Gelof ties record, boosts Virginia to top of ACC Coastal
By HANK KURZ Jr.
AP Sports Writer
Jake Gelof’s next home run will make him Virginia’s career leader with 38, and if it doesn’t come either Tuesday against Richmond or Wednesday against Mount St. Mary’s, it’s a good bet it will come this weekend against Pittsburgh.
The junior has homered in nine consecutive Atlantic Coast Conference series, dating to last season. He hit three over the weekend as the Cavaliers (28-4, 11-4) swept Miami, extending the nation’s longest home winning streak to 21.
E.J. Anderson hit 37 homers for the Cavaliers from 1995-98.
The teams began the weekend tied for the ACC’s Coastal Division lead, and Gelof was 7-for-14, also adding a double, a triple and nine RBIs in the series. allowing him to take over the national lead in RBIs with 53.
“Jake Gelof comes ready to play every day,” Virginia coach Brian O’Connor said. “He’s got a high-level baseball mind, he has an understanding of what he’s trying to do up there and he’s aggressive. He doesn’t get cheated.”
Gelof leads the ACC in RBIs and slugging percentage (.808), is third in home runs with 12 and shares the lead with 14 doubles and three triples. Overall, he’s batting .372 and his extra-base hits (29) outnumber his strikeouts (24).
“He doesn’t go up there trying to hit the ball out of the ballpark every time,” O’Connor said. “When he gets to two strikes, he shortens up and puts the ball in play.”
The sweep left Virginia atop the Coastal Division standings, a game ahead of North Carolina, and could prove critical in the race for the division title.
“You get 30 chances at ACC games and you just don’t know at the end of the year after 10 weekends which games made the difference,” O’Connor said.
IN THE POLLS
The top three remain the same in the D1Baseball.com poll — LSU (26-5), Wake Forest (28-4) and Florida (27-6).
The Baseball America rankings are also unchanged, with Florida second and Wake Forest third behind LSU.
The top seven remain unchanged in the Collegiate Baseball newspaper poll, led by LSU, Vanderbilt (26-6) and South Carolina (28-4).
MILESTONES
Rutgers coach Steve Owens joined an elite fraternity Tuesday when the Scarlet Knights (16-15) beat Hofstra 5-0 for his 1,000th career victory. He’s the ninth active coach to reach that level. Owens is in his fourth year at Rutgers and 32nd in charge with previous stops at Bryant, Le Moyne and Cortland State.
Mississippi’s Mike Bianco moved into second on the career wins list among Southeastern Conference coaches with 871 in the Rebels’ 7-2 victory against Memphis on Tuesday. Bianco moved past former LSU coach Skip Bertman, who Bianco played for and coached under. Bianco has a long way to go to challenge the SEC leader: Ron Polk won 1,218 games at Mississippi State and Georgia.
THAT’S A DAY!
Graduate student Brady Ware had a day to remember for Division II University of Indianapolis on Friday in a 14-0 victory against Drury. The two-way player from Poway, California threw a 7-inning no-hitter with 11 strikeouts in the second game of a doubleheader and hit for the cycle before the fifth inning was over.
He homered and tripled in an 8-run second inning, doubled in the third and singled in the fifth. He finished 4-for-4, drove in five runs and scored two.
AROUND THE HORN
Three teams in the rankings had rough weeks with Boston College, Oklahoma State and Miami all losing three of four games. … LSU’s Dylan Crews leads the nation in hitting with a .510 average on 52 hits in 102 at-bats. He’s also walked 32 times. … Grant Rogers (8-0) of Wichita State leads all pitchers in victories and sports a 1.42 ERA. He’s 15-4 in two seasons.
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