Versatile Arroyo Eager to Contribute as Cavalier

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

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — For the second game of the 2023 College World Series in Omaha, Neb., Chris Arroyo was in uniform at Charles Schwab Field, as were several other players who are on Virginia’s roster this year. Arroyo, however, wasn’t a Cavalier then. He was a relief pitcher for Florida, and he watched as his team rallied to edge UVA 6-5 that night.

“It’s still a sensitive topic,” Arroyo said with a smile at Disharoon Park. “I was in the other dugout, and I never thought I would end up at Virginia.”

A 6-foot-2, 225-pound left-hander, Arroyo wanted to be a two-way player, and the Gators’ coaching staff saw him exclusively as a pitcher. And so he entered the transfer portal in the summer of 2023 and landed at Pasco-Hernando State, a junior college in New Port Richey, Fla.

He could have transferred to another Division I program that year, but Arroyo worried that he’d be cast in a role similar to the one he had at Florida. “I was like, ‘I know I can hit. I want to prove that this year, and I want to get better. I want to go the JUCO route.’ I just wanted to be the best version of me.”

However unconventional his move might have been, it paid off for Arroyo. At Pasco-Hernando State, he was named a first-team All-American in the National Junior College Athletic Association’s Division II. He posted a 5-4 record on the mound and hit .403, with 19 home runs (a program record) and 52 RBIs.

“I still thank God for putting me there to this day,” Arroyo said. “My coach, Lyndon Coleman, he did everything that he could have to get me where I’m at today. As soon as I got there, we just got to work, work, work, work. It was nonstop work, basically, and it got me here.”

In the summer of 2023, Arroyo had played for the Charlottesville Tom Sox of the Valley League. He’d enjoyed his experience in Central Virginia and learned more about UVA, where he thought he’d fit well in head coach Brian O’Connor’s program. Arroyo said he told Coleman that “the only way I’ll go up north would be to Virginia. So it actually worked out for me.”

Arroyo transferred to UVA last summer and joined a program coming off its second straight trip to the College World Series. O’Connor, who’s in his 22^nd year at Virginia, said Arroyo will be used as a starting pitcher and, when he’s not on the mound, at first base.

“He had an incredibly impactful fall,” O’Connor said. “Probably, I would say, he was the MVP of the fall from the offensive standpoint for us. That said, the spring’s a different ball game. He has got to be ready to play every day and perform. If he does like we think he can do, he’s somebody that can hit in the middle of our lineup every day and really, really impact our lineup and impact us on the mound.”

Second-ranked Virginia opens the season on Friday at 1 p.m. Eastern against Michigan in Ponce, Puerto Rico. That’s the first of the Wahoos’ three games at the inaugural Puerto Rico Challenge, where they’ll face Villanova on Saturday and Rice on Sunday.

The Hoos announced their weekend rotation on Wednesday. Senior right-hander Jay Woolfolk will start against the Wolverines, sophomore right-hander Bryson Moore against the Wildcats, and freshman left-hander Tomas Valincius against the Owls.

For Arroyo, this is not just another tournament. He was born in Caguas, Puerto Rico, and raised in nearby Gurabo, which is about 65 miles northeast of Ponce. He moved to Parkland, Fla., a suburb of Miami, when he was 12 years old, but Arroyo has many relatives in Puerto Rico.

“Every time I get a break I go back,” he said, “so I usually go back in the summer and winter for at least two weeks. So I go back, visit the family and then kind of relax for a little bit. I don’t think I ever stop training, but I definitely go see my family.”

Arroyo said he expects to have a cheering section of about 100 family members at every UVA game in Ponce. “They’re super excited. They told me they’re buying shirts. They can’t wait to be there.”

Growing up in Puerto Rico, Arroyo played multiple sports, but his favorite was always baseball. “So basically under my Christmas tree I just had a ball and a glove,” he said.

In Florida, he starred as a two-way player at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, which went 58-4 and won back-to-back state titles in his final two seasons. His college career did not start the way he hoped, but Arroyo said he’s thriving at UVA.

“It’s been great,” he said. “Our coaches really get after it, our practices are awesome. I was very excited to come here. I was very excited to just see what the team was about, and it has totally met and exceeded my expectations of what I thought it would be.”

The coaching staff’s plan to use him at pitcher and first base suits Arroyo, “but I told Oak, ‘I don’t care. Wherever you need me, that’s where I want to be. I want to be here for the team, not even for myself. I want to do everything in my power to help us win.’ ”

Under O’Connor, the Hoos have advanced to the College World Series seven times, and they were crowned NCAA champions in 2015. Their goal coming into this season is to secure the program’s second national title.

“That’s why I came here,” said Arroyo, who’s majoring in economics. “I came here to a winning program and to help them get there and win it all. I’ve been [to Omaha]. These guys have been there for the past two years, and I think we have what is needed to get there and win. So now we we’re going to get after it. We’re going to do what we do, and when it comes, the moment is not going to be too big for us.”

During O’Connor’s tenure, the Cavaliers are 885-370-2, so they’re accustomed to winning. Rarely, however, have they started season as a consensus top-5 team.

“We all know that most of the time when those things come out, the season doesn’t end up playing out that way,” O’Connor said. “I’m not saying in our individual case, but if you look at any sport [that’s true]. But what that speaks to, the preseason ranking, is that there’s people out there that follow college baseball very closely, that they believe that we return quite a bit from last year, and that we have some really great additions, and that our skill set that we have in our players is at a very, very high level.”

O’Connor welcomes the preseason buzz about his program.

“My feeling about it, and I shared this with the players, is, like, bring it on,” he said. “That’s great. Candidly, you’d rather be ranked No. 1 in the preseason. I would. We don’t look at it as pressure or expectations or anything. The real expectations are what they go out here and do every day in preparation for the opportunity that they have. But it’s great. It speaks to the talent that we have.”

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