The Virginia Cavaliers (52-9) came into the 2011 NCAA tournament as the No. 1 overall seed. They have backed that up with an impressive showing thus far in the race to the College World Series.
Virginia won their three regional games by an average of 8.6 runs per game. They defeated Navy 6-0 in the opener, then took out St. Johns 10-2, and took the regional championship by beating East Carolina 13-1.
They are led by their three starting pitchers, all of whom were drafted in the top 10 rounds of the Major League draft this past week. Danny Hultzen was drafted No. 2 overall to the Seattle Mariners, Will Roberts was drafted in the 5th round to the Cleveland Indians, and Tyler Wilson was a 10th round pick by the Baltimore Orioles.
Hultzen sits at 11-3 on the season with a 1.57 ERA, Roberts is 11-1 with a 1.61 ERA, and Wilson 8-0 with a 2.34 ERA. They have a combined 349 strikeouts and just 50 walks in 286.2 innings. That's 10.95 k's and 1.57 walks per nine innings. Those are video game numbers and just flat out dominant.
Virginia takes on UC Irvine (42-16) on Saturday at 1pm ET in Charlottesville, VA in the first game of the super regional. The best-of-three series sends the winner to Omaha, NE and the College World Series for a chance at a national championship.