No. 7 Virginia Hosts Richmond, Mount St. Mary’s in Midweek Action

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – No. 7 Virginia (28-4) continues its homestand with midweek contests against Richmond (14-18) and Mount St. Mary’s (15-15) at Disharoon Park on Tuesday (April 11) and Wednesday (April 12), respectively. First pitch for both contests is scheduled for 4 p.m.

HOW TO FOLLOW
TV: ACCNX
RADIO: Virginia Sports App/VirginiaSports.com
LIVE STATS: VirginiaSports.com

PROMOTIONAL SCHEDULE
TACO TUESDAY – Fans can enjoy $3 tacos at the concession stand for the entire game (while supplies last).

PROBABLE PITCHING MATCHUP
Tuesday – 4 p.m.
Richmond: LHP Brian Reinke (0-0, 15.19 ERA, 5.1 IP, 5 BB, 9 SO)
Virginia: LHP Connelly Early (6-1, 3.26 ERA, 30.1 IP, 10 BB, 39 SO)

Wednesday – 4 p.m.
Mount St. Mary’s: RHP Danny Salisbury (1-0, 8.06 ERA, 22.1 IP, 6 BB, 8 SO)
Virginia: RHP Cullen McKay (0-0, 5.19 ERA, 8.2 IP, 3 BB, 15 SO)

LEADING OFF

• Virginia has won all 17 non-conference games this season and have won 21-straight against non-conference foes dating back to last season.
• The Cavaliers own the nation’s longest home winning streak having won 21-consecutive games at Disharoon Park dating back to last season. UVA broke the school record over the weekend against surpassing its mark of 19-straight home games set in 2009 and 2022.
• Virginia owns a 20-0 mark at home this season, the 17th time in the last 22 years that the Cavaliers have won 20 games at Disharoon Park. UVA has won 77 percent (557-165) of its games at Disharoon park since the facility opened in 2002.
• Virginia held steady in the D1Baseball Top-25, coming in at No. 7 for the second-straight week. The Cavaliers have been inside the top-10 for four-consecutive weeks, the longest since garnering a No. 3 ranking from D1Baseball over the first five weeks of the 2015 National Championship season.
• Virginia has won 28 or more games through its first 32 games three times in program history – 2011 (30 wins), 2013 (29 wins), 2023 (28 wins).
• Virginia, Wake Forest and South Carolina are tied for the most wins (28) and the highest winning percentage in the country (.875). The three programs all have identical records at 28-4 and are also tied for the fewest losses in college baseball.
• The Cavaliers are amid an eight-game homestand and will play 16 of the 20 games in the confines of Disharoon Park. Only seven true regular season road games are left to play in 2023.
• Virginia comes into the midweek ranked No. 1 in the country in hits (384), No. 2 in team batting average (.333) and No. 3 in ERA (3.11). UVA is only team in the nation to rank in the top-15 in both team batting average and earned run average. Virginia is also the only team in the country to rank in the top-15 in batting average, earned run average and fielding percentage (15th – .980).

SERIES HISTORY – RICHMOND/MOUNT ST. MARY’S

• The first ever game on record in Virginia baseball history came against Richmond, a 13-4 victory in the 1889 season opener.
• The Cavaliers own an 89-59-2 record against Richmond. The 89 wins are the third-most against a Commonwealth opponent (William & Mary – 109; Virginia Tech – 107).
• Virginia has won 18 of the last 19 meetings against Richmond and are 17-1 against the Spiders under head coach Brian O’Connor.
• The last 13 meetings between Virginia and Richmond have taken place in Charlottesville.
• UVA has won the previous two meetings against Mount St. Mary’s a 6-3 win in 2006 and an 11-1 decision in 2008.
• In the 2006 meeting between The Mount and UVA, the Cavaliers scored four runs in the ninth inning and walked-off the Mountaineers with a three-run homer off the bat of Brandon Guyer.

ON THE MOUND

• Tuesday’s projected starter, Connelly Early is slated to take the mound for the first time in 10 days after he was thrust into the weekend rotation at Virginia Tech after Nick Parker went down with an injury. He started the second game against the Hokies and surrendered a career-high six earned runs.
• Early is 6-0 with a 1.01 ERA in his six midweek starts this season. His best outing of the season came against High Point on March 21 where he fanned a career-high 10 batters over 6.2 innings of work.
• Early is tied for fourth in the country and tied for second in the ACC with six wins. The lefthander is looking to join an exclusive corps of three pitchers nationally with seven or more wins.
• Early is one of two, six-win pitchers on the UVA staff. Campbell, Virginia and Wake Forest are the only programs in the country to have multiple pitchers with six wins on the year.
• Cullen McKay will make the start on the mound Wednesday, his second of his career and second in as many weeks. In his first collegiate start was last Tuesday at Liberty. The righthander was dominant, fanning six batters in three innings pitched. It was only his sixth appearance of the season and he’d worked only 5.2 innings up until that point.
• McKay struck out the first two batters of the game and ended the second and third innings with strikeouts. McKay was the third UVA freshman to earn a start on the mound this season.
• In the three-game series against Miami, the Cavalier bullpen allowed only two earned runs in 10.2 innings pitched. The UVA bullpen has not surrendered a run in its last 6.2 innings pitched.
• Virginia is ranked 13th in the country with 332 strikeouts as a staff. The Cavaliers have struck out 10 or more batters in three of the last four games.
• UVA has the seventh-best strikeout-to-walk ration in the country (3.19).

PRODUCTION AT THE PLATE

• The Cavaliers are averaging 9.2 runs per game, 10th most in the country and have the fourth largest scoring margin in college baseball.
• Virginia has struck out 201 times as a team this season, the fewest of any team in the ACC.
• UVA has five batters ranked in the top-10 in the ACC in batting average, no other school has two.

Highest DI Scoring Margin/Run Differential

HISTORY ON THE HORIZON

• Jake Gelof tied E.J. Anderson (1995-98) for the most career home runs (37) in UVA history thanks to a three-homer weekend against Miami. In the series finale, the Cavalier slugger hit two home runs and drove in four of the six UVA runs to complete the series sweep. The multi-homer game was his sixth of his career.
• Gelof has homered in nine-straight ACC series dating back to last season.
• This past weekend was the third time in his career he homered three times in a three-game series (2022 vs. Cornell & 2022 vs. Boston College)
• Gelof leads the team with 12 home runs this season, third-most in the ACC.
• Only six players in UVA history have 30 career home runs and the last Cavalier to eclipse the 30-home run mark was Mark Reynolds (2002-04).

Most Career Home Runs in UVA History

PLAYER NOTES

• Kyle Teel leads the ACC in batting average (.445), hits (57), hits per game (1.78) and on-base percentage (.510). He has reached base safely in all 32 games this season, the second-longest stretch of his career. As a freshman he reached base in 44-straight at the end of the 2021 season and the first 17 games of the 2022 season, the second-longest streak of any Cavaliers since 1998.
• Griff O’Ferrall hit an astounding, .611 (11-for-18) scored seven runs and drove in a pair of runs from the leadoff position in four games last week. O’Ferrall has reached base in 23-straight games and has hit safely in his last nine.
• Gelof was rewarded for his record-tying weekend by being named the ACC Player of the Week, the second of his career and first ACC weekly honor by a Cavaliers this season. In three-games against Miami he went 7-for-14 with a double, triple, three home runs and 9 RBI.
• Gelof enters midweek action as the national leader in RBI (53) and ranks fifth in the country in total bases (104). He also leads the ACC in doubles (14), triples (3) and slugging percentage (.806).