No. 21 Virginia Hosts In-State Foes VCU & JMU in Midweek Action

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – No. 21 Virginia (35-11) will host a pair of non-conference matchups at Disharoon Park before a six-day break for final exams. The Cavaliers will wrap up a season midweek series against VCU (22-22) on Tuesday (May 2) and take on JMU (18-24) for the first time since 2019 on Wednesday (May 3). First pitch for both contests is scheduled for 6 p.m.

HOW TO FOLLOW
TV: ACCNX
RADIO: WINA (98.9 FM/1070 AM/WINA.com)
LIVE STATS: VirginiaSports.com

WEEKDAY PROMOS
Tuesday: Taco Tuesday – $3 Tacos at the concession stands.
Wednesday: $2 Hot Dogs

PROBABLE PITCHING MATCHUP
Tuesday – 6 p.m.
VCU: RHP Evan Bert (2-1, 8.31 ERA, 21.2 IP, 16 BB, 19 SO)
Virginia: LHP Jake Berry (0-4, 3.21 ERA, 33.2 IP, 13 BB, 41 SO)

Wednesday – 6 p.m.
JMU: TBA
Virginia: TBA

LEADING OFF

• Virginia is 22-0 this season against non-conference opponents and has won 26-straight regular season games against non-conference foes dating back to last season.
• The Cavaliers are the only team in the country without a loss in non-conference play in 2023.
• UVA is 9-2 against Commonwealth foes this season with in-state games against VCU, JMU and Richmond left on the ledger.
• After going 3-2 last week, the Cavaliers dropped to No. 21 in the D1Baseball.com national rankings. The Cavaliers are a consensus top-25 team for the 11th-straight week. UVA garnered its highest ranking this week from the USA Today/Coaches Poll, coming in at No. 12.
• The Cavaliers have an RPI ranking of 11, the third highest of any ACC team.
• UVA’s 35 wins this season are tied for the second-most in the country and trail only Wake Forest’s 37. Virginia was the first team in college baseball to eclipse the 30-win plateau with a 16-4 win over Mount St. Mary’s on April 12.
• Virginia comes into the midweek as the national leader in hits (545) and doubles. The team batting average of .333 is the third highest in the country.
• UVA is the only team in the country to rank in the top-15 in BOTH batting average (3rd – .333) and ERA (13th – 3.89).

HOME COOKING

• Virginia boasts a 26-4 mark at home this season and is tied with East Carolina for the fourth most home wins in the country behind Arkansas (28), Tennessee (28) and Florida (27).
• UVA has won 25 or more games at home 14 of the 20 seasons under head coach Brian O’Connor.
• The Cavaliers have won 25 or more home games in back-to-back seasons for the first time since 2013 and 2014. UVA won 25 or more games at Disharoon Park in each of Brian O’Connor’s first 11 seasons, including a school record, 35 twice first in 2011 and again 2013.
• The Cavaliers have won over 77 percent of their games (563-169) at Disharoon Park since the facility opened in 2002.
• UVA is amid an 11-game homestand, the longest stint at home this season. After returning home from Notre Dame, UVA will not leave the Commonwealth for 23 days until its final road series of the regular season against Georgia Tech (May 18-20).

ROSTER CONNECTIONS

• UVA sophomore Chase Hungate spent his freshman season of college baseball playing for VCU’s 2022 A-10 Championship team. The reliever appeared in 21 games for the Rams and co-led the pitching staff with six wins. He did not appear against VCU at the Diamond on April 18.
• Graduate transfer Travis Reifsnider holds his bachelor’s degree from James Madison and appeared in 99 games for the Dukes from 2019-2022. He was a first team All-CAA selection as a senior in 2022 after hitting 13 homers, the most by a JMU hitter since 2011.
• Mike Roberts is in his first season as an assistant under his former college coach Marlin Ikenberry at JMU. Roberts was the coordinator for video and scouting for Virginia from 2014-18, which included the 2015 National Championship squad. He was a special assistant to the head coach in a second stint last season at UVA before taking the JMU job in August of 2022.

