Hoos Looking to Continue Surge in Durham

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

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — If history is any guide, the University of Virginia baseball team should not have to sweat out the NCAA tournament selection show.

Heading into the ACC tournament, which starts Tuesday in Durham, N.C., UVA is 32-17 overall and 16-11 in conference play. The Cavaliers won 12 of their final 14 regular-season games. They won six of their nine ACC series, including the last four, to finish sixth in the league, a game and a half behind regular-season champion Georgia Tech.

ACC teams with similar résumés, Virginia head coach Brian O’Connor noted Monday at Disharoon Park, traditionally have received NCAA tournament invitations. Even so, the Wahoos say their approach will not change this week.

“We’re just going to keep going one game at a time, and the rest will play out,” pitcher Jay Woolfolk said.

The Hoos left for Durham after practicing at the Dish on Monday. The No. 6 seed in the single-elimination ACC tournament, Virginia has a first-round bye and will watch the Tuesday night game between No. 11 seed Notre Dame (32-2) and No. 14 seed Boston College (26-28) with interest.

UVA will face the winner at 9 p.m. Wednesday at Durham Bulls Athletic Park for the right to take on No. 3 seed North Carolina (39-12) in the quarterfinals Friday night.

“We’re not really focused on what’s out of our control with the NCAA committee,” catcher Jacob Ference said, “but we’re going into Durham looking to play some really great baseball and play Virginia baseball like we have been recently. And it all starts Wednesday.”

For the past month, the Hoos’ mantra has been playoff baseball. They’ve treated every midweek game as if it’s part of an NCAA regional and every ACC series like it’s an NCAA super regional.

That approach has “served this team very well,” O’Connor said, “and Wednesday night’s not going to be any different. Wednesday night starts an opportunity to win an ACC championship, and that’s where our focus needs to be.”

In mid-April, a UVA team that many had predicted would make the College World Series was in danger of missing the NCAA tournament. O’Connor said he told his team that “basically our backs were against the wall and we needed to take advantage of every opportunity that we had in front of us.”

The Hoos have rarely stumbled since O’Connor issued that challenge.

“Listen, we all know that the preseason accolades of our players and our team going into the year, and we know the first half of the year, for whatever reason, we weren’t playing Virginia baseball,” O’Connor said. “But I am so proud of the young men, because at the midway point they made a decision collectively as a group to step up and play up to their capability, and that has shown out over the last four to six weeks. They’ve played incredibly consistent baseball.”

Veterans like Ference, who’s in his sixth season of college baseball, and Woolfolk, who’s in his fourth, spoke up, too, addressing the reality of the situation with their younger teammates.

“We kind of just told them we don’t need to be someone we’re not,” Woolfolk said Monday. “We had big expectations coming into the year, but we need to go back to playing Virginia baseball, and that’s what we’re playing right now. We’re just playing for each other, we’re playing for the program.”

Ference agreed.

“I think we’ve just kind of been playing for each other a little bit more,” he said. “The relationships have been closely knit outside of the field, and I think that plays a huge factor into how we play on the field. We’ve got a group of really close-knit guys … Everyone has so much love for each other and just love for the game. So when you have that much love and you get to the end of the season, you’re kind of just playing to keep playing with each other. We only get one year to play with this group of guys … so you might as well take advantage of it and play like it’s your last time.”

UVA hosted Boston College in early March and dropped two of three games to the Eagles at Disharoon Park. Virginia didn’t play Notre Dame or UNC during the regular season.

In 22 seasons under O’Connor, the Cavaliers have won 917 games and advanced to the College World Series seven times (2009, 2011, 2014, 2015, 2021, 2023, 2024). They were crowned NCAA champions in 2015.

For various reasons, they haven’t produced as many highlights in the ACC tournament, whose format has changed several times over the years. During O’Connor’s tenure, UVA has reached the ACC championship game four times, falling in 2005 and 2008 and winning in 2009 and 2011.

“Certainly we’ve had a lot more success in the NCAA tournament,” O’Connor said, “but this tournament’s tough. It’s challenging. Everybody’s fighting to win it. Anybody can win this tournament, and it’s a grind. Candidly, it’s more of a grind than the NCAA tournament can be. Because in the NCAA tournament, you could go 3-0 [in a regional] and be done. This tournament, especially if you’re not one of the top four seeds, it takes more wins. It takes more pitching depth.”

UVA closed the regular season Saturday afternoon with a series-clinching win over Virginia Tech in Blacksburg. Woolfolk started in the series opener, a 12-2 victory for the Hoos, and went eight innings, striking out six and walking only one.

He’ll get the ball first again Wednesday night in Durham. Woolfolk, who starred for Virginia last year in its postseason run to the CWS in Omaha, Neb., appears to be peaking at the right time again this spring.

“Nobody’s career just keeps going up and up and up and is at the highest level all the time,” O’Connor said. “This kid has had some challenges in his time here, but I’ll say this about Jay Woolfolk: Every time at the most important time that young man steps up. He did it last year. He’s done it down this stretch run. He’s been in our Friday night role all year long and has done a tremendous job. It’s just, I believe, part of his DNA. It’s who Jay Woolfolk is. He’s a competitor. He loves to be in the big moments. And when he does, more times than not, he steps up.”

The 6-foot, 200-pound right-hander’s next opportunity to do so will come Wednesday night. Asked Monday about the late start that awaits the Hoos, Woolfolk smiled.

“I know my mom doesn’t like it, but I love it,” he said. “I get to sleep all day. I don’t have a problem with it. We’re just going out there and play baseball. “

The All-ACC teams were announced Monday afternoon, and six Cavaliers were honored. Second baseman Henry Godbout and right-fielder/first baseman Henry Ford were named to the second team; Ference, shortstop Eric Becker and center-fielder Aidan Teel to the third team; and pitcher Tomas Valincius to the All-Freshman team.

Some of those players started the season slowly, but as they improved, so did the team. And now the Cavaliers’ confidence level, O’Connor said, is “an all-time high.”

His players “believe in each other,” he said. “They believe no matter who’s at the plate or who’s on the mound that they’re going to do the job. And this is what this is about. It’s about playing your best baseball at the most important time. In our history and our program, we have many examples of teams that have kind of felt their way around most of the year and got hot at the end of the year and made some pretty special runs. And this team has done that in this back part of the season.”

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