Three-Game Series Against Penn State Awaits Surging Cavaliers

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – Virginia (7-0) is back in action on Tuesday (March 1) at Disharoon Park when it hosts William & Mary (3-1). First pitch for the midweek tilt is slated for 3 p.m. on ACCNX.

GAME COVERAGE: ACCNX is available to authenticated subscribers of the ACC Network through the ESPN app and ESPN.com. Links to live stats are available on VirginiaSports.com. Fans can get in-game updates on the team’s official twitter page (@UVABaseball). 

PROBABLE STARTING PITCHERS
Tuesday – 3 p.m.
William & Mary: RHP Rojo Prarie (0-0, 0.00 ERA, 3.2 IP, 2 BB, 4 SO)
Virginia: RHP Devin Ortiz (2-0, 0.00 ERA, 6.0 IP, 0 BB, 10 SO)

LEADING OFF

• The Cavaliers are off to their best start since the 2017 season. Virginia has won its first seven games to start the year for the sixth time under head coach Brian O’Connor (2008, 2009, 2013, 2015, 2017, 2021).
• Virginia has won seven-straight home games dating back to last season.
• The Cavaliers have posted double-digit run efforts in each of the last four games, a feat that hasn’t been accomplished by a UVA offense since 2013. The last time UVA scored 10 or more runs in five straight games was in 2010.
• UVA is one of 18 teams in in the country without a loss in 2022. Including Virginia, five ACC teams are undefeated through the first two weeks of the season.
• William and Mary hasn’t played a game since Feb. 22, a 14-11 loss to Richmond. Its doubleheader against Maine and Penn State in Cary, N.C. on Sunday was canceled.

AMONG THE NATION’S ELITE

• UVA is nationally ranked by Baseball America (4), Collegiate Baseball Newspaper (12), USA Today/Coaches (22) and the NCBWA (23).
• Virginia pitchers lead the country in strikeouts per nine innings (14.9) and have fanned 10 or more batters in all but one game this season.
• The Cavaliers rank fifth in the country in scoring, averaging 12.9 runs per game.

AGAINST WILLIAM & MARY

• Virginia and William & Mary have met every year since 2007 and in all but one year of the Brian O’Connor era. UVA is 18-3 against the Tribe since 2004.
• Two of the last four meetings have gone to extra innings and have been decided by one run.
• In last season’s meeting, the Cavaliers were down two runs in the bottom of the ninth before Devin Ortiz came up with a one-out double to tie the game. Zack Gelof delivered a sacrifice fly in the 12^th to seal the walk-off victory.
• The other one-run game in recent memory came in 2018, a combined no-hitter that Virginia won 4-3 in the 11^th inning. Six Cavalier pitchers combined for the Cavalier no-no and UVA won the game in walk-off fashion on a Tribe fielding error.
• The Cavaliers own a 79-31-2 advantage in the all-time series against William & Mary that was first played in 1902 in Charlottesville, a 27-1 UVA victory.

ON THE MOUND

• Devin Ortiz is scheduled to make his second start of the season and the third of his career.
• Last week against VMI, he tossed four shutout innings and struck out a career-high six batters.
• Dating back to the 2019 season, Ortiz hasn’t surrendered an earned run in 31.1 consecutive innings pitched.
• A two-way player for the Cavaliers, Ortiz has homered in each of his last two starts on the mound, including his walk-off winner last season in the NCAA Columbia Regional Championship against Old Dominion.

GELOF’S MONSTER WEEK

• Jake Gelof was named the ACC Player of the Week on Monday (Feb. 28) and was one of Collegiate Baseball Newspaper’s National Players of the Week. He’s the first Cavalier position player to take home the ACC weekly honor since 2017 (Pavin Smith & Jake McCarthy).
• In four games, Gelof batted .900 (9-for-10) with four home runs and 15 RBI. He reached base 13 times and slugged 2.500 for the week.
• In Friday’s series opener against Cornell he blasted a pair of three-run homers and drove in eight runs, the most in a game since a UVA hitter since 2013.
• He capped off his week by becoming the first Cavalier to hit for the cycle in 21 years, accomplishing the feat in just four at bats and five innings played.

HISTORIC NUMBERS

• Virginia plated 60 runs in three games against Cornell, a new school record for runs in a three-game series. The 60 runs were tied for the most in any three-game span in the history of the program. The only other three-game stretch of 60 runs came in 1891.
• Virginia scored 24 runs in the opening game against Cornell, the most in a game since scoring 24 against U-Mass Lowell in 2020.
• The Cavaliers posted 41 runs in the first two games of the series, the second-most in back-to-back games during O’Connor’s tenure at Virginia (44 in 2008 – Coppin St./Sienna).
• Led by Nate Savino’s 11, Virginia fanned 23 batters in the opening game against Cornell, the second-largest strikeout total in school history. It marked the fourth time in the last two seasons UVA pitchers have combined to strike out 20 or more in a game.
• Only 11 times in NCAA history has a team struck out 23 or more batters in a nine-inning game. Virginia has produced two of the 11 games, both occurring in the last two seasons.
• Virginia drew 17 walks in the opening game against Cornell, the most in any game since 2000. Kyle Teel was issued five free passes, tying the program’s single-game mark held by Phil Gosselin.

CAVALIER NOTABLES

• At the plate, Ortiz needs one more hit to reach 100 for his career.
• Alex Tappen is the team’s active leader in hits (129) and RBI (96). He his four RBI shy from reaching the century mark.
• Kyle Teel, Griff O’Ferrall, Devin Ortiz and Jake Gelof have all reached safely in UVA’s first seven games. Casey Saucke and Max Cotier each own the team’s longest hit streaks at six.
• Teel has reached base safely in 33-straight games dating back to last season.