No. 14 Virginia Blasts Four Homers, Run-Rules Liberty

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va.  – No. 10 Virginia (31-11) concluded its five-game homestand with a 14-4 run-rule victory in seven innings against Liberty (17-22) on Tuesday (April 23) at Disharoon Park. The Cavaliers picked up its 20th home win of the season and have won five-straight meetings against the Flames.

The Cavaliers now have a total of 76 long balls on the season, the second-most in school history and seven homers shy of matching last year’s program record of 83. Freshman Henry Ford hit his 15th home run of the season, tying UVA’s single-season freshman record held by UVA Baseball Hall of Famer and former big leaguer Mark Reynolds who hit 15 in 2002.

 

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Bobby Whalen hit his first homer as a Cavalier and finished 2-for-3 with two runs scored and two RBI. He made several standout defensive plays in center field, including a diving catch on a shallow line drive to end the fifth inning. He scored UVA’s second run of the contest by scoring from second base on a wild pitch.

HOW IT HAPPENED

• Coming off a five-hit performance against Georgia Tech on Sunday, Griff O’Ferrall led the first inning off with a single and scored three batters later on a sacrifice fly from Ford. With two outs, Whalen made it 2-0 when he was able to score from second on a wild pitch that caromed near the third base dugout.
• Liberty responded in the top of the second with two solo home runs, evening the game at two.
• Virginia plated nine runs in its next three turns at the plate to put the game out of reach. Whalen broke the 2-2 tie with a two-run shot in the second inning, his first as a Cavalier and the sixth of his collegiate career.

• Virginia capitalized on two Liberty fielding errors, a pair of walks and two hit by pitches in the third inning, scoring four runs without recording a hit to make the score 8-2 after three.
• Casey Saucke and Ford hit back-to-back homers to lead off the fourth. It was the first time UVA hit back-to-back homers this season.
• Harrison Didawick sealed the deal in the sixth with a two-run homer, his team-leading 16th of the year. The 16 long balls are tied with Jarrett Parker (2009) and Joe Koshansky (2004) for the fifth-most in a single season in program history.

• Ryan Osinski was credited with his fourth win after pitching two scoreless frames after taking over in the third inning.

ADDITIONAL NOTES

• UVA has won 27-straight home midweek games at Disharoon Park and 19-straight games at home against Commonwealth opponents.
• The victory was UVA’s 20th win at home this season. The Cavaliers have won 20 or more home games in 18 of Brian O’Connor’s 21 seasons, only missing the 20-win mark in 2015 (National Champions), 2020 (CoVID19 – only 15 home games) and 2021 (College World Series appearance).
• Virginia came into the contest ranked third in the country in runs and reached double digit runs for the 22nd time this season. UVA is 19-3 this season when scoring 10 or more runs.
• Whalen is the 12th different Cavalier to hit a home run this season.
• Virginia is 12-2 when scoring in the first inning and 18-4 when plating the first run of the game.

UP NEXT

The Cavaliers will participate in the 12th annual ALS Awareness Game at Fenway Park on Thursday (April 25) in Boston in the opener of a three-game series against Boston College. The game has been played annually in honor of former Boston College baseball captain Pete Frates since his ALS diagnosis in 2012. This year marks its fifth time being played at Fenway Park. Frates passed away in 2019 at the age of 34. It marks the first time UVA will play in an MLB stadium. The final two games of the series will be played in Chestnut Hill on Friday (April 26 – 3 p.m.) and Saturday (April 27 – 1 p.m.).