No. 8 Virginia Hosts ODU on Tuesday at 6 p.m.

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – No. 8 Virginia (26-6) returns home to Disharoon Park to host Old Dominion (22-8) on Tuesday (April 12) in a rematch of last year’s NCAA Columbia Regional Final. First pitch for the non-conference tilt is scheduled for 6 p.m. and the contest is scheduled to air live on ACCNX.

GAME COVERAGE: Authenticated subscribers of ACC Network can watch the game on the ESPN app and ESPN.com. Links to live stats can be found on VirginiaSports.com. Fans can get in-game updates on the team’s official twitter page (@UVABaseball).

PROMOTIONS: It’s Taco Tuesday at The Dish, fans can enjoy tacos from the Sombreros food truck that will be stationed near the left field gate.

PROBABLE STARTING PITCHERS
Tuesday – 6 p.m.
ODU: LHP Tommy Gertner (1-3, 7.77 ERA, 24.1, 14 BB, 23 SO)
Virginia: RHP Will Geerdes (2-0, 4.00 ERA, 18.0 IP, 8 BB, 17 SO)

LEADING OFF

• Virginia is in the midst of an eight-game stretch that includes seven road games, its longest stint away from Disharoon Park this season.
• Virginia is 17-0 in non-conference action and 19-1 overall at Disharoon Park this season.
• Tuesday will be the first of two meetings in 2022 against the Monarchs. The two teams are slated to play at Harbor Park in Norfolk on April 26. It will be the first visit to Norfolk in exactly six years after Virginia won the April 26, 2016 meeting, 8-4.
• The Cavaliers have outscored midweek opponents 92-16 and are 5-0 against teams from the Commonwealth this year.
• Virginia is the No. 1 scoring team in the country, averaging 10.3 runs per game. UVA and Tennessee are the only two teams nationally averaging double-digit runs per game.
• Old Dominion comes into Tuesday scoring 9.7 runs per game, the seventh most in the country.
• Virginia is a consensus top-10 team for the fourth-straight week, dropping to No. 8 in the D1Baseball.com national rankings. The Cavaliers come in as high as No. 5 according to Collegiate Baseball Newspaper.

AGAINST OLD DOMINION

• The Monarchs will visit Charlottesville for the first time since 2019. The two programs were scheduled to meet in the regular season last year but were rained out.
• Old Dominion holds a 33-32-2 edge in the all-time series that was first played in 1965. In Brian O’Connor’s 19 seasons, UVA has won 11 of 18 meetings.
• The two teams met in the NCAA postseason for the first time last year with Virginia winning both games of the NCAA Columbia Regional.

COLUMBIA REGIONAL FINALS REMATCH

• Last season ODU took the conventional route for a shot at the Columbia Regional Championship, winning its first two games as the top seed. One win over Virginia would have sent the Monarchs to the Super Regional while the Cavaliers needed to win two against ODU for its first berth into the Supers since 2015.
• Griff McGarry and Brandon Neeck struck out a combined 24 batters in an 8-3 win over the Monarchs, Virginia’s second win of the day after eliminating host South Carolina earlier. Neeck set the UVA postseason record with 16 strikeouts. The 24 strikeouts were the most in a nine-inning NCAA Division I baseball game since Auburn struck out 25 against Arkansas on May 19, 1994.
• The historic victory setup a winner-take-all matchup a day later (due to a rainout) at 9 a.m. Devin Ortiz made his first career start on the mound in the contest and pitched four shutout innings while recording six strikeouts. He stayed in the game as the team’s designated hitter and hit a walk-off solo homer in the 10^th inning to send UVA to the Super Regionals.

• Virginia won six-straight elimination games in the 2022 NCAA postseason en route to the program’s fifth College World Series berth.

ON THE MOUND

• Will Geerdes will be the eighth different Cavalier to start a game this season. The start will be Geerdes’ first at UVA and his first since March 7, 2020 while playing for Columbia.
• Nine of Geerdes’ 13 appearances this season he’s been called upon to finish the game, none of which have been save chances.
• Geerdes allowed just two runs and two hits over his first 11 appearances, a total of 15.2 inning.
• Virginia sports a 3.30 team ERA, the 10^th lowest in the country and is allowing 7.0 hits per nine innings, the ninth fewest of any staff in college baseball.
• The Cavaliers are one of seven teams with an NCAA-best six shutouts this season.
• Virginia has struck out 359 batters in 284 innings pitched, the fifth most in the country. The Cavaliers set a program record with 687 punch outs last year.
• UVA pitchers have struck out 10 or more batters in 22 of 32 games this season including 23 against Cornell on Feb. 25, the most in a nine-inning game by any team in the NCAA this season.

HOME COOKING

• Virginia has won 22 of its last 23 games at home, including a school-record streak of 19-straight that ended on April 1 against Georgia Tech.
• UVA is 19-1 at Disharoon Park in 2021, the 19 home wins are tied for the fourth most in the country this season – Tennessee (23), Mercer (21), Davidson (20), & Virginia (19), Wake Forest (19).
• The Cavaliers have won 77 percent (527-161) of its games over the course of 21 seasons at The Dish.
• UVA is outscoring its opponents 261-73 at home this season.
• The sixth-inning home run by Jake Gelof on Sunday against Georgia Tech was the 39^th hit by the Cavaliers at Disharoon Park this season, a facility record. The previous mark of 38 was set in 2017 over the course of 38 games. UVA has 16 home games left on the schedule.
• The Disharoon Park single-game attendance record fell on April 3 against Georgia Tech. A total of 5,286 fans poured into the stadium breaking the previous mark of 5,074 set on April 14, 2012 against North Carolina.
• Virginia has scored 10 or more runs in 16 of its 20 games at home this season.

CAVALIER TIDBITS

• Virginia recorded 21 hits in three games in Miami, the fewest in a three-game stretch this season. The Cavaliers scored first in all three losses to the Hurricanes after winning all 22 previous games when scoring the game’s first run.
• Jake Gelof trails the trio of Kevin Parada (Georgia Tech), Andy Garriola (ODU) and Jason Hinchman by one in the national home run race. Gelof has 14 homers in 32 games this season.
• Gelof and Tappen have combined for 101 RBI this season. Gelof is second in the nation with 54 while Tappen ranks seventh with 47. Either would have led UVA’s College World Series team last season.
• The Cavaliers were held to a season-low, two hits in Friday’s opener at Miami, with both hits coming off the bat of Justin Rubin. The last time UVA was held to less than two hits was also against Miami in 2021 but Virginia won the game, 4-0.
• Statistically, freshman Griff O’Ferrall is the toughest Cavalier to strikeout and the third toughest in the ACC, going down on strikes once every 9.2 at bats. In addition, O’Ferrall is tied with Kyle Teel for the team lead with 28 walks, the fourth most in the ACC.
• Chris Newell matched a career-high with four hits in the series finale at Miami. He hit his eighth home run of the season and 17^th of his career.

 

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