No. 10 Virginia Hosts Georgia Tech in Three-Game Series

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – No. 10 Virginia (29-9, 11-7 ACC) continues its five-game homestand this weekend with a three-game series against Georgia Tech (22-13, 7-8 ACC) at Disharoon Park. The series opener is slated for 6 p.m. on Friday (April 19). All three games will air on ACCNX.

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

WEEKEND PROMOTIONS

Friday, April 19: Celebrate Earth Day at the Dish! There will be a Virginia Baseball reusable tote bag giveaway to the first 1,000 fans!

Saturday, April 20: Come on Baseball, Let’s Go Party! It’s Barbie Day at the Dish! There will be in-game videoboard content and games all about everyone’s favorite toy and the hit movie! This will be a Sabre Rewards Event for UVA students.

Sunday, April 21: Youth Day is back! There’s 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 third of five sets of 2024 Virginia Baseball trading cards will be given out to the first 500 fans, at the marketing table. Also

PARKING INFORMATION

Fans are encouraged to arrive early with increased traffic in the area for the series. With an event at John Paul Jones Arena on Saturday and Sunday, baseball parking will be available in the JPJ South Lot and the Emmet/Ivy Garage. A shuttle will run from Emmet/Ivy Garage on Saturday and Sunday.

Probable Starting Pitchers

Friday – 6 p.m.
Georgia Tech: RHP Aedan Finateri (4-1, 4.95 ERA, 43.2 IP, 14 BB, 48 SO)
Virginia: LHP Evan Blanco (4-1, 3.94 ERA, 45.2 IP, 11 BB, 51 SO)

Saturday – 4 p.m.
Georgia Tech: LHP Cam Jones (2-1, 3.86 ERA, 28.0 IP, 12 BB, 24 SO)
Virginia: LHP Owen Coady (1-0, 3.54 ERA, 20.1 IP, 9 BB, 24 SO)

Sunday – 1 p.m.
Georgia Tech: RHP Tate McKee (3-3, 5.70 ERA, 23.2 IP, 13 BB, 34 SO)
Virginia: TBA

LEADING OFF

• Virginia is a consensus top-10 team for the for the second time this season. The Cavaliers moved up one spot in this week’s D1Baseball.com poll and have been as high as No. 9 back in the week six poll (March 25).
• Virginia features one of the top offenses in college baseball and come into the weekend with the most hits (468) of any team in the country. It ranks in the top five in the nation batting average (2nd – .343), doubles (2nd – 98), runs (3rd – 379), and scoring (3rd – 10.2 rpg).
• UVA is one of 11 teams in the country with 28 or more wins. Of those 11 teams, four reside in the (Florida St., Clemson, & North Carolina).
• Virginia is 18-3 at home this season and has won 55 of its last 63 games at Disharoon Park.
• The Cavaliers have won four of their last five ACC series, including series victories over then No. 7 Wake Forest and then No. 10 North Carolina.
• Virginia head coach Brian O’Connor and Georgia Tech head coach Danny Hall were both members of the 2024 American Baseball Coaches Association (ABCA) Hall of Fame Class this past January. Hall is the DI active leader in career wins with 1,400 while O’Connor owns the highest active winning percentage (.705) of any DI coach (min. 10 years).

AGAINST GEORGIA TECH

• Friday will be the 145th meeting between Georgia Tech and Virginia, a series that was started on April 28, 1924, an 8-4 Cavalier victory in Charlottesville.
• Virginia has won six-straight games against the Yellow Jackets, only the second time 100-year-old series that UVA has won six consecutive games against Georgia Tech. The only other stretch of six wins in a row for the Cavaliers came between 2004 and 2005, Brian O’Connor’s first two years at Virginia.
• During UVA’s current six-game winning streak against Georgia Tech, the Cavaliers have outscored the Yellow Jackets, 76-37.
• Virginia took all four games against Georgia Tech last season, including a 15-1, run-rule victory in pool play of the ACC Tournament in Durham. The Cavaliers swept the regular season series against Yellow Jackets in Atlanta for the first time since 2004. The three wins in 2004 were the first three ACC wins of O’Connor’s career and the first time in program history UVA won a series at Georgia Tech.
• Virginia has won six-straight home series against Georgia Tech dating back to 2010. UVA is unbeaten in seven of the eight series against the Yellow Jackets at Disharoon Park under O’Connor (2004-present).

SPLIT MIDWEEK

• Virginia lost its first midweek game in nearly two years, a span of 29 games when it fell 7-4 against ODU at Harbor Park on Tuesday. Virginia was held to seven hits, its second lowest total of the season.
• The Cavaliers bounced back with an 11-5 win over George Mason, a contest in which they never trailed. UVA kept its 26-game home win streak against midweek opponents intact.

