Virginia was ranked as high as fifth in the preseason national college baseball polls, and as low as, somehow, not ranked.
The not ranked might be because the Cavaliers were also tabbed as a top five team in the 2021 preseason, and though they ended the season where a team ranked that high in February would be expected, with a trip to Omaha in June, it took some work to get there.
The work to get there seems to have carried over for the ‘Hoos, now a consensus top five team on the strength of a torrid 22-2 start.
“I think there’s been a little bit of that, when you have guys like (Alex) Tappen, (Devin) Ortiz and (Jake) Gelof and (Kyle) Teel and others, Chris Newell and (Max) Cotier. They understand the switch that we needed to make about mid-season last year of what it takes, the little minute details it takes, to be exceptional at this level of baseball, and I think there has been some carryover with that,” Virginia coach Brian O’Connor said Monday.
Virginia is unbeaten at home thus far in 2022, and has won two of its three road series, at Duke and this past weekend at Wake Forest.
The season stats to date show how dominant UVA has been. The ‘Hoos lead the ACC in hitting (.332), runs per game (11.2) and homers (46), are tied for first in on-base percentage (.439) and second in slugging (.569), and on the mound, Virginia is tops in the conference in team ERA (.239) and opponent batting average (.189) and is second in strikeouts (278).
Jake Gelof (.439/.533/1.085) and Casey Saucke (.427/.500/.756) and second and third in the conference in batting average, and Gelof is tied for D1 lead in homers (13) and second nationally in RBI (46).
Southern Cal transfer hurler Brian Gursky is tied for the ACC lead in wins (5) and is 5-0 in five starts with a 2.00 ERA, 1.11 WHIP and 1.22 Ks/9IP.
The first two months of 2021 for Virginia Baseball were a lot of lows. The first two months of 2022 have been a lot of highs.
At some point, baseball being baseball, things will level off.
“We have a challenge in front of us right to maintain it at a high level, and that will be challenged at times,” O’Connor said. “I mean, it’s not going to be a smooth sail. We’re not going to go 50-5 in the regular season. Nobody does that in baseball, so it’s going to, at some point, we’re going to get punched in the mouth. And we’re going to have to figure out how we respond to that. And hopefully, the lessons that these guys have learned in the past will help them get out of that quickly.”
Story by Chris Graham
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Chris Graham
