No. 4 Virginia Opens Five-Game Homestand Tuesday

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – No. 4 Virginia (22-2) will begin a five-game homestand on Tuesday (March 29) with a midweek matchup against Richmond (12-8). The game will air live on ACCNX with first pitch at Disharoon Park slated for 4 p.m.

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).

TACO TUESDAY: Fans can enjoy Tacos from the El Tako Nako food truck throughout the game.

PROBABLE STARTING PITCHERS
Tuesday – 4 p.m.
Richmond: RHP Josh Willitts (1-0, 3.54 ERA, 20.0 IP, 14 BB, 24 SO)
Virginia: RHP Devin Ortiz (3-1, 2.50 ERA, 18.0 IP, 1 BB, 24 SO)

LEADING OFF

• Virginia is a consensus top-5 team for the first time this season, coming in at No. 4 according to D1Baseball.com. The Cavaliers have jumped 15 spots since entering the top 25 at No. 19 on March 14.
• UVA comes into Tuesday with 18-straight wins at home, tied for the longest home winning streak in school history.
• The 18-straight home wins is tied for the third-longest active streak in college baseball (Tennessee – 24; North Carolina – 20; UConn – 18)
• The Cavaliers have matched their single season-high in home runs since Disharoon Park opened in 2002 with 38. The 2017 team hit 38 home runs in 34 games played.
• Virginia ranks in the top-4 nationally in batting average (3^rd – .332), earned run average (2^nd – 2.39) and fielding percentage (4^th – .987). Only one other program in the country (Texas)is ranked in the top-15 in each category.
• UVA is No. 1 in the country in runs (268), runs per game (11.2) and shutouts (6).

AGAINST RICHMOND

• Virginia owns an 88-59-2 advantage in the all-time series against Richmond that was first played in 1889, a 13-4 victory for the Cavaliers in Charlottesville.
• Under Brian O’Connor, UVA has won 16 of the 17 meetings against Richmond. The lone blemish came in 2018, a 11-3 Spider victory at Disharoon Park.
• In last season’s meeting, seven UVA pitchers combined for a four-hit shutout in a 7-0 victory in Charlottesville. Zach Messinger logged three innings and sat down all nine batters he faced.
• All 12 of previous meetings between the two school have taken place in Charlottesville.

HOME COOKING

• Virginia has scored 10 or more runs in all but one of its 15 games at home this season.
• The Cavaliers are outscoring opponents 211-4 at the Dish this season and have recorded a pair of shutouts at their home ballpark.
• The last time Virginia won 18-straight games at home was in 2008 when it won its first 18 home contest of the year. In that stretch, UVA outscored opponents 162-46 and featured a 27-1 victory over Coppin State, the second-largest run output of the O’Connor era. The win streak ended with a 17-5 loss to George Washington in the midweek.

ON THE MOUND

• Devin Ortiz is scheduled to make his fourth start of the season and first since March 16 against Rider.
• The righthander started the year without allowing a run in his first 12.2 innings pitched and had his streak of 38-straight innings without allowing a run snapped in a relief appearance against Duke. Ortiz has fanned 24 batters in 18 innings and issued only one walk this season.
• Virginia nearly tossed the program’s eighth no-hitter in the middle game of a three-game series at Wake Forest. Tommy Hawke recorded an infield single with two outs in the bottom of the ninth. It was UVA’s first one-hitter since holding Towson to one base knock on March 17, 2021.
• The Virginia pitching staff ranks third in the country in hits allowed per game (6.2) fourth in strikeouts (278) and sixth in strikeouts per nine innings (11.6). UVA pitchers have combined for 10 or more strikeouts in 18 of the 24 games this year.
• Virginia has logged six shutouts through 24 games in 2022, matching its season total from last year which was tied for the 15^th most in all of college baseball.

Most Shutouts in a Season (Since 2000)

16 – 2011
11 – 2005
10 – 2006
9 – 2007, 2013
8 – 2014
7 – 2018
6 – 2021, 2022

NATIONAL SPOTLIGHT

• Virginia earned its highest regular season ranking from D1Baseball.com since week five of the 2015 season. The Cavaliers have been inside the top-5 of the Baseball America poll in all but one week this season.
• The Cavaliers have racked up 22 wins in 24 games, the second most wins of any team in the country. There are only three teams nationally with three or less losses (Tennessee – 1; Purdue – 1; Virginia – 2).
• Sophomore Jake Gelof is the country’s leader slugging percentage (1.085) and is tied for the most home runs of anyone in college basebaall. His 46 RBI are one behind Carlos Contreas of Sam Houston State for the national lead.
• As a team, Virginia ranks in the top-10 in hits (3^rd – 286), home runs (4^th – 46), slugging percentage (4^th – .569) and on-base percentage (7^th – .439).

CAVALIER NOTABLES

• Virginia was held to a season-low, four hits in Sunday’s loss to Wake Forest. Freshman Casey Saucke’s 21-game hit streak was a casualty in the loss. It was the second longest hit streak in a single seasob by a Cavalier since 2000 (Brandon Guyer – 26 in 2007).
• Alex Tappen has hit six home runs in his last eight games played. On Saturday he went deep twice at Wake Forest, the first multi-homer game of his career. He has reached base in 23-straight games and has 21 career home runs, the first Cavalier to reach the 20 career homer plateau since Pavin Smith (28) and Adam Haseley (21) in 2017.