Virginia opens ACC play at Duke this weekend

Courtesy UVA Media Relations

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. 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.

GAME COVERAGE: ACCNX is available to authenticated subscribers of the ACC Network through the ESPN app and ESPN.com. In addition, all three games this weekend can be heard locally in Charlottesville on WINA (98.9 FM/1070 AM or anywhere on WINA.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 STARTING PITCHERS

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)

LEADING OFF

• 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.

AGAINST DUKE

• Virginia has played Duke to open ACC play four times in the Brian O’Connor era – 2014 (2-1), 2016 (2-1), 2018 (1-2) & 2019 (1-2).
• The Blue Devils have taken six of the last 10 meetings including a 4-2 win in the semifinals of last year’s ACC Tournament.
• The Cavaliers own a 104-64-1 all-time advantage in the all-time series that dates back to 1926. Virginia is 35-18 against the Blue Devils under O’Connor.
• Eight of the last 10 meetings have been decided by three or less runs including three one-run affairs.

NATIONAL RANKINGS

• Virginia is nationally ranked in five of the six major collegiate top-25 polls and come in as high as No. 5 according to Baseball America. The Cavaliers are No. 33 in the latest RPI rankings.
• Virginia comes into the series ranked in the top-10 country in ERA (3rd – 1.58), batting average (9th – .335) and fielding percentage (9th – .988). The Cavaliers are the only team in the country ranked in the top-10 of all three categories.
• The Cavaliers have the No. 2 scoring offense in the country, averaging 12.1 runs per game. The 145 runs produced this season are behind only Tennessee (160) and Wake Forest (151) each club has played one more game than UVA.
• Jake Gelof is three RBI behind the national leader, Tommy White (NC State), going into ACC play. He ranks second in slugging percentage (1.211), fifth in home runs (7), sixth in total bases (46) and 10th in sacrifice flies (3).

HIGHLIGHTS OF THE HOMESTAND

• After winning all three games at the Jerry Bryson Classic hosted by Gardner-Webb, Virginia returned for a nine-game homestand, what is scheduled to be its second-longest stint at home this season.
• UVA extended its home win streak to 12 games and includes last year’s sweep of Wake Forest.
• The Cavaliers scored 10 or more runs in each of the nine games at home and limited opponents to 17 runs in that span.
• The series finale against Penn State drew 4,459 fans to Disharoon Park, the largest crowd since 2016.
• Cavalier pitchers struck out 23 batters in the series opener against Cornell, just the 11^thtime in NCAA history a staff has struck out 23 or more batters in a nine-inning game.
• Jake Gelof hit for the cycle in the series finale against Cornell, the first by a UVA hitter since 2001. He accomplished the feat in just four at bats and five innings played.
• Virginia scored 24 runs against Cornell on Feb. 25, the sixth time under O’Connor that UVA eclipsed the 20-run plateau.
• Lefthander Brian Gursky completed an “immaculate inning” on Feb. 26 against Cornell. He struck out all three batters he faced in the second inning on a total of nine pitches.

ON THE MOUND

• 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.

THE BIG INNING

• Virginia has scored five or more runs in a single inning, 11 times this season and all nine games of the recent homestand.
• The Cavaliers broke a 1-1 tie in the fifth inning of game one against Penn State with an eight-run outburst, the largest of the season.
• The fifth inning has been the launching pad for four of the 11 “big innings”.

FIRST YEAR IMPACT

• 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.