ON THE MOUND

• Evan Blanco is the only Cavalier on the staff with nine weekend starts and has proved to be Virginia’s most consistent pitcher this season.
• He has turned in back-to-back quality starts in wins over then-No. 10 North Carolina and Louisville. He has two of UVA’s four quality starts this season.
• Against Louisville last week, the Blanco established a new career-high with 11 strikeouts, the most by a Cavalier pitcher this season. After surrendering a leadoff home run in the first inning, he retired 14 of the next 15 batters. Blanco did not walk a batter and has issued only 11 free passes all year, tied for the fifth-fewest in the league.
• Owen Coady will make his fourth start of the season and served as last weekend’s Sunday starter at Louisville. He pitched the first three innings and three runs on five hits.
• Coady has also made eight relief appearances this year, allowing one run over nine innings pitched out of the bullpen. He also has pitched in both of UVA shutouts this season. Of his 24 strikeouts in 2024, 13 have come in relief efforts.
• Saturday will be Coady’s 20th collegiate start. He has served has Penn’s Friday night start last season where he earned Second Team All-Ivy League honors.

POTENT ATTACK

• The Virginia offense is ranks in the top-10 in the country in seven different categories – hits (1st – 482), doubles (1st – 100), batting average (2nd – .343), runs (2nd – 390), scoring (3rd – 10.3 rpg), slugging percentage (9th – .574) and on-base percentage (10th – .435).
• Virginia’s 482 hits are 34 more that Texas Tech who has the second-most in the in the country.
• The Cavaliers are one of four teams in the country averaging over 10 runs per game – Wofford (11.0), Tennessee (10.3) and Austin Peay (10.1).
• Virginia scored double-digit runs 20 times this season and is 18-2 when scoring 10 or more runs in a game.
• 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 is tied for the third-highest scoring margin of any ACC team and tied for the 9th best in the NCAA, outscoring its opponents by average of 4.0 runs per game.

Highest Scoring Margin in ACC
Florida State +5.1
Duke +4.4
Virginia +4.0
North Carolina +4.0

HOOS DIG THE LONG BALL

• In Wednesday’s game against George Mason, Virginia hit its 67th and 68th home runs of the season, the third-most ever in a single season. UVA has hit 35 of its 68 home runs at Disharoon Park.

Most UVA Home Runs in a Single Season

• Harrison Didawick reached the 15-home run mark in just 36 games, tied for the second-fastest in program history. In 1994 it took only 34 games for Brian Buchanan to reach the 15-home run mark. Last season, Jake Gelof broke UVA’s single season mark and also had 15 long balls in his first 36 games.

FASTEST TO 15 HOMERS IN UVA HISTORY

• Didawick needs one more home run and he will be tied with Jarrett Parker (2009) and Joe Koshansky for the fifth-most in a single season ever by a UVA hitter.

Most Home Runs in a Single Season (UVA History)

• Henry Ford has hit six home runs in his last eight games played, including multi-homer games in each of the last two ACC series openers. He hit three homers on Thursday night (April 4) against North Carolina and went deep in his first two at bats against Louisville on April 12. Ford is two home runs shy of matching UVA single-season freshman record held by former Cavalier big leaguer Mark Reynolds who hit 15 in 2002. One more home run for Ford and he will join Reynolds as the only two freshmen on UVA’s top-10 single-season home run list.
• Six different Cavaliers have put forth multi-home run games this season – Jacob Ference (3), Henry Ford (3), Harrison Didawick (1), Ethan Anderson (1), Luke Hanson (1) and Casey Saucke (1).
• Virginia went four games without a home run before blasting five in the opener against North Carolina on April 5. 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 in 2021 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.
• 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).

PLAYER NOTABLES

• Eric Becker has played nine-straight games at second base for the injured Henry Godbout. Over his last five games he is 8-for-19 (.421) with 3 HR, 3B, 8 R, 14 RBI at the plate.
• Griff O’Ferrall is statistically the toughest batter in the ACC to strikeout (11.8 AB/K). He leads the team with 19 multi-hit efforts including five in his last seven games.
• O’Ferrall has scored 170 career runs, tied with former Kyle Teel for the eighth most in program history. He needs five more hits to enter the top-10 in program history in hits and currently has 235. He broke UVA’s single-season hits record last season with 108.
• Henry Ford’s 56 hits are the most of any freshman in the country and his 13 homers are tied for second-most of any first year in D-I baseball. Ford has reached base safely in 30-straight games, the longest active streak on the team.
• Casey Saucke recorded his 200th hit on Wednesday against George Mason in a 3-for-5 effort at the plate. It marked the 7th time this season Saucke has produced three or more hits in a game. Saucke leads the Cavaliers with 58 hits, the third-most in the ACC.
• In addition to his home run prowess this season, Harrison Didawick has scored an ACC-best 53 runs, the eighth-most in all of DI college baseball.
• Ethan Anderson went 7-for-11 (.636) and scored nine runs in last weekend’s three-game series at Louisville. He recorded his second career five-hit game He’s the third Cavalier this season with a five-hit performance.
• Bobby Whalen enters the series ranked fifth in the ACC in batting average (.400). He’s reached in all but three of his starts this season.
• Luke Hanson is 9-for-20 (.450) with seven runs scored and seven RBI in his last five games. He produced his first multi-home run game in the series finale against Louisville last Sunday. Hanson leads the ACC with nine sac bunts this season.