Jay Woolfolk struggles, again, out of the pen; #10 Virginia holds on for 8-4 win at VCU

I wrote last week about how I was hoping Jay Woolfolk could be part of the solution to #10 Virginia’s pitching woes.

I think, unfortunately, that we can maybe move past Jay, who may have just pitched himself into being a mop-up guy for what’s left of the 2024 UVA baseball season.

Woolfolk, as Woolfolk has been doing of late, had a 1-2-3 sixth inning last night against VCU at The Diamond, then couldn’t get out of trouble that he created in the seventh – walking two batters around a double down the left-field line, ahead of surrendering a grand slam to Chris McHugh.

The ‘Hoos (34-12) held on for the 8-4 win, but, man, this was an opportunity wasted for Woolfolk, who came into the season as a projected third-round MLB draft pick, was named a weekend rotation starter, and now, I don’t know.

Woolfolk had a similar outing over the weekend at Boston College, going 1-2-3 in his first inning out of the pen, in the seventh, then walking two and hitting a batter to load the bases in his second inning of work, before being bailed out by Chase Hungate, and a diving catch on a sinking liner in left by Aiden Teel that preserved the 4-3 win.

Since he lost his spot in the starting rotation in mid-March, Woolfolk has allowed 13 earned runs in 14.2 innings, striking out 20, walking 15, for a 7.98 ERA and 2.05 WHIP.

These are the kinds of numbers that make it hard for Brian O’Connor to do anything other than only use Woolfolk with a big lead, like last night, when he entered the game with a 7-0 lead, or a big deficit, just to eat up innings out of the B bullpen.

Woolfolk probably still hears his name called in the MLB Draft in July, toward the teens part of the 20-round draft, just because he can easily and routinely hit 94-96 mph on the gun, and he’s such a good athlete – the fastest guy on the team.

It would based entirely on potential. What we’ve seen from Woolfolk since mid-season in 2023 hasn’t come close to what he can do.