Virginia (12-0, 0-0 ACC) will begin Atlantic Coast Conference play this weekend with a three-game series at Duke (8-5, 0-0 ACC) that begins Friday.
The Friday (4 p.m.) and Sunday’s (1 p.m.) contests will air on ACCNX and the Cavaliers will make their season debut on ACC Network on Saturday (March 12) at 4 p.m.
ACCNX is available to authenticated subscribers of the ACC Network through the ESPN app and ESPN.com.
Links to live stats are available on VirginiaSports.com. Fans can get in-game updates on the team’s official twitter page (@UVABaseball).
Probable Starters
Friday – 4 p.m.
Virginia: LHP Nate Savino (2-0, 2.03 ERA, 13.1 IP, 2 BB, 20 SO)
Duke: RHP Marcus Johnson (1-2, 3.45 ERA, 15.2, 4 BB, 24 SO)
Saturday – 4 p.m.
Virginia: LHP Brian Gursky (3-0, 2.25, 16.0 IP, 6 BB, 22 SO)
Duke: LHP Luke Fox (1-1, 5.79 ERA, 14.0, 9 BB, 13 SO)
Sunday – 1 p.m.
Virginia: LHP Brandon Neeck (2-0, 1.26 ERA, 14.1 IP, 5 BB, 18 SO)
Duke: RHP Billy Seidl (1-0, 1.98 ERA, 13.2 IP, 9 BB, 18 SO)
Team Notes
- Virginia is one of three teams in college baseball that enter the weekend unbeaten (Purdue & Clemson).
- Including the unbeatens, Virginia is one of seven schools (Mercer, Tennessee, Wake Forest & St. Mary’s) with 12 wins through the first three weeks.
- The Cavaliers are 12-0 for the third time (2009, 2013, 2022) under head coach Brian O’Connor and are off the best start since the 2013 season when UVA won its first 14 games.
- Through 12 games, Virginia has outscored its opponents 145-23.
- UVA has scored 10 or more runs in nine-straight games, a program record.
- O’Connor enters the 2022 conference slate with a 308-198-1 overall record in league play. The 308 ACC wins are the eighth-most in league history.
Pitching Notes
- The Cavaliers have struck out 10 or more batters in all but two games this season including four performances of 15+ strikeouts.
- The Cavaliers rank second in the country with an average of 13.0 strikeouts per nine innings and have fanned 156 batters, tied for the fifth most in the nation.
- Virginia is tied for the national lead with four shutouts in 12 games.
- The pitcher of record for UVA in 10 of the 12 games this season has been the starter.
- In the last five games the Cavalier bullpen allowed four runs in a total of 21.2 innings pitched.
- Friday’s starter, Nate Savino recorded UVA’s first quality start of the season after tossing six innings of five-hit baseball against Penn State last weekend. Back-to-back doubles produced Penn State’s only run of the game but Savino locked in, retiring 13 of the next 17 batters and totaled four strikeouts.
- Gursky, expected to get the nod Saturday, co-leads the team with three wins. He’s pitched into the sixth in his last two outings.
- Sunday will be Neeck’s third career start. He’s pitched into the fifth inning in all three starts this season. Prior to this season, Neeck pitched 5+ innings once, a record-breaking performance of 16 strikeouts against ODU in the 2021 Columbia Regional elimination game.
- Two-way player Devin Ortiz pitched one inning of scoreless relief in Tuesday’s midweek game against George Washington after starting the previous two midweek contests. Ortiz has not allowed an earned in in 38 consecutive innings.
First-Year Frenzy
- At the top of the lineup for all 12 games, shortstop Griff O’Ferrall has scored 21 runs, the third-most in the NCAA and the second most in the ACC. In his last two games, the first year is 7-for-9 with four runs scored, three RBI and two stolen bases.
- Freshman Casey Saucke leads the team and ranks ninth in the country with a .500 batting average. He has a team-best, 10-game hit streak going into Tuesday.
- Switch-hitting Ethan Anderson has blasted three home runs in the last five games. He has an RBI in six of his seven starts on the season.
- Colin Tuft has started all but two games as a true freshman (8 in LF, 1 at DH). He’s scored a run in each of his nine starts. He notched a season-high three hits and scored three times in the finale against Penn State.
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Chris Graham
