The Virginia baseball team looks to bounce back from a series sweep at Notre Dame over the past weekend, and will have five games this week at Disharoon Park to do so.
Virginia (32-9, 12-9 ACC) lost all three games — including a doubleheader Sunday — to the Fighting Irish, as the Cavaliers were outscored 25-13 in the series and gave up a whopping 10 home runs in the first two games alone.
The Irish erased a 4-2 UVA lead with three runs in the bottom of the fifth inning of Sunday’s nightcap to complete the sweep, which also marked the Cavaliers’ first doubleheader loss since the 2019 season.
Virginia committed four errors in Game 3, which was a season high, while at the plate, the 1-through-5 hitters went a combined 4-for-37 with eight strikeouts on Sunday. Junior third baseman Jake Gelof, whose bat had been red hot coming in, was 0-for-12 across the three losses.
As a result, the Wahoos dropped from eighth in the country to 13th in Monday’s D1 Baseball poll, but still are just a half-game back of first-place Duke (27-12, 12-8) in the ACC’s Coastal Division standings with four weeks to go. No. 16 Miami is also 12-9 in league play, tied with the Cavaliers in a dead heat at the top of the heap.
Virginia has two more ranked ACC foes coming to The Dish as part of the upcoming final 11-game homestand, including the No. 20 Blue Devils in town this weekend for an important three-game set, weather permitting. No. 21 Louisville closes out the home schedule in a couple weeks (May 12-14).
“It’s good to be back home,” Virginia head coach Brian O’Connor said. “I know our guys will be excited to step on this field and be positive about what we have going on.”
Sprinkled in are five more midweek opponents — four of which hail from the Commonwealth — as the Hoos look to finish the non-conference slate without a loss. O’Connor’s team is a perfect 20-0 in such contests in 2023, and have won 24 in a row dating back to last season. He has full confidence in the Cavaliers’ ability to turn the page and not dwell on the recent struggles.
“We have to get back on the horse and get back to work, and get back to playing good Virginia baseball,” said the coach.
First up is Liberty on Tuesday, followed by Towson on Wednesday, with both games scheduled for 6-p.m. starts. Junior Connelly Early (8-1, 3.05 ERA) will take the hill on Tuesday for the Hoos, with Wednesday’s starter yet to be determined. The Flames will counter with a lefty of their own in Trey Cooper (1-2, 5.65 ERA).
Virginia defeated Liberty, 4-1, on April 4th in Lynchburg, and is gunning for its first season sweep of the Flames in six years. With a victory, Early would become just the fourth UVA pitcher to win 9 games or more in a season since 2016 (Connor Jones, Andrew Abbott and Adam Haseley).
Next week, the Cavaliers will host VCU (Tuesday) and James Madison (Wednesday), then will have a week off before concluding the non-conference schedule against Radford on Wednesday, May 10.
After wrapping up the homestand, UVA will then finish the regular season in Atlanta against Georgia Tech the following weekend before heading down to Durham for the ACC Tournament, which begins Tuesday, May 23.
Prior to the struggles against Notre Dame, the Cavaliers were in good shape to host a regional in the postseason, but will have to finish the regular season strong to solidify that achievement.
“I hate losing a lot more than I love winning,” O’Connor admitted Monday, “and so it starts with me on how I manage it, and I got to work this morning very positive about what we have in front of us and the opportunity that we have in front of us.”
O’Connor added that a lot of issues can be fixed with simple execution, noting that the Cavalier pitchers struggled finishing at-bats with two strikes against the Irish’s hitters. At the same time, all it takes offensively is for the Hoos’ bats to start heating up again.
Going into Tuesday’s game, UVA still leads the nation in hits (489) and doubles (114), while ranking second in batting average (.334) and sixth in scoring (9.2 runs per game). Additionally, Virginia ranks sixth in team ERA (3.58).
Junior catcher Kyle Teel leads the team in both hits (67, first in the ACC and fifth nationally) and batting average (.417), while sophomore shortstop Griff O’Ferrall is right behind with 66 hits and an average of .411. Teel has reached base safely in all 38 games this season, while O’Ferrall ranks second in the conference with 52 runs scored. He has scored at least one run in 18 of his last 19 outings.
Gelof, despite only recording one RBI in the Notre Dame series, still leads the country with 68 RBI, and has a chance to not only break his own school record of 81 runs driven in last season, but can also set the all-time program record by season’s end. Gelof needs just 20 more RBI to pass Steven Proscia (182 from 2009-11) for the most in Wahoo history.
Sophomore Casey Saucke has been on fire over his last five games, hitting 10-for-18 (.556) with a homer, 3 RBI and 7 runs across that span. Now, the Cavaliers need to put it all back together down the homestretch.
“This game can humble you in a hurry,” O’Connor said. “You just have to handle the waves.”
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