No. 10 Virginia Hosts No. 23 NC State in Top 25 ACC Showdown

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – No. 10 Virginia (36-12, 14-10 ACC) will play its final six home games of the season at Disharoon Park beginning with a three-game Atlantic Coast Conference series against No. 23 NC State (27-18, 13-10 ACC). The series opener is scheduled for 7 p.m. on Friday (May 10) and will air live on ACC network.

HOW TO FOLLOW
Watch: ACC Network (Friday) | ACCNX (Saturday & Sunday)
Listen: WINA – 98.9 FM/1070 AM/WINA.com/Virginia Sports App
Live Stats: VirginiaSports.com

Probable Starting Pitchers
Friday – 7 p.m.
NC State: RHP Sam Highfill (4-1, 5.06 ERA, 53.1 IP, 26 BB, 55 SO)
Virginia: LHP Evan Blanco (5-3, 4.38 ERA, 61.2 IP, 17 BB, 66 SO)

Saturday – Noon
NC State: TBA
Virginia: TBA

Sunday – 1 p.m.
NC State: TBA
Virginia: TBA

HEROES APPRECIATION WEEKEND

LEADING OFF

• Virginia enters the penultimate week of the college baseball regular season as a consensus top-10 team and is No. 10 in the latest D1Baseball.com top-25. The Cavaliers have been inside the top-15 for eight consecutive weeks and are a consensus top-10 team for the third time (week 6, week 9 & week 12).
• The Cavaliers will play the final six games of the season, all ACC contests, at home. It is the sixth time since 2004 the final two ACC series of the year will be played in Charlottesville and the first time since 2016.
• Virginia has won five-straight games, its third streak of five or more consecutive wins this season. The five-game winning streak is the second-longest behind Wake Forest in the ACC and tied for the ninth-longest in the country.
• UVA’s 36 wins are tied for the eighth-most of any team in the country and tied for the most in the ACC. The Cavaliers have reached the 36-win plateau in 18 of Brian O’Connor’s 21 seasons at Virginia.
• Virginia has won 14-straight series coming out of its annual exam break. Since 2004, the Cavaliers are 76-37 (.673) in ACC games after the break.
• NC State is fifth nationally ranked opponent the Cavaliers will square off against this season and third at home. Virginia is 6-4 against top-25 teams this season.

MIDWEEK WRAP

• Virginia completed its non-conference schedule on Wednesday with an 18-5, run-rule victory over George Washington in seven innings. The Cavaliers hit six home runs in the contest and in the process surpassed UVA’s single-season home run record for the third-straight season.
• The Cavaliers finished 22-2 in non-conference play and have won 29-straight midweek contests. Dating back to 2022, the Cavaliers have won 51 of the last 53 non-conference games.
• UVA scored 15 of the first 16 runs of the contest and racked up 20 hits, the third 20-hit performance of the season.
• Anthony Stephan homered for the second-straight game, the long ball was Virginia’s 84th of the season and broke the single-season record.

AGAINST NC STATE

• Virginia and NC State are ranked inside the top-25 for the second-straight meeting.
• The Cavaliers took two out of three games against Raleigh for the first time ever last season. UVA nearly came away with the sweep but NC State rallied for three runs in the ninth in a walk-off victory in the finale. The only other occasion (since game locations have been consistently tracked 1969-present) that UVA had won back-to-back games in Raleigh was a doubleheader sweep in on May 9, 1969.
• The Wolfpack own a 122-79-1 all-time record against Virginia in an all-time series that was first played in 1903, a 4-0 Cavalier victory.
• NC State returns to Charlottesville for the first time since 2020, the last series before the season was canceled due to the CoVID-19 pandemic. The Cavaliers took two out of three against a then-No. 7 Wolfpack squad, the first series win over NC State since 2013. The two teams would both reach the 2021 College World Series a year later.

ON THE MOUND

• Evan Blanco will get the start for the Cavaliers in the opener on Friday, his fourth-straight series-opening start.
• He was credited with the win in a combined shutout of Navy on May 1, the game before UVA broke for final exams. He tossed five scoreless innings of three-hit baseball and struck out five.
• Blanco has logged five or more innings nine of his last 10 starts.
• The lefthander ranks seventh in the ACC in strikeout-to-walk ratio (3.88) and ninth in strikeouts (66).
• Virginia has four shutouts, tied with NC State and Florida State most in the ACC.
• Beginning with his April 9 outing against VCU, Chase Hungate has been one of UVA’s most consistent arms out of the bullpen. Over his last six appearances, he his 4-0 with a 1.08 ERA over 16.1 innings pitched. He has issued one walk and struck out five.
• Aidan Teel was credited with his team-leading fifth save of the year in an 8-4 win at VCU on April 30. It was his first since March 5 against Penn State. The righthander struck out four batters in a career-high 2.1 innings last Tuesday.
• Angelo Tonas is the NCAA’s career leader (all levels) in appearances with 112. He is tied with Ryan Osinski for the team lead with 24 this season, fifth-most in the ACC.

MILESTONE WATCH

• Griff O’Ferrall is currently tied with Ryan Zimmerman for eighth on UVA’s all-time hits list with 250. O’Ferrall set UVA’s single-season record for hits in 2023, compiling 108 as the leadoff man for UVA’s College World Series team.

Most Career Hits in UVA History

• O’Ferrall is also climbing UVA’s all-time runs list and has crossed the plate 181 times in three seasons, the sixth-most of any Cavalier ever.

Most Career Runs in UVA History

• Ethan Anderson took over the No. 3 spot on UVA’s career doubles mark with a two-bagger against Navy on May 1. Anderson has 55 career doubles, four shy of Steven Proscia’s 59 from 2009-11.

Most Career Runs in UVA History

• Henry Ford is currently tied with Mark Reynolds (2002) for the most home runs by a UVA freshman. He is one RBI shy of matching Steven Proscia’s 2009 mark of 58, the current freshman program record.