Hoos Happy to be Back at the Dish

By Jeff White (jwhite@virginia.edu)
VirginiaSports.com

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — Jacob Ference hasn’t played in a postseason game at Disharoon Park. Neither have his roommates, Joe Savino and Bobby Whalen. But the three of them sat down Sunday night and watched video highlights of the Virginia Cavaliers’ sold-out games at the Dish in last year’s NCAA baseball tournament.

Ference, Savino and Whalen were still at Salisbury, Elon and Indiana, respectively, in 2023 when UVA won an NCAA regional and then a super regional in Charlottesville to advance to the College World Series for the sixth time in program history.

“The adrenaline was rushing, just sitting there on the couch watching it,” Ference said Monday afternoon. “So we couldn’t be more excited. Obviously, all of us coming from different schools … we’re just excited to be a part of it and contribute the most we can.”

The 64-team field for this year’s NCAA tournament was revealed Monday afternoon, and Virginia was named the No. 12 overall seed. The Wahoos (41-15) are seeded No. 1 in the double-elimination Charlottesville Regional, where they’ll be joined by No. 2 seed Mississippi State (38-21), No. 3 seed St. John’s (37-16-1) and No. 4 seed Pennsylvania (24-23).

In the regional’s first game, UVA will host Penn at noon Friday. Mississippi State and St. John’s will meet at 7 p.m. Friday.

Virginia is one of only four schools to be named a regional host in both 2023 and ’24.

“That puts us in rare company,” head coach Brian O’Connor said, “so we’re very, very proud of that and excited to be playing here at home. We don’t take that for granted at all.”

Playing at home is “kind of a goal in the back everyone’s mind the whole season,” junior shortstop Griff O’Ferrall said. “Seeing how great that playoff atmosphere was last year, it definitely gave us a little bit of a boost to try and see it again, so we’re definitely super excited to have the Charlottesville crowd back here.”

Before coming to UVA last year, Ference twice helped Salisbury advance to the Division III College World Series in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. (The Sea Gulls were NCAA champions in 2021 and runners-up in 2022.) During his down time in Cedar Rapids, Ference recalled, he’d watch Division I regionals on TV and wonder how he’d perform on that stage.

“And now I get to experience it firsthand,” Ference said, “so I’m really excited.”

This marks the 11^th time in 21 seasons under O’Connor that Virginia has been awarded an NCAA regional. (There was no postseason in 2020, because of the COVID-19 pandemic.)

“There’s a lot that goes into that,” O’Connor said. “Certainly, you have to perform on the field, and your team each and every year has to earn that opportunity, but you also have to have a facility and a fan base to drive that, to put in a bid that’s competitive and show the NCAA that you’re going to put together a first-class event, and that’s what we do here. Our fans come out for the games, even the games that we’re not playing in, and it’s just a great atmosphere for college baseball.”

The Hoos’ goal, as always, is to finish their season in Omaha, Neb., where in 2015 they won the NCAA title. The Charlottesville regional is paired with the regional in Fayetteville, Ark., hosted by the tournament’s No. 5 overall seed, Arkansas, but O’Connor said his club’s focus is on Penn, the Ivy League champion.

History has shown that a team that wins its first two games in a regional has a great chance of advancing to a best-of-three super regional, but “you have to go 1-0 before you have the chance to go 2-0,” O’Connor said.

The Cavaliers talk often about making it back to Omaha, but they know that “if you don’t win this weekend, that’s just a place in the middle of America,” O’Connor said. “You have to play great baseball, and individual players have to rise up at moments. I know I’ve seen it every year, that the teams that advance have individual players that do something spectacular, whether it be hit a couple of home runs or go out there and throw seven innings and give up one run. There are special things that are done at this time of the year, and you either have guys that do them and do them collectively as a group, or if you don’t, your season’s over.

“And that’s fun. I look forward to that. You do everything all year to have this opportunity you have this weekend, and you can look at it as pressure, or you can look at it as a great opportunity and feel fortunate to be in this situation.”

