UVA Baseball: ‘Hoos get series win over Pitt, but a lot of work still to do

Preseason #2 Virginia continues to slog through its 2025 season, finishing off a series win on Sunday with an 18-0 seven-inning win over Pitt.

The Cavaliers (20-14, 9-9 ACC) split a doubleheader on Saturday, winning Game 1, 7-5, on a walk-off two-run homer from Henry Ford (.359/.404/.514, 5 HRs, 26 RBIs, .918 OPS).

The UVA bullpen blew the W for starter Jay Woofolk (2-2, 4.34 ERA, 1.31 WHIP) who pitched into the seventh inning, allowing three runs on four hits and a walk, with five strikeouts.

The Panthers (18-16, 5-10 ACC) tied the game in the top of the ninth on a two-out Gavin Miller RBI single off Virginia reliever Matt Lanzendorfer (3-2, 3.68 ERA, 1.18 WHIP) who vultured the win in the scorebook after the Ford walk-off.

Baseball scoring is really weird.

Game 2 was an 8-7 Pitt win, with last year’s #1 starter, Evan Blanco (1-3, 8.06 ERA, 2.10 WHIP), taking the loss, with a brutal scoresheet – six runs on six hits and three walks in three and two-thirds innings.

Pitt led 8-2 into the eighth. UVA got closer on an Aiden Teel (.315/.452/.524, 4 HRs, 24 RBIs, .976 OPS) two-run homer and a sac-fly RBI from Ford, and made it interesting in the ninth with a two-out, two-run Harrison Didawick blast.

Didawick (.184/.321/.310, 3 HRs, 17 RBIs, .631 OPS), who had 23 homers last season, hit his second of the weekend, and third of the season, in the Sunday win.

“You know, he’s put a lot of hard work in and, you know, listen, the kid was, is, has been frustrated, obviously, who would not be, and he wouldn’t be human if he wasn’t frustrated on the first half of the year,” UVA coach Brian O’Connor said. “He continues to put the work in. Harrison’s incredibly positive. His teammates love him and encourage him. And you know, it was great to see on, you know, back-to-back days, he hit home runs. It’s not about home runs, though. It’s just about the quality of his at-bats, and those are getting better and better, and our team needs him, and he understands that.”

Chris Arroyo (.308/.367/.538, 8 HRs, 34 RBIs, .905 OPS) had a huge deal in the Sunday clincher – 3-for-3, with a homer and six RBIs.

Jacob Ference (.308/.438/.500, 4 HRs, 19 RBIs, .938 OPS) was 2-for-3 with a grand-slam homer.

That was all in support of freshman lefty Tomas Valincius (3-1, 5.24 ERA, 1.30 WHIP), who took a perfect game into the fifth, and finished with about as clean a scoresheet as you can get – 5.2 IP, no runs, two hits, four Ks, no bases on balls.

“Tomas Valincius was outstanding. You know, the last 10 innings, 10 or 11 innings that he’s thrown for us in league play have been really elite. He’s learned. He’s grown up a lot and learned from those challenging starts in the league that he had early on, and he’s just pitched magnificently the last two weekends, and we needed that out of him today, certainly,” O’Connor said.

A busy week lies ahead for the ‘Hoos, who host Liberty (22-14) on Tuesday, then hit the road for a three-game series at #7 Florida State (28-7, 11-4 ACC) that begins on Thursday.