UVA Baseball: ‘Hoos take care of midweek business, defeat ODU, 11-5

The UVA Baseball team was coming off a weekend sweep of nationally ranked Stanford, but also looming in the background, heading into Tuesday’s home game with ODU, was back-to-back midweek losses to Richmond and Liberty.

“I did talk to them about, it was great what we did at Stanford, but you gotta, you have to sustain it. Great ballclubs sustain the energy and the enthusiasm. And so we talked about that, like, how are we gonna show up tonight? Are we gonna show up ready to play? And certainly they responded, and that’s been a trademark of our program for a long time,” Virginia coach Brian O’Connor said after his team’s 11-5 win over the Monarchs.

Gotta admit here, I didn’t realize how far ODU Baseball had fallen since the 2021 season. You might remember that the 2021 ODU team was the #1 seed in the Columbia Regional, and that UVA team was the #3 seed, ahead of the ‘Hoos run through the regional and super regional on the way to a surprise College World Series berth.

The Monarchs have not been back to the NCAA Tournament since, just missing out in 2022 after finishing with a 41-17 record.

Tuesday’s loss drops ODU to 8-18 in 2025.

The ‘Hoos took control of this one early, getting out 5-0 after three, buoyed by a sac-fly RBI from Chris Arroyo in the first and two-out RBI singles from Aiden Teel and Eric Becker in the second off Monarchs starter Jayce Park (0-3, 8.18 ERA).

The lead got to 10-1 in the fifth, powered by a two-run homer from Teel, his second of the season.

Things got a bit hairy in the seventh, with ODU putting up a four-spot, getting three runs on bases-loaded walks, before Ryan Osinski struck out Tyler Zedalis with two outs and the tying run in the on-deck circle to put that threat down.

Teel added an insurance run with a two-out RBI single in the eight to cap his big-numbers day at the plate – 3-for-4, two bases on balls, a homer and four RBIs.

Osinski got the win on the staff day, with two and a third scoreless innings of relief, allowing one hit, striking out four and walking two.

Bradley Hodges went three and two-thirds innings in the start, allowing an unearned run on two hits, striking out six and walking one.

Virginia (16-11, 6-6 ACC) now puts its focus on a weekend road trip to NC State (19-10, 5- 4 ACC).