Virginia/Army Commence Charlottesville Regional on Friday

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – Virginia (45-12), the number seven overall seed in the 2023 NCAA Tournament will host Army (38-16) in the opening game of the Charlottesville Regional on Friday (June 2) at Disharoon Park. First pitch is scheduled for noon and the game will be broadcast live on ESPN+.

HOW TO FOLLOW
TV: ESPN+ (Subscription required)
RADIO: WINA (98.9 FM/1070 AM/WINA.com)
LIVE STATS: VirginiaSports.com

TICKET INFORMATION

All-session regional tickets and single session tickets (sessions 1-6) are on sale now via UVATix.com.

PARKING INFORMATION

Daily parking can be purchased online at UVATix.com or upon drive up for spaces in the JPJ South and West Lots $10 in advance or $15 upon drive up. All sessions parking passes can be purchased for $30 advance. Spots are first come, first served. Parking passes must be purchased using a valid credit/debit card; cash will not be accepted on site.

PROBABLE PITCHING MATCHUPS
Friday – Noon
Army – RHP Robbie Buecker (5-3, 2.84 ERA, 63.1 IP, 26 BB, 47 SO)
Virginia: RHP Brian Edgington (7-3, 3.89 ERA, 71.2 IP, 20 BB, 77 SO)

LEADING OFF

• Virginia enters June having won 10 of its last 11 games, including 10-straight to open the month of May.
• Virginia hosts a regional in Charlottesville for the 10th time, all coming under the direction of head coach Brian O’Connor.
• Virginia (45) and East Carolina (45) are two of the five teams in college baseball entering NCAA Tournament play with 45 or more wins.
• The Cavaliers have won 40 games for the first time since 2017. Virginia has 13 40-win seasons in program history, 12 have come under O’Connor.
• Virginia has the highest team batting average in the country (.334), leads the nation in doubles (152) and has the second-highest scoring margin (4.7) in college baseball behind No. 1 overall seed Wake Forest.
• The Cavaliers are tops in the ACC in batting average, doubles, hits, on-base percentage, runs and runs per game.
• Virginia and Oral Roberts are the only two teams in the country to rank in the top-10 in BOTH batting average (.334) and ERA (7th – 3.96)

NOTING THE NCAA TOURNAMENT

• Virginia has won seven regional championships (2009, 2010, 2011, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2021) and reached the College World Series five times – 2009, 2011, 2014, 2015, 2021.
• UVA will host a regional for the 10th time in program history and the first time since 2016.
• Brian O’Connor is one of seven active coaches to win a National Championship.
• Competing in its 20th NCAA tournament, Virginia is 62-44 in NCAA play.
• UVA is 50-26 in the NCAA tournament since 2009, tied for the fifth-most NCAA tourney wins in that span.
• Under O’Connor (since 2004), UVA is 56-36 in the NCAA tournament and 38-25 in regional play.
• The Cavaliers captured the program’s first National Championship in 2015 in a rematch of the 2014 College World Series final. Virginia became the first ACC school to claim a national title since 1955 (Wake Forest).

2023 IN SHORT

• Virginia won the ACC Coastal Division Championship for the first time since winning back-to-back titles in 2010 and 2011. Virginia has finished first or second in the Coastal in 10 of the last 14 seasons.
• UVA’s 44 regular season wins are the second-most in UVA history. The program record of 45, has been achieved four times (2006, 2010, 2011, & 2013).
• UVA’s 19 ACC wins were the most since 2016.
• Virginia was the last undefeated team in the country, winning its first 14 games. It became the first team in the country to reach 30 wins and the second team to attain 40 wins.
• The 14-game win streak to start the season was the second-longest in program history and the Cavaliers later matched their best 25-game start by winning 22 of their first 25 games.
• Brian O’Connor won his 800th game as UVA’s head coach on March 5 in a 16-6 win over Rhode Island on March 5, the eighth coach in UVA history to win 800 games.
• Jake Gelof broke UVA’s career-home run record of 37 held by E.J. Anderson since 1998 with his 38th career homer on April 11 against Richmond.
• After dropping three-straight ACC series in April, the Cavaliers bounced back by winning 10 of its last 11 games going into the NCAA Tournament. Two of its four ACC series sweeps on the year came in the final two weeks of the regular season.

CHARLOTTESVILLE REGIONAL FIELD

• All four participating teams in the 2023 Charlottesville Regional have previously played in a regional game hosted by Virginia. Army (2012, 2013), East Carolina (2011, 2016) and Oklahoma (2012). The Sooners also played UVA in the 2010 Super Regionals in Charlottesville.

ARMY

• The Cavaliers are 4-2-1 against Army in an all-time series that was first played in 1907, a 5-1 victory at West Point. Prior to the 2012 regional matchup, UVA hadn’t played Army since 1913.
• Virginia is 2-0 against the Black Knights in postseason action after a 9-1 win on June 2, 2012 and 2-1 win on May 31, 2013.
• Brandon Waddell made the first of his school-record, 11 NCAA postseason starts and allowed three hits and one run over seven innings to secure the one-run win in 2013.
• Virginia will play Army and Navy in the same season for the first time since 1913. UVA opened the 2023 season with a 24-5 win over the Midshipmen.

