No. 13 Virginia Hosts UMass in Three-Game Series

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – No. 13 Virginia (8-0) will play its final non-conference weekend series of the season when it hosts UMass (1-3) for three games at Disharoon Park. The series opener is slated for a 2:30 p.m. first pitch on Friday (March 1) followed by 1 p.m. starts on Saturday (March 2) and Sunday (March 3).

HOW TO FOLLOW
Watch: ACCNX
Listen: WINA (98.9 FM/1070 AM/WINA.com)
Live Stats: VirginiaSports.com

Probable Starting Pitchers
Friday – 2:30 p.m.
UMass: TBA
Virginia: LHP Evan Blanco (1-0, 3.68 ERA, 7.1 IP, 0 BB, 8 SO)

Saturday – 1 p.m.
UMass: TBA
Virginia: RHP Jack O’Connor (0-0, 14.14 ERA, 7.0 IP, 1 BB, 6 SO)

Sunday – 1 p.m.
UMass: TBA
Virginia: TBA

YOUTH DAY SUNDAY

Every Sunday at Disharoon Park is Youth Day. There will be inflatables, face painter, balloon artist and after the game kids can get autographs from the Virginia student-athletes as well as run the bases. Youth (ages 18 & under) are always free at Virginia baseball regular season games with the purchase of an adult general admission ticket.

BASEBALL PARKING

Friday: Due to an event at John Paul Jones Arena, baseball parking will be available only in the Emmet/Ivy Garage. Baseball fans are to use the Parkmobile code: ATH24UVA for complimentary parking.

Saturday & Sunday: Fans are encouraged to arrive early with expected an increased amount of traffic with simultaneous Olympic sports occurring in the athletic precinct.

LEADING OFF

• The Cavaliers are off to an 8-0 start for the third-straight season. After winning all eight games to start the year, UVA extended its February win streak that dates back to 2021 to 24 games.
• Virginia is one of 13 unbeaten teams in college baseball. Last year, Virginia was the last unbeaten team standing when it started the season 14-0.
• Only three ACC teams have yet to suffer a loss – Florida State (6-0), Duke (7-0) and Virginia (7-0).
• Under head coach Brian O’Connor, UVA has started 8-0, eight times (2008, 2009, 2013, 2015, 2017, 2022, 2023, 2024).
• Virginia enters the contest with a 37-game win streak against non-conference opponents in the regular season. The Cavaliers have won 25-straight non-conference regular season home games.
• Virginia has won seven-straight home games including the final two games of the 2023 Charlottesville Super Regional against Duke.
• The Cavaliers eclipsed the 100-hit mark for the season and have 108 in just eight games, the seventh most in all of college baseball. Virginia has double-digit hit efforts in every game but one this season, the season opener against Hofstra.
• UVA has faced a deficit in six of its eight wins the season, the largest coming against then-No. 18 Iowa after it trailed 6-0 in the first inning.
• Four of UVA’s eight wins have been decided by one or two runs. The Cavaliers were 7-8 in games decided by one or two runs last season, including two one-run losses in the College World Series.

MIDWEEK MASHING

• Virginia collected a season-high 19 hits in 16-4 win over VMI on Wednesday at Disharoon Park. A total of 12 different Cavaliers were responsible for the 19 hits.
• Graduate transfer Jacob Ference went 5-for-6 with five RBI and matched a school single-game record with three doubles. Including Ference, 33 Cavaliers have accumulated three doubles in a game, the most recent being Ethan Anderson against VCU last season.
• Starting pitcher Cullen McKay recorded his first career victory after six innings of one-run baseball. It marked the longest outing by a UVA starting pitcher this season and the first quality start by a Cavalier. He retired the first 11 batters he faced and matched a career-high with six strikeouts.
• The Cavaliers scored the first nine runs of the game and scored five runs in the fourth inning, the fifth time UVA has scored five or more runs in a single inning.

ON THE MOUND

• Lefthander Evan Blanco will start the weekend opener for the second week in-a-row. He pitched a career-high 4.1, innings and matched a career best with five strikeouts in a no-decision over Wichita State at the Jax College Baseball Classic.
• Jack O’Connor will look to bounce back from a career-high eight earned runs against then-No. 18 Iowa last weekend. Six of the eight runs came across in the first inning and but still managed to pitch into the fourth inning.
• In the last five games, the Virginia bullpen yielded only five earned runs in 20 innings pitched (1.59 ERA).
• A big part in UVA’s comeback win over Iowa last weekend was the relief performance from Jay Woolfolk who logged a career-high 4.1 scoreless innings and struck out five batters in a no-decision.
• Aidan Teel, who bookended the weekend in Jacksonville with saves, has three on the season, tied for the second-most in the country. Going into this weekend’s action, only seven pitchers have three or more saves.

AGAINST UMASS

• UVA and UMass have only played one other time, a 7-4 Cavalier victory on March 24, 1971 in Charlottesville.
• UMass is one of five A10 opponents (George Mason, George Washington, Richmond and VCU) on the Virginia schedule in 2024.
• Minutemen graduate transfer Jacob Terwilliger and UVA sophomore Ryan Osinski played together at Bucknell last season.
• The lone Massachusetts native on the UVA roster, Evan Blanco, will make the start on the mound on Friday. His hometown of Woburn is outside of Boston and roughly 90 miles from the campus of UMass in Amherst.

NATIONAL ATTENTION

• UVA led the country and broke the program’s single-season record for doubles with 172. Through seven games, UVA has 31 doubles, the most in the ACC and third-most in the country.
• Virginia is batting .365 as a team, the second-highest average in the ACC and eighth-best in the nation. The Cavaliers also rank in the top-15 (7th) in hits with 108, on-base percentage (15th – .472) and runs with 89 (15th).
• Virginia moved up one spot in the D1Baseball.com Top-25 poll to No. 13. UVA is one of six ACC teams ranked in the top-20.
• The Cavaliers landed inside the top-10 in the Baseball America (No. 8), NCBWA (No. 10), Perfect Game (No. 9) and USA Today/Coaches (No. 9) national polls.

PLAYER NOTABLES

• Graduate transfer Bobby Whalen ranks second in the ACC and 10^th in the NCAA with a .571 (12-for-21) batting average. Whalen has a seven-game hit streak coming into the contest despite getting only one at bat as a pinch hitter in three of those games.
• Henry Godbout also has hit safely in seven-straight games and has yet to strikeout. Of all the hitters in the NCAA with at least 20 at bats in the young season only 13 have yet to go down on strikes, including Godbout who has recorded 24 at bats this year.
• Godbout leads the ACC with six doubles, which is tied for the eighth most in the country.
• Second year Harrison Didawick put together his first four-hit game of his college career after a 4-for-5, 4 RBI effort against VMI on Wednesday. Didawick ranks in the top-15 in the ACC in hits (11th), runs (8th) RBI (15th) and total bases (11th)
• Junior Casey Saucke has reached base safely in 16-straight games dating back to last season. He ended the 2023 postseason with an eight-game reached base streak and all eight this season. His six-game hit streak was snapped on Wednesday against VMI.
• First year Henry Ford leads the team and ranks eight in the ACC with 14 hits in his first eight college games. Ford’s biggest hit came in the 10th inning against Wichita State last Friday, a walk-off double in the 10^th inning to secure a 5-4 victory.