No. 17 Virginia Back Home to Host William & Mary

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – No. 17 Virginia (13-3) will begin a five-game homestand on Tuesday with a non-conference matchup against William & Mary (10-5). First pitch at Disharoon Park is slated for 4 p.m. and the game will air on ACCNX.

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

Probable Starting Pitchers
Tuesday – 4 p.m.
William & Mary: RHP Nate Knowles (1-0, 1.13 ERA, 16 IP, 8 BB, 28 SO)
Virginia: LHP Freddy Beruvides Jr. (0-0, 0.00 ERA, 0.2 IP, 0 BB, 1 SO)

LEADING OFF

• Virginia is one of seven ACC schools with 13 wins this season. Only Florida State and North Carolina enter the midweek with more wins (14). UVA is one of 23 teams in the country with 13 or more wins.
• Through its first 16 games, Virginia is the national leader with 217 hits and ranks fourth in college baseball in team batting average (.363). Last year, the Cavaliers co-led the country in team batting average (.332) and led the nation in doubles (172), doubles per game (2.65) and hits (766).
• UVA has scored 57 runs in its last four games, the most in a four-game span since the first four games of last season in which the Cavaliers plated 65 runs.
• Virginia is 8-1 at home this season and 45-6 in the last 51 games at Disharoon Park.
• William & Mary is the third Commonwealth of Virginia opponent this season. The Cavaliers have won 11-straight games at Disharoon Park against Commonwealth Schools.

AGAINST WILLIAM & MARY

• Virginia owns an 81-31-2 all-time mark against William & Mary in a series that was first played in 1902, a 27-1 Cavalier victory.
• The Cavaliers and Tribe have met every year since 2007 and UVA has won 17 of the last 19 meetings.
• Under head coach Brian O’Connor UVA is 20-3 against the Tribe.
• After William & Mary briefly grabbed the lead in the top of the first, Virginia plated three in the bottom half and never looked back in a 7-3 win in Charlottesville last season.

ON THE MOUND

• First year Freddy Beruvides Jr. will get the start on the mound for UVA, the first of his collegiate career. He is the fourth UVA pitcher to make his first collegiate start this year (Evan Blanco, Jay Woolfolk, Matt Augustin).
• Beruvides has one other appearance under his belt, working 0.2 innings at George Washington last Tuesday. The lefthander faced three batters, allowed one hit and struck out one.

COMEBACK CAVS

• UVA has faced a deficit in 11 of the 16 games this season and have recorded two walk-off victories.
• The Cavaliers trailed Miami, 11-10 in the series finale on Sunday and scored four runs in its final two at bats to win. Virginia has three wins when trailing after the seventh this season, the most since 2019 when it had four in 54 games.
• Prior to UVA’s 5-4, 10-inning walk-off win against Wichita State on Feb. 23, the Cavaliers had lost 39-straight games when trailing after seven.
• Of the Cavaliers eight come-from-behind victories, the largest came against then-No. 18 Iowa on Feb. 24 in Jacksonville, Fla. where UVA trailed by six runs.
• Virginia is 5-1 this season in games decided by one or two runs. The Cavalier had seven one or two-run victories in all of 2023.

SERIES SALVAGE

• The Cavaliers led by at least four runs in all three-games at Miami over the weekend. The Hurricanes overcame a 4-run advantage in the opener on Friday and did the unthinkable, erasing a nine-run deficit in the middle game.
• Virginia used their own comeback magic on Sunday, tying the game in the eighth on a Casey Saucke solo homer and plated three runs in the top of the ninth to open up a three-run advantage. The Cavaliers escaped bases loaded jams in the eighth and ninth innings to preserve the 14-11 victory.
• The 31 runs in the series were tied for the most every by the Cavaliers against the Hurricanes. The two teams combined for 64 runs and 83 hits over the weekend. The 64 combined runs were the most 22 all-time, three-game series between the two schools.

OFFENSIVE FIREPOWER

• Virginia ranks in the top-10 in the country in six different offensive categories – hits (217 – 1st), batting average (.363 – 4th), doubles (48 – 3rd), runs (171 – 9th), slugging percentage (.593 – 10th) and scoring (10.7 rpg – 10th).
• The Cavaliers lead the ACC runs, hits and doubles.
• Harrison Didawick and Henry Ford have combined for 14 home runs this season. Didawick, who has hit five homers in his last five games, tied for the second-most in the ACC with eight on the season.

PLAYER NOTABLES

• Didawick hit a home run in four-straight games last week, including his first career multi-homer effort on Saturday night in Miami. The only game he did not homer, he came through with a two-out, two-run double in the top of the ninth inning to give UVA a three-run cushion in the series finale.
• Didawick reached base 15 times in five games and was responsible for 23 Cavalier runs (11 scored and 12 RBI). He has doubled his home run output from last season in just 16 games and finished the week as the ACC’s leading run scorer and is tied for second in home runs.
• Griff O’Ferrall is expected to make his 140th-straight start, which accounts for every game since the beginning of the 2021 season. He’s played all 139 of his games at shortstop and batted leadoff in 138 of them.
• Casey Saucke has enjoyed hitting against the Hurricanes the past two years. He had a multi-homer affair in last year’s series sweep of Miami in Charlottesville and belted two opposite field shots out of Alex Rodriguez Park one Sunday, the only two multi-homer games of his carerer. Saucke went 4-for-5 with two dingers, two singles, three RBI and three runs scored in the finale on Sunday.
• Saucke has reached safely in 24-straight games dating back to UVA’s postseason run. He reached in all eight NCAA postseason games last year and the first 16 of the 2024 season.
• Saucke, Anthony Stephan and Ethan Anderson have reached base safely in all 16 games this season.
• Anderson was 9-for-22 (.409) with three doubles and three runs scored in five games last week. He recorded his first three-hit game of the season in the finale against Miami.
• Henry Ford has had a knack for coming up in the clutch this season. His two-out RBI infield single gave UVA a 12-11 advantage in the bottom of the ninth of game three. He currently leads the team with nine multi-hit games.