After two years on the varsity baseball team at Charlottesville High School, Dom Cafferillo transferred to the Miller School.
“I really enjoyed my time at Charlottesville. I think the biggest thing was getting to face better competition. It was the best decision I ever made, to transfer,” said Cafferillo, now a sophomore catcher for Division I Georgetown. “I wish I had done it sooner. It was an awesome time in my life.”
Not only did Cafferillo get to face better competition at the private school, but he was able to play for a head coach that last year was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame.
Billy Wagner, 54, a former closer in the Major Leagues, became the sixth native of Virginia and the first from the southwest part of the state to be enshrined in Cooperstown.
Wagner has been the head coach at the Miller School for several years, and his current team had a scrimmage earlier this year in Bridgewater against Turner Ashby High School.
“He was the best. I am unbelievably grateful to have played for him. He taught me so much. I can’t say enough of what kind of a person he is. He is great,” said Cafferillo, after a Georgetown home game earlier this season at Capital One Field in Tysons Corner.
Cafferillo was a captain as a senior at the Miller School as the team went 32-6-2 and reached the VISAA D1 state championship. He was also a first team all-Jefferson District player in 2022 and played club ball for the Richmond Braves, hitting .346 when he was a senior.
The Charlottesville resident also played golf at the Miller School and was a Forest Acres All-Academic player in 2023 and 2024.
While with the baseball team, Cafferillo was able to be around Will Wagner, 27, the son of Billy and a former standout at Miller and Liberty University who has played in the majors for the Toronto Blue Jays and San Diego Padres.
Some of the other Miller School players now at the college level include Evan Hankins, a reserve freshman infielder at Tennessee. He has been teammates this spring with former Virginia standouts Henry Ford and Evan Blanco.
Another Miller School alum at the Division I level is Jackson Ingram, from Staunton, a redshirt freshman infielder at West Virginia. His favorite player is Trea Turner, the former shortstop with the Washington Nationals who is now with the Philadelphia Phillies.
Cafferillo did not see action as a freshman for the Hoyas last year.
But he has been a key defensive catcher for Georgetown this spring and started six games in a row during one stretch in late February and early March, including contests against George Mason and William and Mary.
The Charlottesville resident considered several top colleges.
“I was talking to a bunch of high academic schools,” said the finance major. “I visited Lehigh, Princeton, Columbia. I just thought Georgetown was the best mix. What made the difference for Georgetown was the mix and academics and baseball, and the (coaching) staff with Coach T (Edwin Thompson). I love those guys. It is tough to find really good people (at college programs), but they are really great dudes. They have taught me a ton.”
Notes
- Virginia native and former ODU star Justin Verlander made one start this season for the Detroit Tigers before going on the injured list. He went just 3.2 innings in the start and was tagged with the loss. That left him stuck on 266 career wins – which is tied with Culpeper native and former University of Virginia standout Eppa Rixey for the most wins by a Major Leaguer born in Virginia. Rixey is a member of the Baseball Hall of Fame.
- Turner Ashby grad Brenan Hanifee, who pitched for the Tigers out of the bullpen for part of the previous three seasons, began this year with Triple-A Toledo after just missing the Opening Day roster of Detroit. In his first 10 appearances this year for Toledo, Hanifee was 1-1 with an ERA of 4.91 with a WHIP of 1.45 in 11 innings.
- Aidan Miller, a former baseball and football standout at Riverheads, was named the Male Athlete of the Year at Division III EMU. A four-year baseball standout for the Royals, Miller hit a team-high .427 this year to rank third in the ODAC. He had 25 steals to lead the ODAC and that is tied for the most in a single season at EMU.
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David Driver
