No. 17 Virginia Hosts No. 7 Wake Forest in Top-25 Showdown

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – No. 17 Virginia (14-3, 1-2 ACC) will play its first home ACC series this weekend when No. 7 Wake Forest (12-4, 1-2 ACC) comes to Disharoon Park for a three-game set. The series opener is scheduled for 4 p.m. first pitch on Friday.

HOW TO FOLLOW
Watch: ACCNX (Fri. & Sun.) | ACC Network (Sat.)
Listen: WINA (98.9 FM/1070 AM/WINA.com/Virginia Sports App) *Sunday only
Live Stats: VirginiaSports.com

Probable Starting Pitchers
Friday – 4 p.m.
Wake Forest: LHP Josh Hartle (3-1, 4.22 ERA, 21.1 IP, 5 BB, 21 SO)
Virginia: RHP Cullen McKay (1-0, 0.54 ERA, 16.2 IP, 8 BB, 20 SO) 
Saturday – 4 p.m.
Wake Forest: RHP Chase Burns (3-0, 2.31 ERA, 23.1 IP, 10 BB, 43 SO)
Virginia: LHP Evan Blanco (1-0, 3.00 ERA, 18.0 IP, 5 BB, 22 SO)

Sunday – 1 p.m.
Wake Forest: TBA
Virginia: TBA

WEEKEND PROMOTIONS

Friday, March 15: Tacky Tourist Day! There will be in-game videoboard elements and music all about traveling, just in time for Spring Break! This game will be a Sabre Rewards event for UVA students, including a free Hawaiian Shirt giveaway to the first 500 students, to be given out by the left-field bleachers.

Saturday, March 17: Little League Day! Little Leaguers are invited to join Virginia Baseball as we celebrate the life of Calvin Ness. There’s a youth t-shirt giveaway to first 1,000 kids, 8th grade and under, to be given out by the left-field bleachers.

Sunday, March 18: Youth Day! Inflatables, a balloon artist, face painting, chalk drawing, bubbles, and post-game kids running of the bases and autographs with the team, presented by Sticks Kebobs! The first of five sets of 2024 Virginia Baseball trading cards will be given out to the first 500 fans, at the marketing table. 

FRIDAY PARKING INFORMATION

Due to an event at JPJ, a limited number of spots will be available to baseball patrons in the JPJ South lot closest to Coogan Way. Baseball fans are encouraged to take advantage of free parking in the Emmet/Ivy garage using the parkmobile code: ATH24UVA. A shuttle will run from Emmet/Ivy Garage to the Disharoon Park/Klöckner Stadium ticket office beginning at 2 p.m. and will run one hour after the final pitch of the game.

LEADING OFF

• Virginia is one of five ACC schools with 14 wins this season. Only Clemson (15), Florida State (15) and North Carolina (16) enter the weekend with more wins. UVA is one of 19 teams in the country with 14 or more wins.
• This weekend pits the 2023 ACC Atlantic Division champion (Wake Forest) and the 2023 ACC Coastal Division Champion (Virginia) against one another. The two teams did not square off last year. Both teams were picked to repeat as division champions in the 2024 ACC Preseason Coaches poll.
• Both Virginia and Wake Forest represented the ACC in the College World Series last season. UVA is one of four schools nationally to go to Omaha twice in the last three seasons – Stanford (3), Tennessee (2), Texas (2) & Virginia (2),
• The Cavaliers will entertain a ranked foe at Disharoon Park in the regular season for only the second time in the last two seasons. At No. 7, Wake Forest is the highest ranked team to come to Charlottesville since 2022 (No. 7 Virginia Tech).
• Virginia enters the weekend with the second-most hits of any team in the country. Wake Forest is allowing 6.75 hits per nine innings, the second fewest in the ACC and the ninth-fewest in the country.
• UVA is 9-1 at home this season and 46-6 in the last 52 games at Disharoon Park.

AGAINST WAKE FOREST

• Under head coach Brian O’Connor, UVA is 27-15 against Wake Forest and own an overall mark at home of 41-27.
• The last time the Demon Deacons were in Charlottesville, UVA completed a three-game sweep that included a 18-0, combined no-hitter on Friday and a pair of walk-off Cavalier victories in the final ACC series of the year.
• Wake Forest’s King Seaver and Michael Massey played alongside UVA’s Griff O’Ferrall and Jay Woolfolk on the 2023 USA Baseball Collegiate National Team.
• Demon Deacon graduate student Tate Ballestero is using his final year of eligibility after playing the last two seasons at St. John’s. He played for Virginia in 2020 and 2021. He appeared in 17 games (nine starts) on UVA’s College World Series team in 2021.

