No. 23 Cavaliers Set to Host Duke for Weekend Series

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. –  The No. 23 Virginia baseball team (12-7, 3-3 ACC) returns to Atlantic Coast Conference play this weekend when the Duke Blue Devils (13-9, 2-4 ACC) come to Disharoon Park for a three-game set. The series opener is slated for 6 p.m. first pitch on Friday.

HOW TO FOLLOW
Watch: ACCNX
Listen: WINA (98.9/1070 AM/WINA)
Live Stats: VirginiaSports.com

Probable Starting Pitchers:
Friday – 6 p.m.
Duke: LHP Owen Proksch (0-0, 1.64 ERA, 11 IP, 5 BB, 19 SO)
Virginia: RHP Jay Woolfolk (1-1, 3.38 ERA, 24.0 IP, 8 BB, 29 SO)

Saturday – 4 p.m.
Duke:LHP Andrew Healy (1-2, 8.76 ERA, 12.1 IP, 7 BB, 10 SO)
Virginia: LHP Tomas Valincius (2-0, 3.70 ERA, 24.1 IP, 4 BB, 31 SO)

Sunday – 1 p.m.
Duke: TBA
Virginia: LHP Evan Blanco (1-0, 3.86 ERA, 9.1 IP, 2 BB, 9 SO)
 

GAME PROMOTIONS: DUKE

Friday, March 21: Rock n Roll All Night at the Dish. It’s a Sabre Rewards Night for UVA students, including a pizza giveaway for the first 500 students. In-game videoboard content and music that will rock out!

Saturday, March 22: A Virginia visor giveaway will take place at the marketing table located behind section 108, available for the first 1,000 fans in attendance! The limit is one per person.

Sunday, March 23: Youth Day presented by Flow returns to close out the Duke series with inflatables, a balloon artist, face painting, bubbles, and post-game kids running of the bases along with autographs with the team. The third of six sets of 2025 Virginia Baseball trading cards will be given out to the first 500 fans, at the marketing table.

BASEBALL PARKING

Friday & Sunday: Fans are encouraged to arrive early with an increased amount of traffic with simultaneous Olympic sports occurring in the athletic precinct.

Saturday: Fans are encouraged to arrive early with an increased amount of traffic with simultaneous Olympic sports occurring in the athletic precinct. A shuttle will run from Emmet/Ivy Garage to the Disharoon Park/Klöckner Stadium ticket office beginning at noon and will run until 8 p.m.

LEADING OFF

• Virginia Cavaliers return to ACC play on Friday after dropping the program’s first home midweek game since 2022 to the Richmond Spiders by a score of 6-2 on Wednesday. On the season, the Cavaliers are 6-0 after a loss.
• Prior to the Richmond game, UVA took two of three from Cal during the squad’s first-ever conference road trip to California. Over the final 10 innings of the weekend, the Cavaliers outscored the Bears 22-6.
• Entering the weekend, the Cavaliers have seven comeback wins on the season and are 7-5 in games when the opponents scores first. The Hoos are also outscoring opponents 30-10 in the second inning compared to being outscored 10-3 in the first inning this season.

AGAINST THE BLUE DEVILS

• In a series that dates back to 1926, the Cavaliers and the Blue Devils have played a total of 181 times. UVA leads the all-time series with a record of 110-70-1.
• The Cavaliers and Blue Devils have played a total of 16 games since the start of the 2021 season. Entering the weekend, each team has won eight games over that timespan.
• Virginia has 100 all-times win against five schools: North Carolina (120), Maryland (113), VMI (112), Virginia Tech (111) and Duke (110).
• The weekend series will be the first time that the two squads have faced off in Disharoon Park since the 2023 Charlottesville Super Regional. Duke took game one 5-4, before Virginia outscored the Blue Devils 26-6 over the final two games to advance to the College World Series.

RANKING THE HOOS

• Entering the weekend, UVA’s arms ranked 33rd nationally and fifth in the ACC with an ERA of 3.77. The staff’s strikeouts-per-nine of 10.3 ranks 30th in the country. Virginia has also turned 16 double plays this season, which ranks second in the ACC.
• In the batter’s box, James Nunnallee is proving to be one of the hardest players to strikeout, with a K rate of 16.0 to rank 27th nationally and fifth in the ACC. Not too far behind him, Henry Godbout ranks 33rd nationally and sixth in the conference with a K-rate of 15.2.

ON THE MOUND

• Jay Woolfolk will get the ball to open the series for UVA. Over his last four starts at Disharoon Park, Woolfolk has only allowed seven earned runs in 25.2 innings pitched with 28 total strikeouts.
• During the first five starts of his collegiate career, Tomas Valincius has racked up 31 strikeouts. The 31 Ks rank Valincius 85th nationally and 12th in the ACC. Valincius also sits fourth among all freshmen across the country in strikeouts. To go along with his strikeouts, Valincius has only surrendered a quartet of walks, giving the lefty a strikeout-to-walk ratio of 7.75, which ranks him 29th nationally and fifth in the ACC.
• To close out the weekend, Preseason All-American Evan Blanco will get the start for the Hoos. In his four outings this season, Blanco is 1-0 with a 3.86 ERA in 9.1 innings pitched. He finished the 2024 season with an 8-3 record with 99 strikeouts in 99.1 innings pitched.

CALIFORNIA COMEBACKS

• In the first true road series of the 2025 season, Virginia took two of three from the Cal Golden Bears with both wins coming in comeback fashion.
• Virginia trailed 2-0 after two innings and was down 7-2 entering the ninth inning on Saturday, only to even the weekend series with UVA’s sixth come-from-behind victory of the year. The five-run deficit was the largest the Cavaliers have overcome for a victory in 2025.
• The Saturday rally was sparked by the pinch-hit duo of Chone James and Walker Buchanan. The pairing combined for four hits, four RBI and three runs scored in the eighth-inning rally.
• In the weekend finale, the Cavaliers allowed the first run of the game in the bottom of the first before exploding for nine runs in the top of the second to take a commanding 9-1 lead en route to an 11-5 victory.
• Sunday’s weekend finale was the first time since April 17, 2021 against North Carolina that a Cavalier batter did not streak during a game.

HOME FIELD ADVANTAGE

• The home opening series against Dartmouth saw a combined attendance of 12,641, which was the largest crowd ever for a home-opening series.
• The ACC opening series against Boston College saw 16,301 fans packed Disharoon Park. The most for a regular season home series in program history including the earliest sell out in program history in the weekend finale.
• UVA ranked 14th in the NCAA in total attendance, second highest in the ACC during the 2024 season.  The per game average of 4,197 ranked 18th in the country and third in the ACC.
• Disharoon Park was sold out a program single-season record, six times in 2024 including the final four games of the season.
• Virginia went 31-7 at Disharoon Park, the second-straight season UVA has 30 or more wins at home. It was the ninth time the Cavaliers have posted 30 or more home wins.
• Nine of the largest 25 Disharoon Park crowds were in 2024.