and Saturday roles with Gursky taking over on Friday. Gursky, however, seemed to pitch better as the Saturday starter for the Hoos. In Greenville, he’s back in that spot against East Carolina.

East Carolina: LHP C.J. Mayhue

4-1 / 2.90 ERA / 62.0 Innings Pitched / 15 Walks / 64 Strikeouts / .198 Batting Average Against

Mayhue, a Preseason Third Team All-American according to the NCBWA, won Second Team All-American Conference honors for his work during the 2022 season.

The 5-11 181 pound sophomore is in his third season in the East Carolina program.

The Pirates have used him mostly as a reliever during the 2022 season as he has 18 relief appearances and 10 starts. His last 5 appearances are all starts where he’s ranged from just 2.1 innings pitched to 9.0 innings pitched. Mayhue was the nominal Friday starter for East Carolina at the end of the regular season, but he’s started on Saturday as well.

Mayhue’s most recent outing was a start against Houston in the American Conference Championship Game. The Pirates won that game 6 to 1. In the start, Mayhue pitched 3.0 innings of scoreless baseball. He gave up 2 hits to Houston while walking 1 and striking out 3.

In his most impressive outing of the season, Mayhue started at Memphis on May 6. Mayhue pitched the first 9.0 innings of the game before giving way to the bullpen to begin extra innings. In those 9.0 innings, Mayhue not only gave up no runs but he surrendered no hits as well. He walked just 1 batter and struck out 9.

I forgot to tweet about this over the weekend, but CJ Mayhue threw 9 no-hit innings against Memphis for @ECUBaseball and got the no decision as Landon Gartman threw 8 no-hit innings for @MemphisBaseball which is in my mind the craziest thing to happen this season

— Stephen Schoch (@bigdonkey47) May 11, 2022

Mayhue is a highly competitive lefty that pitches from a three-quarter arm slot. D1 Baseball’s Aaron Fitt, in both the outlet’s Top 25 preview of East Carolina and their fall baseball report on the Pirates, described Mayhue’s pitching style as one featuring command, deceptiveness, and funk.

Mayhue’s top two pitches are his fastball and slider. The fastball can be expected to sit in the upper 80s to lower 90s. The slider, which Fitt says has a two-plane breaking action, can be expected to sit 82 to 84 MPH.

WATCH: A focused CJ Mayhue warms up ahead of his final start of the regular season. Game 1 between the Pirates and Cougars is set to be underway at 6:32pm. pic.twitter.com/Hrd1VhKjTh

— Pirate Radio ☠️ (@PR927FM) May 19, 2022

Pirate To Watch

Senior outfielder Bryson Worrell may feature a .319/.389/.584 slash line. And he may have a .973 OPS. His 16 homers may lead the Pirates. And his 52 RBI may be second on the team.

But he’s got my attention because he hit two home runs in the same inning, one from each side of the plate, in the regional opener against Coppin State.

Anytime you can pull that off, you automatically become the player to watch.

BRYSON WORRELL HIT A HOME RUN BOTH LEFTY AND RIGHTY IN THE SAME INNING ? pic.twitter.com/g9cv4ehO4E

— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) June 3, 2022

Wahoo Connection

UVA associate head coach Kevin McMullan is very familiar with Greenville, North Carolina.

Before joining the UVA coaching staff when Brian O’Connor was hired, and with a short stint in the Atlanta Braves organization as the manager of the Danville Braves in 2002, Coach Mac was an assistant at East Carolina.

In three seasons with the Pirates, Coach Mac was the catching instructor, recruiting coordinator, and hitting coach. During the 2002 season, he was also the acting head coach when ECU’s head coach Keith LeClair was diagnosed with ALS. That season, the Pirates won the Conference USA auto bid to the NCAA Tournament. The Pirates made it to the regional final as a 2 seed before being eliminated by regional 1 seed and host Clemson.

Additionally, these two programs are intimately familiar with one another on the playing field. The Hoos and Pirates have played numerous contests against one another encompassing fall baseball scrimmages, regular season games, and postseason games. They’ve played in each other’s parks numerous times. There will be very few secrets between the foul lines and in the dugouts tonight.

Outlook

The Hoos played big road series against Wake Forest, Miami, and Louisville this season. But the crowd tonight will be a different animal than what the Hoos saw in those ACC venues.

Goal number one will be to feed off of the hostile crowd instead of being intimidated by it. With a large number of players having played in Omaha and in a nuthouse in Blacksburg last season, the veteran leaders on the team should be able to steer things in the correct direction.

From there, the Hoos should aim to play the brand of baseball they displayed from the third inning on against Coastal Carolina last night.

If they can accomplish those goals, this game is a winnable coin flip where a late game play will likely decide the outcome.