No. 19 Virginia Hosts Weekend ACC Series Against Boston College

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – No. 19 Virginia (16-1, 2-1 ACC) will host a three-game Atlantic Coast Conference series against Boston College (7-8, 1-2 ACC) beginning Friday (March 18) at Disharoon Park. The entirety of the series will be broadcast live on ACCNX and can be heard on WINA (98.9 FM/1070 AM). First pitch on Friday and Saturday is scheduled for 4 p.m. while Sunday will begin at 1 p.m.

GAME COVERAGE: ACCNX is available to authenticated subscribers of the ACC Network through the ESPN app and ESPN.com. In addition, all three games can be heard locally in Charlottesville on 98.9 FM/1070 FM and anywhere on WINA.com. Links to live stats are available on VirginiaSports.com. Fans can get in-game updates on the team’s official twitter page (@UVABaseball).

WEEKEND PROMOTIONS

• Beginning with this Friday’s series opener against Boston College, youth ages (ages 18 and under) can attend all remaining regular season baseball games for free in general admission seating based on availability. To claim free youth tickets, fans are REQUIRED to purchase a minimum of one paid adult ticket (maximum of four youth tickets per paid adult ticket). The offer is online only and not available at the box office.
• For Friday’s series opener hot doges, 22 oz Pepsi products and popcorn are $2 each.
• Every Sunday is Youth Day at The Dish. Kids can enjoy inflatable slides and obstacle courses in left field, balloon artists, face painters throughout the game. After the game kids can run the bases and get autographs on the field from the team. The first of five special edition posters will be handed out at the game.
• The Gus Bus, the food truck of the White Spot, will be on hand serving the famous “Gus Burgers” all weekend

PROBABLE STARTING PITCHERS
Friday – 4 p.m.
Boston College: RHP Joe Mancini (2-0, 3.54 ERA, 20.1 IP, 10 BB, 15 SO)
Virginia: LHP Nate Savino (3-0, 1.21 ERA, 22.1 IP, 2 BB, 27 SO)

Saturday – 4 p.m.
Boston College: RHP Sean Hard (0-1, 7.98 ERA, 14.2 IP, 12 BB, 18 SO)
Virginia: LHP Brian Gursky (4-0, 2.14 ERA, 21.0 IP, 8 BB, 27 SO)

Sunday – 1 p.m.
Boston College: RHP Mason Pelio (0-0, 1-0, 2.0 IP, 0 BB, 0 SO)
Virginia: LHP Brandon Neeck (2-0, 2.65 ERA, 17.0 IP, 9 BB, 18 SO)

 LEADING OFF

• Virginia enters the weekend with 16 wins, tied with Tennessee for the most in the country. There are four teams in college baseball with one or no losses – Purdue (15-0), Tennessee (16-1), Old Dominion (14-1) and Notre Dame (12-1).
• Virginia is currently riding a 14-game home win streak that dates back to last season. It’s tied for the fourth-longest home winning streak in college baseball – Tennessee (20 games), North Carolina (19 games), UConn (15 games) Virginia and Georgia Tech (14 games).
• Virginia is the No. 2 team in the country in runs (195) and runs per game (11.5). The Cavaliers are outscoring its opponents 195-38.
• Head coach Brian O’Connor is the 310-199-1 all-time in ACC play and is one of eight coaches in ACC history to win 300 conference games.

AGAINST BOSTON COLLEGE

• Virginia owns a 23-7 all-time record against Boston College in series that first began in 2006 when the Eagles joined the ACC.
• The Cavaliers won 15 of the first 16 meeting against Boston College from 2006-2011.
• UVA took two out of three against the Eagles in Chestnut Hill on the final weekend of the 2021 regular season.
• The Eagles snapped UVA’s five-game win streak in the 2021 regular season finale. Max Cotier tied a school record with three doubles in the contest.
• Boston College has not visited Charlottesville since the 2018 season, a three-game series that was decided in the 10^th inning of the weekend finale on a walk-off sacrifice fly by Charlie Cody in the 10^th inning.
• Including 2018, Virginia has five walk-off victories against Boston College at Disharoon Park (2007, 2008, 2014 (2) and 2018).

