No. 8 Virginia Resumes ACC Play at Notre Dame This Weekend

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – No. 8 Virginia (32-6, 12-6 ACC) travels to Notre Dame (20-15, 8-10 ACC) for a three-game ACC road series beginning Friday (April 21). All three games will be broadcast live on ACCNX while radio coverage will be provided by WINA (Friday & Sunday) and VirginiaSports.com (Saturday). First pitch for the series opener is scheduled for 6 p.m.

HOW TO FOLLOW
TV: ACCNX
RADIO: Fri./Sat. – WINA (98.9 FM/1070 AM/WINA.com) | Virginia Sports Mobile App/VirginiaSports.com
LIVE STATS: VirginiaSports.com

PROBABLE PITCHING MATCHUP
Friday – 6 p.m.
Virginia: RHP Brian Edgington (6-1, 2.36 ERA, 49.2 IP, 15 BB, 54 SO)
Notre Dame: LHP Aidan Tyrell (6-1, 1.98 ERA, 36.1 IP, 12 BB, 30 SO)

Saturday – 3 p.m.
Virginia: RHP Nick Parker (3-0, 5.29 ERA, 32.1 IP, 14 BB, 41 SO)
Notre Dame: RHP Blake Hely (1-1, 5.26 ERA, 39.1, 20 BB, 37 SO)

Sunday – 1 p.m.
Virginia: RHP Jack O’Connor (4-1, 3.18 ERA, 45.1 IP, 18 BB 41 SO)
Notre Dame: TBA

LEADING OFF

• Virginia and Wake Forest enter the weekend with the most wins (32) of any team in the country. The Cavaliers winning percentage (.842) is the second highest of any college baseball program. Virginia’s six losses are tied with LSU and South Carolina for the second fewest in the country behind Wake Forest’s five.
• The three road games this weekend at Notre Dame are three of the final six regular season games away from Disharoon Park this year. The Cavaliers will be home for the next 11 games following the weekend before concluding the year at Georgia Tech (May 18-20).
• The Cavaliers are 8-4 on the road this season, eclipsing their road win total from a year ago. UVA has won double-digit road games 13 times in O’Connor’s 20 seasons, most recently in 2021. The 19 road wins in O’Connor’s first year on the job in 2004 remain the most in his tenure.
• The Cavaliers are a consensus top-10 team for the fifth-straight week, coming in at No. 8 in this week’s D1Baseball Top-25. It’s the longest UVA has been in D1Baseball’s top-10 since it was ranked No. 3 the first five weeks of the 2015 National Championship season.
• Virginia is the only team in the country to rank in the top-20 in the nation in batting average (1st – .342), ERA (4th – 3.27) and fielding percentage (15th). Only Virginia and UTSA (19th in BA & 9th in ERA) rank in the top-20 in both batting average and ERA.

MIDWEEK REVIEW

• Virginia continued its dominance outside the ACC by winning its 24th-straight game against non-conference foes dating back to last season with a 19-6 victory over VCU on Tuesday. The Cavaliers are 20-0 in non-conference play this season, the only school in the country without a non-conference loss.
• Ethan Anderson had the best game of his career, going 5-for-6 with two home runs and three doubles. He was the first Cavalier with five hits since 2013 and his three doubles matched a school record. The switch-hitting first baseman hit a homer from both sides of the plate.
• Virginia collected 22 hits, the second-highest total of the season and third game with 20 or more hits in 2023.
• The Cavaliers posted single-inning totals of seven (2nd inning) and seven (seventh inning) in the contest. UVA has scored five or more runs in an inning twice in game four times this season.
• Jake Gelof and Kyle Teel each homered on Tuesday marked the sixth time both have went deep in the same game. The duo has a combined 55 career home runs between them.

AGAINST NOTRE DAME

• Friday will be the 21st all-time meeting between Virginia and Notre Dame in an all-time series that was first played in 1991, a 12-6 victory in Charlottesville.
• After UVA won seven of the first 10 games against the Fighting Irish upon joining the ACC, Notre Dame has won five of the last six, including a 3-0 win in Charlotte at last year’s ACC Tournament.
• This weekend will be the fifth ACC series between the two teams, UVA has won three of the previous four including both in South Bend.
• Virginia will make its first trip to Notre Dame since 2019, when the Cavaliers swept a doubleheader to take the series. It marked the last time UVA has swept an ACC road doubleheader. Reliever Kyle Whitten saved both ends of the twinbill, totaling 2.2 innings pitched without allowing an earned run and three strikeouts.

OFFENSIVE FIREPOWER

• Virginia enters the weekend ranked No. 1 in the country in batting average (.342), doubles (107) and hits (467).
• There are 44 players in D-I baseball batting over the .400 mark, three of them are in the Cavalier lineup – Kyle Teel (.437), Griff O’Ferrall (.420) and Ethan Anderson (.404) UVA is the only school in the country with three players batting over .400 and one of three schools with multiple .400 hitters (Nebraska – 2, Sam Houston– 2)
• The Cavaliers rank in the top-5 in the nation in runs (3rd – 366), on-base-percentage (4th – .441) and scoring (5th– 9.6 rpg).
• Virginia has struck out 250 times as a team this season, the fewest of any team in the ACC.
• UVA has five players ranked in the top-5 in the ACC in batting average, no other school has two.
• Virginia is tied with consensus No. 1 LSU for the highest scoring margin/run differential in the county. 

Highest DI Scoring Margin/Run Differential

ON THE MOUND

• The Cavalier pitching staff boasts the fourth-lowest team ERA (3.27) in the country.
• Of the 384 strikeouts (13th most in NCAA) recorded by Cavalier pitching, 131 have come looking, the most of any staff in the country.
• The Cavalier hurlers also boast college baseball’s 8th-best strikeout-to-walk ratio (3.10) and rank 14th in WHIP (1.27).
• Friday night starter Brian Edgington is seeking his seventh win of the season, which would be a new career high. The righthander has 41 career starts under his belt and 240 career strikeouts, second behind Rhett Lowder (250) for the most of any active ACC pitcher.
• Nick Parker is scheduled to make his 49th career start on Saturday, the second most starts of any active pitcher in D-I college baseball.
• Parker and Edgington have combined for 453 career strikeouts, the most of any pitching duo in the country.
• Jack O’Connor helped the Cavaliers salvage a three-game series last weekend against Pitt by delivering his third quality start of the season (6.0 IP, 1 ER, 4 SO). The first year righthander sports a 3.18 ERA this season, the third-lowest of any Power-5 freshman.

HUNTING MORE RECORDS

• Jake Gelof, already the program’s single-season record holder in RBI with 81 last season is three RBI shy of entering the program’s all-time top-5. The sophomore set the program’s single season RBI record last season, driving in 81 runs.

Most Career RBI in UVA History

RED-HOT HOOS

• Griff O’Ferrall hit safely in his 15th-straight game with a 3-for-3 effort on Tuesday against VCU. The 15-game hit streak is the longest by a Cavalier this season. Over the course of the 15 games, O’Ferrall is 32-for-60 (.533) with 27 run scored. He has vaulted his average above the .400 mark and has the second-highest batting average in the league. His 50 runs scored lead the ACC and are tied for the fourth-most in the country.
• Kyle Teel leads the ACC in batting average (.437), doubles (16), hits (66) and hits per game (1.74). He has reached base safely in all 38 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.
• Teel’s 66 hits on the year are tied for the second most in the country with Jonah Cox (Oral Roberts). Kevin Kash of Texas Tech leads all hitters with 68 base knocks this season.