Players who were elsewhere last year, including Whalen, Ference, Savino and freshmen Henry Ford and Eric Becker, have been instrumental in Virginia’s success this season. But the Hoos also have a sizable contingent of players back from the team that won 50 games last season, and those veterans remember how electric the atmosphere at Disharoon Park was for the regional and super regional.

“I love the energy. I kind of live for it,” sophomore pitcher Evan Blanco said. “I try to keep my cool on the mound, but as we go through the postseason and have crowds like this that are very involved in the game, it’s hard not to kind of feed off of that. It’s big time. Coming in here and having the majority of the stadium cheering for the Hoos, any team kind of feels that and so do we.”

O’Ferrall, Ethan Anderson, Casey Saucke, Anthony Stephan and Jay Woolfolk were first-years in 2022 on the UVA team that saw its season end at the NCAA regional in Greenville, N.C., so they have a special appreciation for playing at the Dish this weekend.

“Our fans are amazing, they’re loud, they’re supportive,” Anderson said. “So it’s a great place to play.”

The Hoos have given their fans plenty to cheer this season, especially at the plate. Of the 11 players who have started at least 32 games apiece for UVA, nine are hitting .301 or better, led by Whalen (.403). Moreover, the Cavaliers have hit 113 home runs, smashing the previous program record of 83 that they set last season.

“It’s an amazing offense to be a part of,” said Anderson, who’s hitting .332 with eight homers and a team-high 19 doubles. “Playing on this team, it feels like you’re never out of the game.”

Sophomore outfielder Harrison Didawick, with 23 homers, has tied the single-season program record set by Jake Gelof last season.

“I hope that he breaks it this weekend,” O’Connor said, “but I know his approach is to go out there and not intentionally to try to do that. But what a great moment that would be if it happened in this stadium in the NCAA tournament, because he’s worked incredibly hard and he’s a team-first guy.”

The Hoos haven’t been as consistent or dominant on the mound, but Blanco (7-3, 3.50 ERA) and Savino (2-2, 3.18) have emerged as the team’s top two starters. Candidates to be the No. 3 starter, O’Connor said, include Woolfolk (2-1, 6.85) and Owen Coady (1-1, 5.94).

Coady, a graduate transfer from Penn, is in his first season at UVA. For Coady and the other Cavaliers who weren’t in the program last year, O’Connor said, “I’m really excited for our players to experience NCAA baseball in this stadium.”

As part of an $18.76 million renovation, the capacity at Disharoon Park was increased to 5,919 before the 2018 season.

The expansion, O’Connor said meant to provide “these kinds of opportunities for our players and for our fans, and this weekend is going to be just like it was last [year] … This place will be full and it will be electric, and again it’s a reward for the fans as much as it is for the players.”

O’Connor knows the college baseball world would be abuzz about a winners’ bracket showdown Saturday night between UVA and Mississippi State, which won the College World Series in 2021. He’s not looking past the Quakers, and he doesn’t want his players doing so, either.

“Let other people talk about potential matchups down the road in the regional,” O’Connor said.

The Cavaliers’ focus “will be solely on what do we have to do to beat Penn, and then we’ll turn our attention to whoever the next opponent is,” O’Connor said. “So we’re just glad to be in this position again. We do not take it for granted at all. It’s incredibly hard to do … We just feel very fortunate that we’re still playing baseball and it’s because of what these guys have earned all year long.”

TICKET INFORMATION
Regional all-session general admission tickets on sale now on UVATix.com. Single-session tickets (sessions 1 – 6), if available, will go on-sale later this week.

PARKING INFORMATION
Daily parking can be purchased online at UVATix.com or upon drive up for spaces in the JPJ South and West Lots, for $15 in advance or $20 upon drive up. Regional all-session parking passes are sold out. Spots are first come, first served. Parking passes must be purchased using a credit/debit card; cash will not be accepted on site.

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