Harris’ Big Night Lifts No. 10 Virginia Over Old Dominion

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – In front of the largest midweek crowd of the season, the No. 10 Virginia baseball team (23-7) run-ruled the Old Dominion Monarchs (13-15) 16-2 in seven innings on Tuesday night (March 31) at Disharoon Park.

 

On a night where the Cavalier offense scored in every inning, Sam Harris led the attack by going 5-for-5 with six RBIs and five runs scored. Tuesday’s 16-run outburst marked the 13th time this season that UVA scored 10 or more runs in a game.

 

Noah Yoder picked up his second win of the season with a pair of scoreless innings in relief. Joining Harris in the offensive onslaught, Eric Becker went 3-for-4 with a pair of doubles, while the duo of AJ Gracia and Kyle Johnson each homered and drove in four runs on the night.

HOW IT HAPPENED

• The Virginia offense returned to form in the opening frame as the Cavaliers scored four runs in the bottom of the first, highlighted by a three-run blast off the bat of Johnson. The home run was Johnson’s fourth of the season.
• Old Dominion’s only two runs came in the top of the second on a solo shot from Tyler Zedalis and an RBI groundout later in the frame.
• The second of Harris’ three RBI singles came in the home half of the frame to extend the Cavalier lead to 5-1.
• UVA tacked on two more runs in the third on a Johnson sacrifice fly and a Jake Weatherspoon RBI groundout.
• An inning later, Harris drove in a pair of runs with a blast that bounced off the top of the wall in left-center field.
• In the fifth, Harris collected his third and final RBI single when Becker scampered home from second with two outs to make it a 10-2 contest.
• Virginia’s monster sixth inning started with a Weatherspoon RBI double down the line in left field before Gracia crushed a grand slam that bounded out of the stadium beyond UVA’s bullpen in right field. The slam was Gracia’s ninth homer of the season.
• To put an exclamation mark on his evening, Harris hit his second home run of the night a few pitches later to give Virginia back-to-back home runs for the fourth time this season.
• Not to be overshadowed by the offensive output, the UVA bullpen trio of Kevin Jaxel, Joe Colucci and Christian Lucarelli only surrendered one Monarch base hit over the final 3.2 innings to seal the 16-2 Virginia victory.

ADDITIONAL NOTES

• With the win, Virginia moves to 37-35-2 all-time against Old Dominion, with the Cavaliers winning 11 of the last 13 meetings.
• UVA moves to 18-0 on the year when scoring in the first inning and 17-1 when scoring first.
• This year, Virginia is outscoring opponents 56-18 in the first inning.
• Tuesday’s win was UVA’s sixth run-rule victory of the season.
• With four more home runs on Tuesday, the Virginia offense has hit 50 dingers this season in 30 games. UVA did not hit its 50th home run until game 41 in 2025.
• Sam Harris tied the school record with five runs scored in a contest. Harris is the 17th Cavalier in program history to score five times in the same season.
• AJ Gracia’s sixth-inning grand slam was the first by a Virginia batter this season.

FROM HEAD COACH CHRIS POLLARD

“We stick with the familiar refrain, and it might be boring to folks because I say it over and over, but I told our guys in the pregame on Sunday that the message doesn’t change. Our approach doesn’t change. The things we do from a process standpoint don’t change. We look at this as a one-day season. 0-0 was our mentality and we wanted to be 1-0 when the day was over with.”

UP NEXT

No. 10 Virginia opens a highly anticipated home ACC series on Thursday (April 2) against No. 7 Florida State. First pitch for the series opener is slated for 5 p.m. at Disharoon Park. The contest will be carried on ACC Network and WINA (98.9 FM/1070 AM).