LAST TIME OUT

• The Cavaliers pounded out 22 hits in a 19-6 win over VCU on April 18th at the Diamond. It was UVA’s first win on the road against VCU since 2019 and the 19 runs were the most scored by either team in the previous 71 meetings.
• Ethan Anderson was the star of the night going 5-for-6 with three doubles, two home runs and three RBI. He homered from both sides of the plate and was robbed of a sixth hit in the ninth inning by Travis Mathis who made a diving grab in right center field.
• The 25 combined runs were second only to the 31 plated in a 16-15 UVA win on April 1, 1982.
• Virginia leads the all-time series against VCU 46-25 and is seeking its first midweek series sweep of the Rams since 2019.

AGAINST JMU

• The Dukes and Cavaliers will meet for the first time since 2019 when UVA came away with a 2-1 victory at Disharoon Park on April 24 to complete the season series sweep. The two teams were scheduled to play in Charlottesville in 2020 before the season was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
• Virginia owns a 45-25-1 mark all-time against James Madison in a series that was first played in 1976.
• The Cavaliers have won 11-straight games against JMU and are unbeaten in the last 15 meetings against the Dukes. The last time Virginia had a game end in a tie was against James Madison in 2012, a 4-4, eight-inning stalemate in Myrtle Beach, S.C.
• The only player on the current roster to play against JMU is Brian Edgington who made a start on the mound against JMU while playing at Elon.

ON THE MOUND

• Lefthander Jake Berry is scheduled to make his first start of the season and will be the seventh different Cavalier to start a game on the mound this season.
• Berry has nine career starts under his belt, including eight in ACC play last season and one in last year’s NCAA Greenville Regional. His best outing of his career came against Wake Forest on March 26, 2022 when he threw five hitless innings and struck out nine batters. The combined no-hitter attempt was broken up with two outs in the ninth inning.
• This season Berry has 41 strikeouts, the most of any Cavalier reliever. He has four saves to his credit, including three in ACC play.
• Berry pitched the final two innings of Virginia’s 10-2 win on Saturday over Duke, allowed only one base runner and struck out a pair of batters.
• The Cavalier pitching staff boasts the 13th-lowest team ERA (3.57) in the country and third-lowest in the ACC.
• Of the 467 strikeouts (8th most in NCAA) recorded by Cavalier pitching, 151 have come looking, the most of any staff in the country.
• The Cavalier hurlers also boast college baseball’s 7th-best strikeout-to-walk ratio (3.13) and rank 13th in walks allowed per nine innings (3.31).

POTENT ATTACK

• The Cavaliers have scored 417 runs this season the fourth-most of any team in the nation and are averaging 9.1 runs per game, the ninth-most in the country.
• There are 35 players in D-I baseball batting over the .400 mark, two of them are in the Cavalier lineup – Kyle Teel (.422) and Griff O’Ferrall (.410). UVA is one of three schools with multiple players batting .400 (Sam Houston – 2, Wofford – 2).
• No other duo in the country has more hits combined than Teel (77) and O’Ferrall (71). Teel is the national leader after compiling five hits over the weekend against Duke.
• Virginia has struck out 296 times as a team this season, the fewest of any team in the ACC.
• Virginia has the fourth largest scoring/run differential in the country. 

Highest DI Scoring Margin/Run Differential

PLAYER NOTABLES

• Kyle Teel, who has started the last 104 games at catcher for UVA, is the national leader in hits with 78. He leads the ACC in batting average (.422) and doubles (20).
• Over the last five games, Ethan Anderson has been UVA’s hottest hitter. He is 11-for-20 with five doubles a home run and six RBI. Over the weekend against Duke, Anderson was 7-for-13 with four doubles a home run and a pair of RBI.
• Teel and Anderson co-lead the ACC with 20 doubles. They are the fourth pair of Cavaliers to record 20 doubles in a season and both are three two-baggers shy of matching the program’s single season mark.

2002 – Dan Street (23) & Robert Word (20)
2009 – Steven Proscia (22) & Jarrett Parker (20)
2010 – Phil Gosselin (22) & John Hicks (20)
2023 – Ethan Anderson (20) & Kyle Teel (20)

• Sophomore Griff O’Ferrall started all 104 of UVA’s games at shortstop the past two seasons and batted leadoff in 103 of them. O’Ferrall is on the heels of Teel for the national hits lead with 75, tied for the sixth-most in the country. He lead the team and ranks seventh in the ACC with 14 stolen bases. He’s been successful in 31 of his 34 career attempts (91 percent), the second highest of any Cavalier with over 30 stolen bases.
• Teel, O’Ferrall, Anderson all rank No. 1, No. 2 and No. 3 in the ACC in hits, respectively. The Cavaliers have five of the top-10 players in the league in hits.

