Virginia and future member Louisville will represent ACC in College World Series

Virginia and future member Louisville will represent the Atlantic Coast Conference in the baseball College World Series which starts this weekend.

Virginia advanced with an 11-2 victory over Maryland in the decisive Game 3 of the Charlottesville Super Regional, Monday night at Davenport Field. The Cavaliers (49-14) advance to the third College World Series in school history, all in the past six years (2009, 2011).

Virginia will open play in College World Series on Sunday against Mississippi, who won the Lafayette Super Regional in three games over Louisiana-Lafayette. The third-seeded Cavaliers are the highest seed to advance to Omaha.

Kenny Towns (Burke, Va.) led the Cavalier offense with a 3-for-4 night, driving in four runs to tie the school record for an NCAA Tournament game. Daniel Pinero (Toronto, Ontario), Joe McCarthy (Scranton, Pa.) and Brandon Downes(South Plainfield, N.J.) also had multi-hit games for Virginia.

Josh Sborz (McLean, Va.) earned the win, pitching seven shutout innings. He allowed four hits while striking out nine to improve to 5-4 on the year. Nick Howard(Olney, Md.) closed the door on the Terrapins, allowing one hit over the final 1.1 innings of shutout relief.

Louisville clinched its second straight College World Series berth and the third in eight years with Saturday night’s 7-4 victory over Kennesaw State in the second game of the NCAA Super Regional at Jim Patterson Stadium.

Senior Cole Sturgeon (Owensboro, Ky.) went 3-for-4 with three RBI and a run scored at the plate and struck out three in 1.1 innings of relief on the mound for the Cardinals (50-15), while freshman designated hitter Nick Solak(Woodridge, Ill.) added his second home run of the season and drove in three runs. Sophomore righty starter Anthony Kidston (Defiance, Ohio) improved to 9-0 on the season, while junior righty Nick Burdi (Downers Grove, Ill.) closed the night with school record setting 18th save of the season.

In sweeping the first two games of the best-of-three series against the Owls (40-24), the Cardinals improved to 10-0 in regional and super regional games in the last two seasons.

Louisville open the CWS against Vanderbilt on Saturday.