Virginia is slated to play three games at the Jerry Bryson Classic hosted by Gardner-Webb University beginning Friday.
The Cavaliers will open the season on Friday against Bellarmine at 1 p.m., play host Gardner-Webb on Saturday at 3 p.m. and close out the weekend against NJIT on Sunday at 11 a.m. All three can be heard live on WINA (1070 AM/98.9 FM).
Broadcast information
The three contests will not have a live video stream. Fans in the Charlottesville area can tune in to WINA (1070 AM/98.9 FM) on their radio dials or listen live anywhere on WINA.com. Live stat links for the weekend can be found on VirginiaSports.com. Live in-game updates can be found on the team’s official twitter page (@UVABaseball).
Weekend pitching matchups
Friday – 1 p.m.
- Bellarmine: RHP Nolan Pender (2-5, 7.23 ERA, 37.1 IP, 25 BB, 36 SO)
- Virginia: LHP Brandon Neeck (2-0, 1.93 ERA, 23.1 IP, 11 BB, 40 SO)
Saturday – 3 p.m.
- Virginia: LHP Nate Savino (3-3, 3.79 ERA, 54.2 IP, 16 BB, 34 SO)
- Gardner-Webb: RHP Joe Simeone (1-3, 5.80 ERA, 35.2 IP, 19 BB, 39 SO) – at UConn
Sunday – 11 a.m.
- NJIT: LHP Aidan Kidd (2-0, 9.00 ERA, 11.0 IP, 6 BB, 15 SO)
- Virginia: LHP Brian Gursky (1-2, 5.27 ERA, 30.1 IP, 11 BB, 26 SO) – at USC
*2021 Statistics
Opponents
- Virginia will play both Bellarmine and NJIT for the first time in program history.
- The Cavaliers have played Gardner-Webb on one other occasion, a 6-2 UVA win in Charleston, S.C. back in 2006.
- Bellarmine competed at the Division I level playing for the first time in 2021 and finished the year 13-36 and included eight wins ASUN Conference wins.
- NJIT won 18 of 22 games before qualifying for the NCAA Tournament for the first time in program history. The Highlanders went 1-2 in the Arkansas Regional and jumped out to a 3-0 lead on top-seed Razorbacks in the series opener before falling 13-8.
Virginia Notes
- For the first time in Brian O’Connor’s tenure, Virginia will start all lefthanders in a weekend series.
- The Virginia pitching staff set a school record for strikeouts with 687 last season. The 11.0 strikeouts per game also eclipsed a school mark that was set back in 1949.
- Opening day starter Brandon Neeck will make his first career start on the mound. He made a career-high 22 appearances on the mound last year, all out of the bullpen. Neeck struck out a UVA postseason record, 16 batters in 5.2 innings of relief against ODU in the 2021 NCAA Columbia Regional.
- Saturday starter Nate Savino is the only Cavalier in the weekend rotation with a start in a Virginia uniform. He made 10 of his 13 career starts as a sophomore in 2021 and was inserted into the weekend rotation for the last six ACC series last year.
- Gursky, a graduate transfer from the University of Southern California, comes to Virginia with 53 appearances on the mound, including 15 starts. In the COVID-19 shortened 2020 season he did not allow an earned run over three starts, a total of 12 innings pitched.
- Sophomore Kyle Teel will assume the starting catching role in 2020 after 15 of his 53 starts as a true freshman came behind the dish. He played 19 in right field and served as the designated hitter for 19 more. Teel was included on the Golden Spikes Award Preseason Watch List, an award in which UVA has boasted that UVA nine semifinalists, the fourth-most in college baseball. As a true freshman, Teel led the Cavaliers with a .335 batting average which was the 10th-highest in the ACC. It was the first time a UVA freshman led the team in hitting since 2008.
- The Cavaliers had seven players included on D1Baseball’s Position Power Rankings – 2B Max Cotier (40), OF Chris Newell (56), 1B Devin Ortiz (29), Catcher Kyle Teel (3), SP Matt Wyatt (52), SP Nate Savino (82) and Brandon Neeck (105)
- On Baseball America’s top-150 baseball players list, Kyle Teel came in at 44, Savino at 74 and Newell at 76.
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Chris Graham
