No. 11 Virginia Resumes ACC Play on the Road Against Louisville

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – No. 11 Virginia (26-7, 9-6 ACC) will start a four-game road stretch with a three-game ACC series against Louisville (20-11, 6-6 ACC). The series opener is scheduled for Friday (April 12) at 6 p.m. All three games will air on ACCNX.

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

Probable Starting Pitchers
Friday – 6 p.m.
Virginia: LHP Evan Blanco (3-1, 3.86 ERA, 39.2 IP, 11 BB, 40 SO)
Louisville: LHP Sebastian Gongora (4-2, 4.27 ERA, 43.1 IP, 15 BB, 52 SO)

Saturday – 1 p.m.
Virginia: RHP Kevin Jaxel (4-0, 9.13 ERA, 22.2 IP, 16 BB, 18 SO)
Louisville: LHP Evan Webster (3-1, 2.61 ERA, 38.0 IP, 11 BB, 34 SO)

Sunday – 1 p.m.
Virginia: TBA
Louisville: RHP Carson Liggett (2-1, 5.79 ERA, 23.1 IP, 8 BB, 23 SO)

LEADING OFF

• Virginia enters the midweek with 26 wins, tied for the eighth most in the country and third-most in the ACC. The Cavaliers are one of 12 schools in the country with 26 or more wins.
• UVA comes into the series as the No. 11 team in the country, its second-highest ranking of the season. Virginia has been as low as No. 9 back on March 26, the sixth week of the season.
• The Cavaliers have won three of their five ACC series this season and five of their last seven dating back to the 2023 season.
• With nine conference wins at the midpoint of its ACC schedule, it marks the third-straight season UVA has reached nine or more wins in its first 15 ACC games. Remarkably, UVA has reached the College World Series with four wins (2021) and six wins (2015 – won national championship) at the halfway point of its ACC schedule.
• The UVA offense leads the country in hits (415) and second in the nation in both doubles (93) and batting average (.342).
• The Cavaliers led the ACC in scoring (9.9 rpg) and total runs (328).

AGAINST LOUISVILLE

• Virginia is seeking its fourth-straight win over Louisville, something that neither team has been able to do against one another since the all-time series began in 2015.
• The Cavaliers came away with a series sweep last season, outscoring the Cardinals 27-9 over the three games. The sweep was part of a nine-game UVA win streak to close out the 2023 regular season.
• Louisville holds a 13-12 edge in the all-time series.
• UVA’s lone series win in three tries against Louisville at Jim Patterson Stadium came in 2018, when it won two out of three games, all one-run affairs.

ON THE MOUND

• Evan Blanco is the only pitcher remaining from UVA’s opening day rotation. The lefthander has made a staff-best, eight starts after appearing exclusively in relief last season.
• Blanco is coming off the longest outing by a UVA starter this season when he pitched 6.1 innings in a 7-2 win over then-No. 10 North Carolina last Saturday. He was one strikeout shy of matching a career-best, fanning seven Tar Heels.
• Blanco has pitched into the fifth inning in seven of his eight starts and has not allowed more than three runs in any of his outings this season.
• Kevin Jaxel slides into the Saturday starting role after starting on Sunday in each of the last three weekends, the first three starts of his career.
• His first two starts against Pitt and Duke he allowed three earned runs in a total of 10 innings pitched.

BULLPEN NOTABLES

• Virginia used a season-high 10 pitchers in its 8-4 midweek win over VCU on Tuesday. Chase Hungate, a transfer from VCU, was credited with the victory after pitching two scoreless frames beginning in the fifth inning. Hungate hasn’t allowed a run in 10 of his 14 relief appearances this season.
• Graduate student Owen Coady was lights out for the Cavaliers in two appearances last week. He earned the win against ODU, striking out all six batters he faced. He came on to pitch the final 2.2 innings of UVA’s 7-2 series-clinching win over North Carolina on Friday night to earn the save. He struck out nine of the 15 batters he faced.
• Lefthander Angelo Tonas the standout on the mound for the Cavaliers in the series finale against North Carolina. The graduate student took over on the mound in the third and kept the Tar Heels scoreless for the next 3.2 innings, his longest outing as a Cavalier. Tonas hasn’t allowed a run in 13 of his 16 relief appearances this season. He was credited with a hold in the midweek win over VCU, stranding runners on the corners in the seventh inning.
• Blake Barker was a key piece in UVA’s comeback win over North Carolina on Thursday. He put a halt to the early scoring outburst from the Tar Heels, pitching 3.1 innings of scoreless relief beginning in the third inning. He matched a career-high with five strikeouts and faced the minimum in the fourth, fifth and sixth innings.

