CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – The Charlottesville Tom Sox (26-13) will face the Culpeper Cavaliers (21-20) in a best-of-three South Division championship series to determine the South’s representative in the VBL Championship. Games one and three (if necessary) will take place at Charlottesville High School on Friday and Sunday, respectively, while game two will be hosted at Culpeper County High School on Saturday. All three games will begin at 7 p.m.
Coverage: Games one and three will be broadcast live on the Tom Sox Facebook page and Tom Sox TV. Game two will be broadcast on the Culpeper Cavaliers YouTube channel. All three games will have live audio broadcast on Stretch Internet, with live statistics available on Pointstreak. The Tom Sox X account (@CvilleTomSox) will provide live updates.
Ticket Information: Admission to all playoff games is $5 per person.
PROBABLE STARTERS
Culpeper: TBA
Charlottesville: TBA
LEADING OFF:
- The Charlottesville Tom Sox begin their quest for a fourth VBL Championship on Friday when they face the Culpeper Cavaliers in game one of the South Championship.
- Games one and three (if necessary) will be hosted at Charlottesville High School, while the second game will take place Saturday at Culpeper County HS.
- The Tom Sox have appeared in the VBL Championship all but one season (2021) since 2017.
- Charlottesville ended the regular season as the league’s number one overall seed, half a game ahead of Purcellville. They clinched the South Regular Season Championship on July 19.
- The ‘Sox closed the regular season as the league’s ERA (3.87), opponent batting average (.216), and WHIP (1.38) leader.
- Charlottesville has lost consecutive games for the first time this season.
PLAYOFF READY:
- The Tom Sox are making their seventh consecutive postseason appearance in 2024. They have appeared in the VBL Championship in all but one season (2021) since making their debut in 2017.
- Charlottesville has won the VBL Championship in alternating seasons since their first in 2017, doing so in ‘17, ‘19, and ‘22 (the 2020 season was canceled).
- Last season, the Tom Sox defeated the Front Royal Cardinals and Strasburg Express to reach the championship, despite a depleted roster from injuries and departures. They fell 0-2 to the Harrisonburg Turks.
- Charlottesville swept Strasburg in 2022 to win their third title in five seasons.
- The ‘Sox’s three titles since 2017 are the most in the league, as are their six championship appearances.
AGAINST CULPEPER:
- Charlottesville and Culpeper will face off for the ninth and tenth times this season. Charlottesville leads the season series 5-3.
- Culpeper has won the last three meetings in the series, their longest win streak in series history. Two of their three wins, however, came after Charlottesville clinched the division championship and made some significant lineup changes.
- Four of the eight games this season have been decided by one run, including Monday’s contest in Culpeper. Monday’s game was called due to inclement weather after six innings despite Charlottesville scoring four runs in the top of the seventh.
- Charlottesville outscored Covington by an average of four runs per game in their five wins on the year. The Cavaliers outscored the ‘Sox by an average of two.
- Charlottesville will face Culpeper in the postseason for the first time. Culpeper is in only their second year as an organization and collected their first playoff win in program history on Thursday.
COLBY JACKS:
- Colby Wallace clinched the Valley League’s batting title for the regular season after finishing the year with a .370 average. His average was six points better than Strasburg’s Connor Chisholm, who finished second.
- Wallace is not the first East Carolina hitter to rank among Charlottesville’s best. Thomas Francisco, who was drafted in 2021, and Carter Cunningham, a ‘24 draftee, own two of Charlottesville’s three best single-season batting averages – .409 and .404, respectively.
- With eight more at-bats in order to qualify, Wallace will sit fifth on that list.
- In addition to his outstanding average, Wallace leads Charlottesville in on-base percentage (.464, 5th in VBL) and ranks among the team’s best in slugging percentage (.489, 3rd), runs (21, T-4th), doubles (6, T-2nd), and walks (15, 5th).
MEN ON THE MOUND:
- Charlottesville completed the regular season as the Valley’s best pitching team, ranking as the league’s best in ERA (3.87), opponent batting average (.216), and WHIP (1.38).
- They also rank among the league’s best in strikeouts per nine (9.3, 5th), walks per nine (5.1, 5th), and strikeouts per walk (1.8, 3rd).
- Due to innings requirements, no Tom Sox pitchers qualified for the regular season ERA title. If Charlottesville’s top starters did, Bobby Olsen would lead the league in ERA (1.42 in 19 innings) and Chase Stryker would rank second (2.28 in 27.2 innings). James Hays would rank third with a 3.28 ERA in 24.2 innings.
SCOUTING THE CAVS:
- Culpeper enters this series as the third seed in the South Division. They defeated the two-seed Harrisonburg Turks 9-4 in Thursday’s wild-card game.
- Culpeper finished the regular season with an even 20-20 record. They finished the season 11th in the league in batting average (.247) and sixth in ERA (5.38).
- Culpeper’s 35 home runs tied for the league regular season lead, along with Strasburg.
- Division III player of the year Connor Maryniak led Culpeper’s qualifying batters with a .337 average, which ranked seventh in the league. Jon Howard’s six home runs tied for the fourth-best mark in the league.
- Brok Eddy led Culpeper’s qualifying arms with a 4.59 ERA in 33.1 innings. Carter Rasmussen led the league with 47 strikeouts on the year.
- The ‘Cavs swept the most recent South Player of the Week honors, with Bryce Demory (8-for-25, 4 HR, 11 RBI) and William Wian (11 IP, 1 ER, 13 K) taking home player and pitcher of the week honors, respectively.
ALL-STARS AND PROSPECTS, OH MY!
- Tom Sox represented a solid core of the rosters for both the VBL’s NACSB Prospect Games roster, who competed on June 24, and the South division All-Star roster, which faced the North on June 30’s game.
- Included on the prospect games roster were pitchers Daniel Powell, Ethan Sutton, and Ryan Grzesiakalongside position players Cade Belyeu (who could not compete due to an injury) and Colby Wallace. The VBL fell 12-10 to the NYCBL.
- The All-Star roster included position players Johnnie Lopez, Robbie Lavey, and Ethan Gibson alongside pitchers Daniel Powell and Ayden Alexander. Alexander took the spot of Marco Levari, who was unable to participate after hitting his innings limit.
- Head Coach Randy Tomlin served as the manager for both squads, courtesy of Charlottesville having the South’s best record through the respective selection dates.
TITLETOWN:
- The Tom Sox have been the Valley’s most successful team since winning their first title in 2017.
- The ‘Sox have appeared in all but one championship series since ‘17 (2021) and have won the league title in three of those six years.
- Charlottesville’s 190-99 record since the start of the 2017 season is the best in the VBL.
- Charlottesville’s six championship appearances and three titles since 2017 are both the most in the VBL over that span. They are tied with Strasburg in both titles won and championship appearances if including the entirety of Charlottesville’s nine seasons of existence.
- The Tom Sox have won the league title in alternating seasons since their first title in 2017.
