UVA Baseball coach Brian O’Connor picked up two more pitchers from the transfer portal this week, getting the total in the 2024 offseason to four.
The new names: Alex Markus (William & Mary) and Wesley Arrington (Lynchburg).
Arrington, a D3 grad transfer, has 17 wins as a starter over the past two seasons, including a 10-2 mark in 16 starts in 2024, with a 3.86 ERA, 1.34 WHIP, and 103Ks/37BBs in 100.1 innings pitched.
Arrington saved his best for last, going 4-0 in his four postseason starts, with three complete games, including a nine-strikeout no-hitter in the 5-0 win over Randolph-Macon on May 9, and 12-strikeout effort in the opening game of the D3 College World Series, a 7-2 win over Endicott on May 31.
In that stretch, Arrington pitched to a 1.03 ERA, 0.86 WHIP and 31Ks/11BBs in 35.0 innings pitched.
Markus started his career at the D3 level at Roanoke, where he didn’t get much work – 28.0 innings over parts of four seasons, with a 2-3 record, 4.50 ERA, 1.61 WHIP and 35Ks/26BBs.
At William and Mary in 2024, Markus was 1-4 with a 5.70 ERA, 1.80 WHIP, and 46Ks/33BBs in 42.2 innings.
He has good stuff – a fastball that sits at 94-96 mph, a changeup in the 84-87 mph range, and a slider that goes 80-84 mph – but the numbers indicate an obvious need for some fine-tuning.
The rebuild continues
Add these two guys to Will Riley, a rising senior late of VMI, and rising sophomore Joey Colucci, from Maryland, by way of Harford Community College.
Don’t be alarmed with Riley’s ERA statline, which was a ghastly, at first glance, 6.78 in 2024.
I was the play-by-play guy on ESPN+ broadcasts for VMI baseball for nine years; the home park, Gray-Minor Stadium, is about as hitter-friendly as they come.
Riley’s fundamentals – 84 Ks/23 walks in 78.1 innings last season, 213 Ks/104 walks in 175 innings in his three-year career – tell you that he has good stuff.
To illustrate that point: his 10.95 Ks/9 is #1 all-time at VMI, surpassing Josh Winder, a seventh-round pick in the 2018 draft who has been with the Minnesota Twins the past couple of years, and is currently on a minor-league rehab assignment.
Winder has done all of that after pitching to a 5.40 ERA in his junior season, ahead of going pretty high in the draft, then pitching his way into the bigs.
The baseball people know.
Seriously, forget the ERA.
Next, to Colucci, a 6’5” righty.
Colucci pitched in six games for Maryland in 2023, then transferred to Harford Community College for the 2024 season, where he was 8-1 with a 1.86 ERA/0.92 WHIP, with 83 Ks and 18 walks in 63.0 innings.
Colucci also pitched in the Perfect Game Collegiate League in 2023, going 2-0 with a 4.60 ERA/0.96 WHIP, with 14 Ks and seven walks in 15.2 innings.
This is just the beginning for O’Connor, who has to replace Charlottesville Regional MOP Jay Woolfolk, #2 starter Joe Savino, #3 starter Owen Coady, one-time weekend starter Cullen McKay, lefty setup man Angelo Tonas, and righty setup man Chase Hungate from his 2024 pitching staff.
Share
Chris Graham