EAST CAROLINA

• The Cavaliers and Pirates meet for the second-straight year in the post season. The Pirates edged UVA 4-2 in the Saturday winner’s bracket game at last year’s Greenville Regional. ECU went on to win the Regional and its only loss of the first weekend came with Nick Parker on the mound (8.0 IP, 0 R, 10 SO) for the Chanticleers.
• Virginia has played only St. John’s (4 games) more times than East Carolina in NCAA Regional round action.
• Six of the nine batters in the UVA lineup in last year’s meeting against ECU are on the current UVA roster.

OKLAHOMA

• The Sooners will make their third trip to Charlottesville for NCAA Tournament action (2010, 2012, 2023).
• The Cavaliers and Sooners have met four times in postseason play. UVA’s lone win against Oklahoma came in the opening game of the 2013 Super Regional. The Cavaliers won 3-2 thanks to home runs by Phil Goesslin and Dan Grovatt. Starting pitcher Danny Hultzen tossed eight innings of two-run baseball to secure the victory.

ON THE MOUND

• Brian Edgington will make his 14th start of the season, one shy of matching his career high of 15 at Elon last season. Edgington has amassed 263 career strikeouts over the course of his college career, second most of any active ACC pitcher behind Rhett Lowder (297) of Wake Forest.
• Edgington was one of two Cavalier arms to claim All-ACC honors, earning a spot on the Third Team. He was a Second Team All-CAA selection at Elon in 2022.
• He was named the ACC Pitcher of the Week on May 15 after he pitched six scoreless innings and struck out eight to help UVA complete an ACC series sweep of Louisville.
• Edgington co-leads the Cavaliers with five quality starts, four of which came against ACC foes.
• Edgington was named UVA’s opening day starter and earned the victory against Navy, allowing two runs over 4.1 innings pitched.

THE STAFF AT A GLANCE

• With All-ACC selections, Brian Edgington and Connelly Early, UVA has 34 pitchers listed on the team since 2004, the most of any other ACC program in that span.
• The Cavalier pitching staff boasts the seventh-lowest team ERA (3.96) in the country and second lowest in the ACC.
• Of the 566 strikeouts (12th most in NCAA) recorded by Cavalier pitching, 190 have come looking, the most in the country.
• UVA has posted back-to-back 500-strikeout season under pitching coach Drew Dickinson. The Cavaliers broke the school record with 687 in 2021 and struck out 598 batters last season, the third-most in program history. The 566 strikeouts are already the 6th-most in a single season in program history.
• The Cavalier hurlers also boast college baseball’s 4th-best strikeout-to-walk ratio (3.13) and rank 11th in walks allowed per nine innings (3.25).

RECORD BREAKERS

• Kyle Teel broke UVA’s single season doubles record on May 24 with his 24th double of the season.
• Jake Gelof eclipsed his own single season RBI mark on the last day of the regular season and now has 84 on the year.

ON RECORD WATCH

• Jake Gelof needs two RBI to tie UVA’s career RBI record, held by Steven Proscia (2009-11).

Most Career RBI in UVA History

• Gelof needs one home run to break UVA’s single season home run record. He is the only Cavalier ever to produce two, 20-home run seasons. He tied Brian Buchanan’s 29-year-old record with his seventh multi home run effort of his career in the regular season finale at Georgia Tech.

Most Home Runs Single Season in UVA History

• Kyle Teel and Griff O’Ferrall are the first Cavalier duo with 90+ hits in the same season. Only Tyler Davis (104) and Joe Refield (97) of Sam Houston have more combined hits as teammates.

Most Hits in a Single Season in UVA History

• Griff O’Ferrall and Ethan O’Donnell became the 13th and 14th Cavaliers to score 60 runs in a season, respectively. O’Ferrall sits seven runs back from matching the single-season mark.

Most Runs in a Single Season in UVA History

SEEING DOUBLE

• Virginia leads the country with 152 doubles, the second most in a single season in program history. The Cavalier offense posted 160 doubles in 2010 that stands as the school mark.
• Teel leads the ACC and ranks eighth in the country in doubles.
• For the first time in program history, the Cavaliers have three players with 20 or more doubles in a year – Kyle Teel (24), Anderson (23), and Jake Gelof (20).
• A total of 16 players in UVA history have recorded 20 or more doubles in a season.

Most Doubles in a Season – UVA History

*Jake Gelof has 20 doubles

POTENT ATTACK

• The Cavaliers have scored 519 runs this season the seventh-most of any team in the nation and are averaging 9.1 runs per game, the seventh-most in the country and the most in the ACC.
• Virginia has struck out 368 times as a team this season, the fewest of any team in the ACC.
• Virginia has the second largest scoring/run differential in the country. 

Highest DI Scoring Margin/Run Differential