Baseball: #5 Virginia shuts out Gardner-Webb, 7-0, to improve to 2-0

Virginia coach Brian O’Connor said this week that he liked what he had been seeing from his pitching staff in the preseason.

Two games in now, so far, so good for his fifth-ranked Cavaliers.

Virginia used four pitchers in a 7-0 shutout of host Gardner Webb on Saturday at the Jerry Bryson Classic. The Cavaliers start the year with consecutive shutouts for the first time since 2009 and only the second time in the history of the program.

The UVA pitching staff combined to strike out 14 batters and surrendered just three hits. Starting pitcher Nate Savino  fanned five Runnin’ Bulldogs over 3.1 innings. Grad student Devin Ortiz earned the win after striking out four of the six batters he faced over two innings of work.

Sophomore Jake Berry fanned four batters and allowed one hit over 2.2 innings. Freshman Jay Woolfolk, the backup quarterback on the football team, made his collegiate debut and worked a perfect ninth inning to preserve the shutout.

The Cavaliers scored five of their seven runs in the fifth inning. Three Gardner-Webb pitchers combined for four walks in the frame, including three with the bases loaded. Freshman Colin Tuft plated a runner on a fielder’s choice and Max Cotier capped the rally with a two-out RBI single up the middle that scored Jake Gelof.

Freshman Casey Saucke tacked on a pair of runs with a two-run, opposite field homer in the seventh inning. The first year was 3-for-4 with his first collegiate homer and two RBI.

Virginia will finish its stay in Boiling Springs, N.C., on Sunday with a matchup against NJIT at 11 a.m. Lefty Brian Gursky will start on the mound for UVA, and he will be opposed by fellow southpaw Aidan Kidd.

The game will be joined in progress at noon on WINA (98.9 FM/1070 AM) and on WINA.com.

Notes

• Tuft, Saucke, Woolfolk and Anthony Stephan all made their collegiate debuts. Saucke recorded his first collegiate hit in his first at bat, an infield single in the third. Tuft got his first base knock with a single to right field in the eighth.
• Virginia began the 2009 season with a 12-0 shutout against Bucknell and then held the Bison scoreless in the first game of a doubleheader, 7-0 in Charlottesville.
• The last time UVA posted back-to-back shutouts was 2019, the second game of a doubleheader against Seton Hall (4-0) on March 2 and a 12-0 win over Wagner on March 4
• The win for Ortiz was his first since April 30, 2019 at VCU.
• Catcher Kyle Teel walked and scored a run in the fifth, extending his reached base streak to 28 games.
• Virginia is 2-0 to start the season for the first time since 2017.
• Saturday marked the second meeting between UVA and Gardner-Webb. The Cavaliers won the previous matchup 6-2 on Feb. 25, 2006 in Charleston, S.C.