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Baseball
Virginia Matches Up With Penn in Regional Opener
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – Virginia (41-15), the No. 12 national seed in the 2024 NCAA Tournament will host a regional at Disharoon Park for the 11th time in program history. The Cavaliers open up the four-team, double-elimination tournament when it takes on Penn (23-24) at noon on Friday (May 31) on ESPN+
The night game will feature Mississippi State (38-21) and Big East Champion St. John’s (37-16-1) at 7 p.m. The winnners of Friday’s game will play at 6 p.m. on Saturday (June 1) while the losers will square off in an elimination game at noon on Saturday. Television designations Saturday, Sunday and Monday (if necessary) will be announced after the conclusion of the preceding day.
HOW TO FOLLOW
Watch: ESPN+
Listen: WINA – 98.9 FM/1070 AM/WINA.com/Virginia Sports App
Live Stats: NCAA.com
Probable Starting Pitchers
Friday – Noon
Virginia: RHP Joe Savino 2-2, 3.18 ERA, 22.2 IP, 9 BB, 15 SO
Penn: RHP Cole Zaffiro 5-4, 4.98 ERA, 68.2 IP, 31 BB, 86 SO
PARKING INFORMATION
Friday: JPJ South, JPJ West, JPJ Garage and JPJ East lots will be available for baseball patrons with a parking pass. All spaces are available on a first come, first served basis. Reserved parking requires either a Lower or Upper baseball lot digital pass. Upper lot is adjacent to Disharoon Park and not noted on the map and the Lower lot is noted as “Reserved Parking”.
Free parking is available at Lambeth Field (see map). There will be a shuttle from Lambeth Field to the ticket booth in front of the ballpark operating from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Parking for Friday, May 31 at Disharoon Park
LEADING OFF
• Virginia is making its 21st NCAA Tournament appearances, 18 have come in Brian O’Connor’s tenure (2004-present).
• The Cavaliers are one of five teams in this year’s field that have hosted NCAA Regionals in 2023 and 2024 (Clemson, Arkansas, Kentucky, Okla. St.). It marks the first time since the 2013 and 2014 (National Runner-Up) seasons that the Cavaliers have hosted a regional in back-to-back years.
• The Cavaliers have hosted NCAA Regionals 11 times in the 20 possible NCAA Tournaments in the O’Connor era (2004-present)
• Virginia is one of 18 teams in the country with 41 or more wins. Only Clemson and North Carolina have more wins among ACC schools with 42.
• UVA boasts one of the nation’s top offenses, batting .341 as a team, the second highest average in the country. The Cavaliers rank in the top-10 in eight offensive categories.
• The Cavaliers are 61-41 in the NCAA Tournament under Brian O’Connor. The 61 NCAA Tournament wins are the fourth most ever in ACC history and the most of any active ACC coach.
VIRGINIA THE PROGRAM
• Virginia has reached the 40-win plateau for the 14th time in program history, 13 of which have come under head coach Brian O’Connor’s direction.
• UVA has been to two of the last three College World Series in Omaha. Stanford (3x), Tennessee and Texas are the only other schools that can make that claim.
• All six of UVA’s College World Series appearances have been in the last 15 years, the most in the ACC and the tied for the second-most of any college baseball program. Only Florida (8 CWS appearances) has more in that span.
• The Cavaliers have won 55 NCAA Tournament games since 2009, the most of any ACC school and the fifth-most in the country.
• Virginia has racked up 880 wins since Brian O’Connor’s first year in Charlottesville in 2004. The 880 wins are the fourth most of any college baseball program in that span.
• Including a 50-win campaign in 2023, the Cavaliers have posted five, 50-win seasons since 2010, tied for the second most of any school in the country.
• Since 2010, Virginia has won 259 ACC games, the most of any team in the conference.
• In 21 seasons at UVA, O’Connor has coached an astounding 31 MLB players, 10 of which played on the 2015 National Championship team. A total of 12 Cavaliers were in the big leagues last season including Josh Sborz who struck out the final batter of the 2023 World Series, clinching the Texas Rangers first ever World Championship.
• Including Kyle Teel last season (14th overall – Red Sox), Virginia has produced 10 first round draft picks, the most of any ACC program and the third-most of any program in college baseball.
ON THE MOUND
• Joe Savino will make his eighth start of the season for UVA. He didn’t pitch in a game for Virginia this season until April 2 after working back from an injury. He logged four innings in his first three starts and has pitched into the fifth inning in each of his last three starts.
• Savino was credited with ACC wins over NC State (5.0 IP, 1 R) and Virginia Tech (5.0 IP, 2 R).
• Savino is a graduate transfer from Elon where he made 50 appearances and logged 169 innings pitched in three seasons for the Phoenix. Savino was teammates with Brian Edgington at Elon. Edgington was UVA’s opening starter in 2023 and was a third-team All-ACC selection. He pitched a complete game in game three of the NCAA Super Regional against Duke.
• Savino has 208 career strikeouts in 191.2 innings pitched, second to fellow transfer, Owen Coady who has 211 in 176.2 innings pitched.
• Friday will be the 17th career start for Savino. Last season at Elon, Savino pitched exclusively out of the bullpen, leading all CAA relievers with 72 strikeouts. His last start on the mound before coming to UVA was May 13, 2022 against Towson.
PLAYER NOTABLES
• Griff O’Ferrall is statistically the toughest batter in the ACC to strikeout. He has struck out 21 times in 256 at bats. He has started every game of his collegiate career (179) all but one of which he’s batted leadoff for the Cavaliers.
• O’Ferrall, who led the ACC and broke the UVA single season record last season with 108 hits, currently ranks third in the ACC with 86. He has a team-best, 27 multi-hit efforts including three in his last five games.
• With four more hits, O’Ferrall is looking to join Ryan Zimmerman as the only two players in program history with two 90-hit seasons.
• Ethan Anderson has reached base in 28-straight, the longest active streak on the team and longest of his career. Eric Becker (25 games) has reached base in 25-straight games, a streak that includes two games which he came on as a pinch hitter and received only one plate appearance.
• Amongst NCAA DI freshmen, Henry Ford ranks fourth in RBI (64), fifth in home runs (17), 8th in hits (75), and 9th in runs (58).
• In addition to being tied for third in the ACC in home runs, Harrison Didawick has scored 72 runs, the third-most of any player in the ACC. Four more runs scored and he will tie Griff O’Ferrall’s single season record of 76 set last year.
• Bobby Whalen sports the ACC’s third-best batting average (.388) and also owns the team’s top average in ACC play (.360). He was 4-for-7 with three runs scored and two doubles in the ACC Tournament.
• Jacob Ference homered twice in the series against NC State. A total of 13 of his 17 homers this season have come against ACC foes.