ONE OF THE NATION’S TOP OFFENSES

• Virginia’s .356 team batting average is the fourth-highest of any college baseball team this season.
• The Cavaliers are ranked in the top-15 in seven categories: hits (2nd – 224), doubles (3rd – 50), on-base percentage (.456), runs (12th – 177), scoring (12th – 10.4 rpg) and slugging percentage (15th – .583)
• The Cavaliers lead the ACC hits and doubles.
• Last season, Virginia led the country in batting average, doubles and hits. It ranked in the top-10 in seven different offensive categories.

ON THE MOUND

• Cullen McKay (5.1 IP, 0 ER, 8 SO) and Evan Blanco (5.0 IP, 3 ER, 6 SO) are the two announced starting pitchers for the weekend. The two combined for 10.1 innings pitched, three earned runs and 14 strikeouts at Miami last weekend but did not factor in the decision after the Cavaliers let leads slip away in the late innings.
• On Friday against Miami McKay took a no-hitter into the fifth inning and struck out a career-high, eight batters in a no-decision. The only two runners to reach over the first four innings were two-out walks in the second and the third innings. McKay pitched 5.2 innings and exited with two outs and the bases loaded in the sixth.
• McKay moved into the weekend rotation for the first time last weekend. Including his start against Miami, he has six career starts under his belt, three as a true freshman last year and three this season.
• In his six career starts, McKay has allowed three earned runs in a total of 22.2 innings pitched.
• Blanco left the game as the pitcher of record in Saturday’s contest after he allowed three runs in five innings of work. He fanned three of the first six batters he faced and finished with six strikeouts in a no-decision.
• Blanco’s 4.40 strikeout-to-walk ratio (4.40) is the eighth best of any ACC pitcher.
• Jack O’Connor has filled a role in the bullpen for the Cavaliers and flourished in four appearances. He has struck out eight batters in 3.2 innings of work. He earned his first career save in Sunday’s series finale against Miami.
• Aidan Teel has either a save or factored in a decision in seven of his nine appearances for UVA this season. His four saves are tied for fifth in the country and ranked second in the ACC.

COMEBACK CAVS

• UVA has faced a deficit in 12 of the 17 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.

RANKED FOES AT HOME

• Virginia last regular season series win at home over a nationally ranked opponent was in 2022 when they took two out of three against then-No. 22 Georgia Tech.
• The Cavaliers last win over a top-10 team in the regular season at home was against then-No. 7 NC State in 2020. The season was canceled due to the COVID19 pandemic four days later.
• The only ranked opponent to come to The Dish in 2023 was then-No. 20 Duke which won the rubber game. The Cavaliers later hosted the Blue Devils in the Charlottesville Super Regional and lost game one, 5-4 before outscoring the Blue Devils 26-6 in the final two games to advance to the College World Series for the second time in the last three years.

PLAYER NOTABLES

• Casey Saucke is UVA’s hottest hitter over the last 10 games, batting .421 (16-for-38) with four home runs and 11 RBI. He is in the midst of a team-best, nine-game hit streak and has reached base safely in 25-straight games dating back to the final eight games of the 2023 season, all NCAA postseason contest.
• Saucke has been crucial in UVA’s last two wins, hitting three homers in his last two games. His eighth-inning, lead-off homer in the series finale against Miami tied the game at an 11, setting up a 14-11 series salvaging victory. It was his second of two long balls on the season. Against William & Mary he worked through a seven-pitch at bat, including a foul ball off his knee right before he blasted a 463-foot homer over the left field bleachers. It sparked a six-run, sixth inning in an eventual 6-2 comeback win over the Tribe.
• Harrison Didawick doubled his 2023 season home run total in the first 16 games of the season and is tied for third in the ACC with eight bombs. He hit five home runs in a four-game stretch from March 5-9, including his first career multi-homer effort on in the middle game against Miami on March 8. The only game he did not homer in the Miami series 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.
• Henry Godbout struck out for the first time this season after getting caught looking in the fourth inning against William & Mary on Tuesday. He did not strikeout in his first 48 at bats of the season. He is statistically the toughest player to strikeout in the ACC and one of four players in the country with 50 or more at bats and two or less strikeouts.
• Saucke, Anthony Stephan and Ethan Anderson have reached base safely in all 17 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. At the Jax College Classic against Wichita State he delivered a walk-off double in the 10th inning, the first of three wins on the weekend for UVA. He currently leads the team with nine multi-hit games and co-leads the Cavaliers in hits (27) and multi-RBI games (8).