No. 9 Virginia Travels to No. 11 Duke for Three-Game Set

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – No. 9 Virginia (21-4, 6-3) will get a head start on the weekend when it opens a three-game road ACC series on Thursday (March 28) against No. 11 Duke (18-7, 4-5 ACC). All three games of the top-25 showdown will air live on ACCNX.

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

Probable Starting Pitchers
Thursday – 6 p.m.
Virginia: RHP Cullen McKay (2-0, 3.75 ERA, 24.0 IP, 15 BB, 30 SO)
Duke: LHP Jonathan Santucci (4-0, 2.70 ERA, 30.0 IP, 20 BB, 51 SO)

 
Friday – 6 p.m.
Virginia: LHP Evan Blanco (2-1, 3.77 ERA, 28.2 IP, 8 BB, 32 SO)
Duke: RHP Ryan Higgins (0-0, 3.24 ERA, 16.2 IP, 10 BB, 16 SO)

Saturday – 1 p.m.
Virginia: TBA
Duke: TBA

LEADING OFF

• Virginia’s 21 wins are one shy of national leaders Tennessee (22-4), North Carolina (22-4), Texas A&M (22-3) and Clemson (22-2). Only nine teams in the country have 21 or more wins, three of them reside in the ACC – Clemson, North Carolina and Virginia.
• Virginia comes into the series winners of six-straight games, the second six-game win streak of the season. UVA started the year winning its first nine games. Only North Carolina (7) and Virginia Tech (7) have longer win streaks among ACC teams.
• Duke will be UVA’s third nationally ranked opponent of the season. The Cavaliers haven’t squared off against a top-25 opponent on the road in the regular season since then-No. 8 Miami in 2022. UVA’s last road series win over a nationally ranked opponent was in 2021 winning the final two games at then-No. 6 Georgia Tech. Including the two victories against the Yellow Jackets, UVA went on to win 14 of the final 20 ACC games this season and eventually reached the program’s fifth College World Series.
• The weekend’s matchup pits Virginia, which currently sports the nation’s second highest team batting average (.359) and the most hits (336), against Duke, which allows the second-fewest hits (6.17) per game and has the sixth-lowest ERA (3.46) in the country.
• Virginia has won 20 or more wins in its first 25 games 12 times under head coach Brian O’Connor, including each of the last three seasons (2022 – 23-2; 2023 – 23-2 & 2024 – 21-4).
• Virginia has won four of its last five ACC series dating back to last season. Three of the four series wins have been sweeps including last weekend at Pitt.
• This will mark the second-straight season that both Virginia and Duke are ranked in the top-25 when facing one another. The two teams had never played against one another with both teams in the top-25 until last season.

AGAINST DUKE

• This weekend will be a rematch of the 2023 Charlottesville Super Regional. The Blue Devils took game one, 5-4 but the Cavaliers stormed back outscoring Duke 26-6 in the final two games.
• The two teams met six times last season with Duke taking two out of three in the regular season at Disharoon Park.
• Virginia is 109-68-1 against Duke in an all-time series that was first played in 1926, an 8-2 Cavalier victory. Friday’s meeting will be the 180th all-time meeting between the two schools.
• UVA has 100 all-time wins against five schools, Duke (109), North Carolina (118), Virginia Tech (108), Maryland (113) and VMI (111).
• Virginia has won 20 of 24 ACC series against the Blue Devils since 2000.
• Cavalier freshman Charlie Oschell is the younger brother of Duke All-American RHP Fran Oschell. Fran played on the USA Baseball Collegiate National team with Cavalier shortstop Griff O’Ferrall and righthanded pitcher Jay Woolfolk last summer.
• Cavalier lefthanded pitcher Owen Coady and Duke first baseman Ben Miller were teammates at Penn the last four years before transferring to their current institutions. Both were All-Ivy League selections.

OFFENSIVE FIREPOWER

• The Virginia offense comes into the midweek ranked No. 1 in the country in hits (336) and doubles (77). The team’s collective batting average of .359 is the second highest of any team in college baseball.
• In total, the Cavaliers are ranked in the top-10 in the nation in seven different offensive categories including: on-base percentage runs (2nd – 273), (4th – .454), scoring (3rd – 10.9) and slugging percentage (8th – .596).
• Virginia has racked up double-digit hits in six-straight games, including a 19-hit effort in seven innings against Pitt in the series opener last Friday.
• Last season, Virginia led the country in batting average, doubles and hits. It ranked in the top-10 in seven different offensive categories.

COMEBACK CAVS

• UVA has faced a deficit in 18 of the 25 games this season and recorded 14 come-from-behind victories.
• The Cavaliers have recorded three walk-off victories and four wins when erasing a deficit of four or more runs.
• Of the Cavaliers 13 come-from-behind victories, the largest came against then-No. 18 Iowa on Feb. 24 in Jacksonville, Fla. where UVA trailed by six runs. They trailed by five runs in the opener against Wake Forest and five runs after the seventh inning stretch in the finale against the Demon Deacons.
• Virginia is 6-1 this season in games decided by one or two runs and have gone to extra innings on three different occasions. The Cavalier had seven one or two-run victories in all of 2023.
• Remarkably, UVA is 10-2 when opponents score first and 9-2 when opponents score in the first inning.
• 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.

ON THE MOUND

• Virginia will stick with Cullen McKay and Evan Blanco to start the first two games of the series for the third-straight weekend.
• Virginia starting pitching was the story of last weekends sweep at Pitt. McKay (5.0 IP 2 ER), Blanco (5.2 IP, 3 ER) and Kevin Jaxel (5.0 IP, 1 ER) each earned victories and combined for a 3.45 ERA over 15 innings. McKay struck out a career-high 10 batters on Friday, the most of any Cavalier pitcher this season. Jaxel made his first career start on Sunday and allowed just two hits in his five innings of work.
• McKay had his best outing of his young Cavalier last weekend at Pitt and finished off the day retiring nine of the last nine of the last 10 batters he faced. He allowed only three hits, none in his final three innings of work. The 10 strikeouts were the most by a Cavalier since Brian Edgington struck out 11 in a complete game against Duke in game three of the 2023 Charlottesville Super Regional.
• Blanco just missed out on what would have been UVA’s third quality start of the season last weekend against Pitt. He logged 5.2 innings and struck out six batters. He fanned four of the first six batters he faced and struck out the side in the first inning.

PLAYER NOTABLES

• Harrison Didawick is one of four players in the country with at least 12 homers and seven stolen bases. The second year swiped two bags on Tuesday against Richmond matching a career-high. Didawick leads the ACC in runs scored (40) and co-leads the league in RBI with 40. Didawick enters the series with a team-best 15-game hitting streak and has four homers in his last six games.
• Ethan Anderson is the only Cavalier to reach base safely in all 25 games this season and has a 14-game hit streak of his own. Anderson has three multi-hit performances in his last five games, including his second three-hit game of the season on Tuesday against Richmond.
• Jacob Ference has a hit in each of his last 10 games played and all seven of his home runs have come in that span. He produced multi-home run efforts against Wake Forest (March 15) and Pitt (March 22), giving him six two-homer games in his career (four at Salisbury and two at UVA).
• Five of Casey Saucke’s seven home runs have come in the last 10 games. He has reached base in all but one game this season and 32 of his last 33 games dating back to last season. Saucke has four multi-hit efforts in the last five games.
• Henry Ford co-leads all NCAA D-I freshman with 39 hits, tied with Miami’s Daniel Cuvet. His 11 mulit-hit games are tied with Saucke for the team lead.