No. 2 Virginia Opens 2025 Season With Puerto Rico Challenge

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – The No. 2-ranked Virginia baseball team will open its 137th baseball season on Friday (Feb. 14) with the opening game of the Puerto Rico Challenge against Michigan at 1 p.m. ET. The Cavaliers will take on Villanova at 7 p.m. on Saturday (Feb. 15) before concluding the weekend against Rice on Sunday (Feb. 16) at 4 p.m. All three games will take place at Estadio Francisco Montaner.

HOW TO FOLLOW

Watch: ESPN+ (All Three Games)

Listen: WINA (98.9/1070 AM/WINA

Live Stats: VirginiaSports.com

Probable Starting Pitchers:

Friday – 1 p.m.

Virginia: Jay Woolfolk (4-2, 5.92 ERA, 62.1 IP, 40 BB, 67 SO)

Michigan: Dylan Vigue (2-4, 7.90 ERA, 54.2 IP, 48 BB, 40 SO)

Saturday – 7 p.m.

Villanova: Luke McCullough (5-4, 5.20 ERA, 64.0 IP, 35 BB, 48 SO)

Virginia: Bryson Moore (2-0, 1.38 ERA, 13.0 IP, 8 BB, 10 SO)

Sunday – 4 p.m.

Rice: J.D. McCracken (4-7, 5.35 ERA, 77.1 IP, 52 BB, 65 SO)

Virginia: Tomas Valincius (N/A)

LEADING OFF

• Virginia will embark on its 137th season of baseball on Friday afternoon and the 22nd under the direction of head coach Brian O’Connor.
• The Cavaliers are coming off their third College World Series appearance in the last four years and their seventh overall. All seven trips to Omaha have been since 2009, tied for the second most of any college baseball program in that span.
• Virginia has won five-straight games on opening day and owns a 16-5 record in the season openers under O’Connor.
• Since 2004, Virginia is 49-15-1 on opening weekends.
• Virginia has won 24-straight February games dating back to 2021 including an 8-0 mark to start the 2024 season.

LIFE ON THE ISLAND

• For the first time since the 2022 season, the Virginia Cavaliers will start the season on the road. The 2025 opening weekend also marks the first time that the Hoos have played in Puerto Rico.
• UVA and Michigan are set to square off to open the season for the first time since 1983. The Wolverines lead the all-time series 11-9-1 and have won the last three meetings between the two squads dating back to 1957.
• The Cavaliers and the Wildcats of Villanova are meeting for the first time since 2019 on Saturday. Virginia swept a three-game series from Villanova in 2019 and leads the all-time series 4-2.
• Virginia and Rice will face off on Sunday to close out the Puerto Rico Challenge. The Cavaliers and Owls last met on the baseball diamond in 2018 when UVA took the game 3-0. Virginia also took the 1998 meeting 3-2 to lead the all-time series 2-0.

 PRESEASON HONORS

• Headlined by consensus Preseason All-American Henry Godbout, a total of six Cavaliers landed on Preseason All-American teams.
• Henry Ford was named to three teams while Jacob Ference and Evan Blanco each landed on two. Chris Arroyo was named to D1Baseball’s squad and Harrison Didawick found himself on NCBWA’s team.
• Virginia is ranked top 5 in all five major College Baseball polls. The No. 2 ranking from D1Baseball is the program’s highest preseason slot in the poll since 2015.
• In a poll of the Atlantic Coast Conference coaches, the Virginia baseball team was picked to win the league. UVA was picked to finish first in the conference in 2015, prior to the program’s first National Championship.

ROSTER MAKEUP

• UVA added 20 newcomers (10 freshmen, 3 grad transfers, 4 four-year transfers, 3 junior college) to bolster its 2025 roster.
• The Cavalier offensive attack that broke single season records for team batting average (.333), runs per game (9.22), home runs (116), home runs per game (1.84), RBI (536) and total bases (1281) returns just over 50 percent of its at bats from a year ago. UVA returns 77 home runs from last year’s historic power surge, the most in the ACC.
• Virginia returns 13 pitchers that saw action in 2024. The Cavaliers return a total of 356 innings pitched from 2024’s College World Series squad, the most for a UVA pitching staff since 2020 and the second most in the ACC.

ON THE MOUND

• Righthander Jay Woolfolk will get the opening day nod after a strong postseason in 2024. In the regional final against Mississippi State, he put forth the best performance of his career. Woolfolk pitched into the 9th inning and fanned a career-high seven batters. The eight-inning outing for Woolfolk was the longest by a UVA pitcher in a Regional final game. Woolfolk continued his brilliance with a gutty, 6.1 inning effort in the Super Regional clincher where he matched his career high of seven strikeouts.
• After seeing mostly midweek action in 2024, Bryson Moore enters the weekend rotation. During his first season on Grounds, Moore went 2-0 with a 1.38 ERA in seven appearances with four starts.
• To close out the weekend, highly touted freshman Tomas Valincius will get the ball. Valincius closed out his high school career by being named the 2024 Gatorade Tennessee Baseball Player of the Year and 2023 and 2024 Division II-AA Mr. Baseball in Tennessee at the Baylor School. The lefty is set to become the fourth freshman to start on opening weekend for UVA since 2015 and the first since teammate Jack O’Connor did it in 2023.

2024 YEAR IN REVIEW

• Reached the Men’s College World Series for the seventh time in program history and the third time in the last four seasons. The seven trips to Omaha are the second-most of any college baseball program since 2009. Only Virginia, Tennessee and Stanford have appeared in three the last four MCWS.
• Virginia swept through the NCAA postseason, going 5-0 for only the second time in seven trips to the MCWS.
• UVA was the No. 12 overall seed in the NCAA Tournament and was the only team in the country to host NCAA Regionals and Super Regionals in back-to-back seasons.
• Virginia reached the Super Regional round for the ninth time since 2009, only two schools have more appearances in the span (Florida-10, Florida State-10).
• The Cavaliers racked up their 14th 40-win season, 13 of which have come under the direction of Brian O’Connor.
• Virginia’s 46 wins were tied for the fifth-most of any team in the country and marked the ninth time in program history UVA had 45 or more wins. All nine 45+ win seasons have come in O’Connor era (2004-present).
• The back-to-back 45-win seasons were the first since 2013 (50 wins) and 2014 (53 wins).
• Virginia lost back-to-back games once in the regular season. It’s only the fifth time since 2004 UVA has lost consecutive games once in regular season play – 2024, 2017, 2013 (0 times), 2011 & 2010.
• Virginia registered 23 come-from-behind wins in 2024 including nine in ACC play and three more in the NCAA Tournament.
• UVA went 22-2 in non-conference action during the regular season, one of six teams nationally with two or fewer non-conference losses.
• Virginia captured the inaugural Jacksonville College Classic title at 121 Financial Field in Jacksonville, Fla. After outlasting Wichita State in 10 innings on Friday, the Cavaliers downed then-No. 18 Iowa (12-9) and handed Auburn its first loss of the season with a 6-4 win on Sunday.