CAVALIERS AT HOME

• Virginia has won all 11 of its home games this season and scored 10 or more runs in each home contest at Disharoon Park. UVA is averaging 14.04 runs per game in its home ballpark.
• The Cavaliers are outscoring opponents 155-27 in home games this spring.
• 25 of Virginia’s 29 home runs on the season have left the confines of Disharoon Park.

Most Home Runs at Disharoon Park (Since 2002)

TEEL GRAND SLAMS

• Sophomore Kyle Teel has hit the program’s last three grand slams including two this season. He hit the first postseason grand slam in program history in the 2021 Super Regional, cleared the bases against Cornell on Feb. 27 and hit a grand slam on Tuesday against Rider.
• Teel’s three career grand slams tie Pavin Smith and Mike Papi for the most by a UVA hitter since 2000.
• With the bases loaded, Teel is 3-for-3 with two home runs and triple and 11 RBI this season.
• Since 2000, no Cavalier has hit three grand slams in a season.

ON THE MOUND

• In addition to the nation’s third lowest ERA, the Cavalier pitching staff has allowed only 6.16 hits per nine innings the sixth-lowest rate in the NCAA this season. UVA hurlers have a 12.0 strikeout per nine innings ratio, the sixth best in the country.
• Friday night starter Nate Savino opened ACC play last weekend at Duke with a complete game shutout. He scattered five hits and did not allow a Duke batter to reach second base. He finished his outing by retiring the final 10 batters he faced.
• It marked the first complete game, nine-inning shutout by a Cavalier since Derek Casey blanked Virginia Tech in the first game of a doubleheader in 2018.
• The performance earned him ACC Pitcher of the Week accolades for the first time in his career.
• Virginia is the only school in the country with five shutouts this season.
• Graduate transfer Brian Gursky has won each of his first four starts at UVA including a 13-1 victory last weekend at Duke. The lefthander has pitched five or more innings in all four starts and struck out at least five batters in each appearance.
• With Gursky on the mound, the UVA offense has outscored opponents 48-10.
• Brandon Neeck allowed three earned runs over 2.2 innings, his shortest outing of the season. The Cavaliers made two errors behind him and he walked a career-high four batters as UVA was edged in the series finale at Duke.
• Sophomore Jake Berry was credited with his second win of the season after striking out four batters over 2.2 innings on Wednesday. The lefthander leads the Virginia bullpen in appearances (7) and innings pitched (15.1) and lowered his ERA to 1.29.
• Freshman reliever Jay Woolfolk has allowed only one run in 10 innings pitched this season. He hasn’t allowed a run to cross in his last 5.2 innings pitched. Six of his seven appearances he’s recorded multiple strikeouts.

IN THE POLLS

• Virginia is nationally ranked by D1Baseball for the first time, entering the poll this week at No. 19. The Cavaliers are now ranked in all six of the major collegiate top-25 polls and are ranked as high as No. 5 according to Baseball America and Collegiate Baseball Newspaper.
• Virginia goes into the weekend ranked No. 26 in the NCAA RPI.

CAVALIER NOTABLES

• Jake Gelof leads the country in RBI (38) and slugging percentage (1.103). He ranks second in the NCAA in total bases (64) and third in home runs (9).
• Freshman Griff O’Ferrall ranks fourth in the NCAA in runs scored (25) and has scored two or more runs in a game, nine times this season. The first year has batted leadoff and played shortstop in all 17 games.
• Casey Saucke carries the team’s longest hit streak, 15 games, into the weekend. He came on as a pinch-hitter in two of 15 games during the streak. He was part of back-to-back homers on Tuesday for the second time this season.
• Saucke and Newell homered in both games of the midweek series against Rider.
• Alex Tappen hit his 16th career homer on Wednesday against Boston College. He wrapped up the midweek series against Rider by going 5-for-7, with two doubles, a home run and 4 RBI
• Max Cotier is two hits shy of 100 for his career. He’s looking to join Alex Tappen (143) and Devin Ortiz (112) as active Cavaliers with 100+ hits.