No. 14 Virginia Closes Homestand on Tuesday Against Liberty

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – No. 14 Virginia (30-11) will wrap up hits five-game homestand on Tuesday (April 23) when it hosts Liberty (17-22) at Disharoon Park. First pitch is scheduled for 6 p.m. and the contest is scheduled to air live on ACCNX.

HOW TO FOLLOW
Watch: ACCNX
Listen: WINA – 98.9 FM/1070 AM/WINA.com
Live Stats: VirginiaSports.com

Probable Starting Pitchers
Tuesday – 6 p.m.
Liberty: LHP Josh Swink (0-1, 6.75 ERA, 6.2 IP, 7 BB, 4 SO)
Virginia: Bryson Moore (1-0, 0.00 ERA, 6.2 IP, 2 BB, 7 SO)

LEADING OFF

• Virginia dropped four spots in the D1Baseball.com poll to No. 14 after a 2-3 week that included home series loss to Georgia Tech this past weekend. Virginia has been as high as No. 9 (March 25) and as low as No. 17 (March 11) in the D1Baseball poll this season.
• UVA is one of 12 teams nationally at the 30-win mark after the first 10 weeks of the season. The Cavaliers are tied with North Carolina for the third-most wins in the ACC.
• Virginia enters Tuesday with an 18-game win streak against in-state foes at Disharoon Park. Its last home loss against a Commonwealth school was on May 1, 2022 against Virginia Tech. Since opening in 2002, Virginia is 162-26 (.862) against in-state foes at The Dish.
• The Cavaliers lost their first midweek game in almost two years, a span of 29 games, after dropping a 7-4 decision to ODU on April 16 at Harbor Park in Norfolk. Virginia bounced back the next day with a 11-5 win over George Mason, its 26th straight midweek win at home.
• Virginia is 16-2 against non-conference opponents this season and has won 35 of its last 37 games against non-conference foes in the regular season.
• Virginia is 19-5 at home this season and seeking its third-straight season with 20 or more home wins. The Cavaliers have won 20 or more home games in 17 of the last 20 seasons under Brian O’Connor, only missing the 20-win mark in 2015 (National Champions), 2020 (CoVID19 – only 15 home games) and 2021 (College World Series appearance). UVA set the program record with 42 home wins last season.

AGAINST LIBERTY

• Tuesday will be the 67th all-time meeting between Liberty and Virginia, two schools home ballparks separated by a little over 68 miles on US-29.
• Virginia owns a 43-22-1 advantage in the all-time series that was first played in 1976, a 16-6 UVA victory in Charlottesville.
• The Cavaliers have won four-straight meetings against the Flames and have won nine straight meetings at Disharoon Park. UVA is 14-1 all-time against Liberty inside the confines of Disharoon Park.
• Last season Virginia swept the midweek season series against Liberty for the first time since 2017.
• In last year’s meeting at home, UVA trailed 4-0 in the seventh inning before it scored the game’s final seven runs which included a five-run seventh inning rally.

ON THE MOUND

• Freshman Bryson Moore will make his second collegiate start after serving as the opener in last Wednesday’s 11-5 win over George Mason. It was his first appearance on the mound for the Cavaliers since Feb. 23 against Wichita State in Jacksonville, Fla.
• Moore pitched the first inning last Wednesday and worked around a pair of hits for a scoreless frame. He has yet to give up a run in 6.2 innings pitched.
• Moore is the 11th pitcher to make a start for the Cavaliers this season.

MILESTONE WATCH

• Virginia is three home runs shy of matching its second-highest team home run total in program history. The top three home run totals in program history have each occurred in the last three seasons.
• Griff O’Ferrall is currently ranked 10th on UVA’s career hit list with 243. He is two hits behind current UVA undergraduate assistant coach and UVA Baseball Hall of Famer, John Hicks who had 245 from 2009-11.
• Ethan Anderson also has chance at matching a John Hicks career mark. Anderson has 53 career doubles, currently one behind Hicks’ three-year total of 54.

POTENT ATTACK

• The Virginia offense comes into the midweek ranked No. 1 in the country hits (517), 28 more than Austin Peay who has the second-most of any team in the country.
• UVA also ranks in the top-10 in the nation in doubles (2nd – 106,), runs (3rd – 412), batting average (3rd – .342), scoring (5th – 10.0 rpg), slugging percentage (9th – .568) and on-base percentage (9th – .433) for a total of seven different categories.
• The Cavaliers are one of five teams in the country averaging over 10 runs per game – Wofford (11.2), Tennessee (10.4), Bowling Green (10.1) and Austin Peay (10.1.)
• Virginia scored double-digit runs 21 times this season and is 18-3 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.

PLAYER NOTABLES

• Griff O’Ferrall is coming off a 5-for-5 performance on Sunday against Georgia Tech, the fourth Cavlaier this season to put forth a five-hit game. He also matched a school record, scoring five runs in the contest. O’Ferrall has hit safely in 12-straight games, the longest active streak on the team and the second hitting streak of 10 or more games this season. He has hit in 29 of his last 30 games.
• O’Ferrall is statistically the toughest batter in the ACC to strike out, fanning once every 12.0 at bats.
• Jacob Ference has homered in back-to-back games with his 11th and 12th home runs of the season over the weekend. He’s two shy of matching his career-high after he broke Salisbury University’s single-season home run record with 14 last season. Ference leads the team with a .402 batting average, the third-highest in the ACC.
• Bobby Whalen delivered a walk-off single in the bottom of the 11th game two against Georgia Tech on Saturday. It was Whalen’s second career walk-off hit. While at Indiana, he recorded a walk-off against Morehead State on March 17, 2023 on a similar single through the right side. Whalen has made four-straight starts for the Cavaliers where he’s produced six hits. His .396 batting average is fourth-highest in the ACC.
• Casey Saucke had his 121-game consecutive start streak end after missing the opener against Georgia Tech. He played the final two games of the series and on Sunday matched a career-high with four RBI. It was the second-straight ACC Sunday with a four-RBI performance.