No. 2 Virginia Heads To Texas For Round Rock Classic

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – The No. 2-ranked Virginia baseball team (2-1) is slated to participate in the Round Rock Classic beginning on Friday (Feb. 21) at 5 p.m. with a showdown with No. 7 Oregon State (4-0). The Cavaliers will take on Minnesota (1-2) on Saturday at 1 p.m. before closing out the weekend on Sunday at 5 p.m. against Oklahoma (3-0).

All three games will take place at Dell Diamond, home of the Round Rock Express, Triple-A affiliate of the Texas Rangers and will be streamed on D1Baseball.com.

HOW TO FOLLOW

Watch: D1Baseball.com (All Three Games)

Visit: d1ba.se/streaming-subs

Listen: WINA (98.9/1070 AM/WINA) – Friday and Saturday, VirginiaSports.com – Sunday

Live Stats: VirginiaSports.com

Probable Starting Pitchers:

Friday – 5 p.m.

Oregon State: LHP Nelson Keljo (0-0, 0.00 ERA, 4.0, 5 BB, 5 SO)

Virginia: RHP Jay Woolfolk (0-0, 3.86 ERA, 4.2 IP, 1 BB, 5 SO)

Saturday – 1 p.m.

Minnesota: RHP Kyle Remington (0-1, 3.86 ERA, 4.2 IP, 3 BB, 4 SO)

Virginia: RHP Bryson Moore (0-0, 1.59 ERA, 5.2 IP, 2 BB, 6 SO)

Sunday – 5 p.m.

Virginia: LHP Tomas Valincius (1-0, 0.00 ERA, 6 IP, 0 BB, 11 SO)

Oklahoma: LHP Cam Johnson (1-0, 3.60 ERA, 5 IP, 5 BB, 3 SO)

LEADING OFF

• Virginia opened its 137th season of baseball on Opening Day against Michigan 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.
• UVA is away from Charlottesville on the second weekend of the season for the fourth time (2015, 2021, 2024) since 2004 and the second consecutive season.
• The Weekend opener is the first regular season top 10 showdown against a non-ACC team for Virginia since the then-No. 1 Cavaliers beat then-No. 10 Coastal Carolina 6-3 on April 27, 2010.
• Friday’s matchup against No. 7 Oregon State is the first top 10 non-ACC team UVA has faced since then-No. 2 Vanderbilt in 2019 at the MLB4 Tournament in Scottsdale, Ariz.
• After a strong pitching performance to open the season in Puerto Rico, the UVA pitching staff enters the Round Rock Classic top 25 nationally in WHIP (0.92/16th), Hits allowed per nine innings (5.40/22nd) and earned run average (1.91/22nd). Virginia’s fielders also rank 18th nationally in fielding percentage (.991).

AGAINST THE FIELD

• Virginia and Oregon State are set to square off for the first time since the 2007 Charlottesville Regional, when the Beavers took two of the final three games from the Cavaliers to advance to the Super Regionals.
• UVA and Minnesota have never met on the baseball diamond. Minnesota will be the 10th current Big Ten team Virginia has played in its history.
• Sunday’s contest against Oklahoma will mark the ninth time that the Cavaliers and Sooners have met in program history. Oklahoma leads the all-time series 5-3 and took two of three from Virginia at the 2020 Wahoo Classic held in Pensacola, Fla.
• The Cavaliers are 19-17 against SEC schools in the O’Connor era (2004-present) including a 3-0 mark during the 2024 season.

LIFE ON THE ISLAND

• For the first time since the 2022 season, the Virginia Cavaliers started the season on the road. The 2025 opening weekend also marked the first time that the Hoos played in Puerto Rico.
• The season-opening defeat against Michigan was highlighted by a two-run home run by Puerto Rico native Chris Arroyo in the seventh inning. Jay Woolfolk struck out five batters over 4.2 innings of two-run ball. Jacob Ference tied the school record for hit by pitches in a single game with three. Ference became the sixth Cavalier and first since Caleb Knight in 2018 to be plunked three times.
• In Virginia’s first win of the season over Villanova, Bryson Moore did not surrender a hit over his first five innings of work and struck out a career-high, six batters in 5.2 innings of work but did not factor into the decision. Freshman James Nunnallee had a breakout performance by going 3-for-4 with an RBI and two runs scored in the 3-2 victory.
• Powered by freshman Tomas Valincius, UVA prevailed 7-0 over Rice in the weekend finale. In his collegiate debut, Valincius fanned 10 Owl batters over six innings of scoreless one-hit ball for the win. Valincius’ 10 Ks were the most by a Virginia freshman since Alec Bettinger struck out 11 against Richmond in 2013. Along with Valincius, five Cavalier pitchers combined for 15 strikeouts on Sunday, the most in a game since fanning 17 against Columbia on Feb. 24, 2023. Offensively, Henry Ford, Jacob Ference and Aidan Teel each had a pair of hits and scored once in the heart of the Cavalier lineup.

 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 was ranked top 5 in all five major College Baseball polls to open the season. 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.

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 2023 and 2024.
• 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 14^th, 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.