GELOF CHASING RBI HISTORY

• Jake Gelof enters Tuesday ranked second with 70 RBI on the season. Gelof and Tommy White (LSU) are the only two players with 70 RBI this season.
• Already the program’s single-season record holder in RBI with 81 last season, Gelof is the first Cavalier with two seasons of 70 or more RBI. Currently only Gelof and UVA Baseball Hall of Famer Phil Gosselin are the only two Cavaliers to have two seasons of 60 or more RBI. 

Most RBI in Single Season in UVA History

Most Career RBI in UVA History

TOWSON RETURNS TO THE DISH

• Wednesday will mark the third-straight season Towson has visited Disharoon Park. The Cavaliers are 22-2 against the Tigers in an all-time series that was first played in 1982, a 19-6 victory for UVA in Charlottesville.
• The Cavaliers have won 17-straight games against Towson dating back to 2009 and are 20-1 against the Tigers under head coach Brian O’Connor.
• Virginia scored the 10 runs between its two turns at the plate in the first and second innings in an eventual 15-3 victory at Disharoon Park. Justin Rubin hit his first career home run in the contest and posted a career-high three hits in a 3-for-4, two run, two-RBI effort at the plate

OFFENSIVE FIREPOWER

• There are 38 players in D-I baseball batting over the .400 mark, two of them are in the Cavalier lineup – Kyle Teel (.417) and Griff O’Ferrall (.411). UVA is one of four schools with multiple players batting .400 (Nebraska – 2, Sam Houston– 2, Wofford – 2).
• No other duo in the country has more hits combined than Teel (67) and O’Ferrall (66). Teel leads the ACC and ranks fifth in the country in hits.
• Virginia is No. 1 in the country in doubles with 114, seven more than the next highest school (VMI). UVA has recorded a double in 38 of 41 games this year including a season-high eight against Navy in the season opener.
• Virginia has struck out 262 times as a team this season, the fewest of any team in the ACC.
• Virginia has the fourth largest scoring/run differential in the country.

Highest DI Scoring Margin/Run Differential

ON THE MOUND

• In addition to the sixth-lowest team ERA in the country, the UVA pitching staff also has produced the country’s seventh-best strikeout-to-walk ratio (3.18) and the 17th-best WHIP (1.30).
• Of the 410 strikeouts (13th most in NCAA) recorded by Cavalier pitching, 138 have come looking, the most of any staff in the country.
• Tuesday’s starting pitcher Connelly Early is tied with Wake Forest Rhett Lowder for the most wins (8) by an ACC pitcher. Grant Rogers (McNeese St.) holds the national lead with nine. Only three Cavalier pitchers have won nine games since 2016 – Connor Jones (11-1 in 2016), Andrew Abbott (9-6 in 2021) and Adam Haseley (9-3 in 2016).
• Early enters Tuesday’s contest with a record of 19-7 with 11 wins coming at Army between the 2021 and 2022 seasons.

GELOF CHASING MORE HISTORY

• Despite being limited to one RBI in three games at Notre Dame, Jake Gelof maintains his national RBI lead with 67. He has yet to be held without an RBI in three-straight games this season.
• Already the program’s single-season record holder in RBI with 81 last season, he’s looking to become the first Cavalier with two seasons of 70 or more RBI. Currently only Gelof and UVA Baseball Hall of Famer Phil Gosselin are the only two Cavaliers to have two seasons of 60 or more RBI.

Most RBI in Single Season in UVA History

• In addition to hi 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

PLAYER NOTABLES

• Casey Saucke is UVA’s hottest hitter, batting .556 (10-for-18) with seven runs scored, a home run and three RBI over the last five games. His two-run, go-ahead shot to the opposite field in game two of Sunday’s doubleheader was his fourth long ball of the season.
• Kyle Teel leads the ACC in batting average (.417), doubles (17) and hits (68) and hits per game (1.74). He has reached base safely in each of the first 38 games of the season. Teel, ranked fifth in the country in hits, trails the national leader Jonah Cox (Oral Roberts) by five entering the midweek.
• Shortstop Griff O’Ferrall has scored a run in 18 of his last 19 games and ranks second in the ACC with 52 runs scored. O’Ferrall has started the last 99 games at shortstop for the Cavaliers, every game of his college career.