UVA baseball coach Brian O’Connor has been busy trying to add arms to his pitching staff, landing left-hander Owen Coady from Penn and right-hander Joe Savino from Elon.
Coady, a 6’3”, 230-pound rising fifth-year senior, was 5-3 with a 2.98 ERA, 1.39 WHIP and 79 Ks in 66.1 innings at Penn in 2023.
Coady actually committed to Virginia back in the spring. He wouldn’t have been able to use his COVID redshirt year at Penn due to an Ivy League rule prohibiting grad students from participating in varsity sports.
Coady could get a look at Virginia for a spot in the back end of the bullpen. The lefty drew good reviews from scouts in his stint as a closer in the Cape Cod League back in 2021, recording five saves and striking out 22 batters in 13.1 innings in Harwich that summer.
Coady pitched primarily out of the bullpen at Penn in 2022, going 7-1 with a 2.80 ERA and two saves in 14 appearances, 12 in relief, two as a starter, with 74 punchouts and 22 walks in 54.2 innings.
Savino, a 6’4”, 215-pounder, is also a likely bullpen guy. Another power arm, Savino was 5-1 with a 3.86 ERA and two saves in 22 relief appearances at Elon in 2023, striking out 72 and walking 12 in 53.2 innings.
Savino also put up big numbers in the Cape Cod League in 2022, going 3-0 with a 1.59 ERA and one save in 11 relief appearances in Harwich, striking out 38 batters in 28.1 innings.
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Chris Graham