HOOS DIG THE LONG BALL

• Virginia went four games without a home run before blasting five in the opener against North Carolina. It marked the longest home run drought since a four-game spell between March 27 – April 21, 2021. The Cavaliers broke out of that homerless spell with a grand slam by Nic Kent in an 8-2, game two at Georgia Tech. The win proved significant as UVA went on to win 14 of its next 20 ACC games after starting league play 4-12, a run that sparked a berth into College World Series for the fifth time in program history.
• Henry Ford broke UVA’s latest home run drought with his first career grand slam and the second by a Cavalier this season (Henry Godbout vs. GW on March 6). It was the first of three long balls for Ford in the contest, the first three-homer game by a UVA hitter since 2002 (Dan Street vs. ODU).

• Ford has 10 home runs in his first 33 collegiate games. He is the fourth Cavalier freshman to hit 10 or more home runs in a season since 2004, joining UVA Baseball Hall of Famers Mark Reynolds (15 in 2002), Sean Doolittle (11 in 2005) and Steven Proscia (10 in 2009).
• Harrison Didawick has 14 home runs in his first 33 games, tied for the second-most in the ACC and tied for 14th-most in the country.

Most Home Runs in a Single Season (UVA History)

OFFENSIVE FIREPOWER

• The Virginia offense comes into Tuesday night’s contest ranked No. 1 in the country in hits (415) and are second in the nation doubles (93) and team batting average (.342).
• In total, the Cavaliers are ranked in the top-10 in the nation in seven different offensive categories including: runs (4th – 328), scoring (5th – 9.9), slugging percentage (8th – .566) and on-base percentage (10th – .435).
• UVA leads the ACC in batting average, doubles, hits, on-base percentage, runs and scoring.
• Last season, Virginia led the country in batting average, doubles and hits. It ranked in the top-10 in seven different offensive categories.
• Virginia has the fourth-highest scoring margin of any ACC team and 17th best in the NCAA, outscoring its opponents by average of 3.7 runs per game.

Highest Scoring Margin in ACC
Florida State +5.3
Duke +4.5
Virginia Tech +4.2
Virginia +3.7

PLAYER NOTABLES

• Henry Ford’s 50 hits are the most of any freshman in the country and his 10 homers are tied for third-most of any first year in D-I baseball. Ford has reached base safely in 26-straight games, the longest active streak on the team.
• Griff O’Ferrall has scored six runs in his last three games and moved into sole possession of ninth on UVA’s career run list. He needs four more runs to tie former teammate Kyle Teel for eight all-time.
• Casey Saucke eclipsed the 50-hit mark with two base knocks in the series finale against North Carolina. Saucke and Ford co-led the team with 16 multi-hit efforts. Saucke’s 51 hits are tied for the fourth-most amongst ACC foes.
• Ethan Anderson homered twice in UVA’s 7-2 series-clinching win over North Carolina on Friday, his second two-homer game of his career. He went 6-for-14 (.429), with two doubles, 2 home runs, and five RBI in three games vs. UNC.
• Harrison Didawick has scored 48 runs, the most in the ACC and tied for the eighth most in the country. He’s already surpassed his season total from last year (44).
• Bobby Whalen enters the series ranked third in the ACC in batting average. He’s reached in all but three of his starts this season.

COMEBACK CAVS

• UVA has faced a deficit in 22 of the 33 games this season and recorded 15 come-from-behind victories.
• The Cavaliers have recorded three walk-off victories and four wins when erasing a deficit of five or more runs.
• Of the Cavaliers 16 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, five runs after the seventh inning stretch in the finale against the Demon Deacons and 11-6 after three innings against North Carolina on April 4.
• 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 12-4 when opponents score first and 11-4 when opponents score in the first inning. Virginia has scored 39 runs in the sixth inning this season, its most potent frame.
• 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.