Baseball: No. 21 Cavaliers wrap up non-conference schedule against Radford

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Posted on Wednesday, May. 10, 2023, 6:25 am

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Courtesy UVA Media Relations

Photo: UVA Athletics

No. 21 Virginia returns to action on Wednesday to host Radford in the final non-conference game of the season. First pitch at Disharoon Park is scheduled for 1 p.m.

HOW TO FOLLOW
TV: ACCNX
RADIO: WINA (98.9 FM/1070 AM/WINA.com)
LIVE STATS: VirginiaSports.com

WEEKDAY PROMOS
Wednesday: Hot dogs are discounted to $2 at the concession stands while supplies last.

PROBABLE PITCHING MATCHUP
Wednesday – 1 p.m.
Radford: RHP RHP Ty Burton (3-6, 6.51 ERA, 55.1 IP, 13 BB, 50 SO)
Virginia: LHP Connelly Early (9-1, 2.89 ERA, 53.0 IP, 14 BB, 63 SO)

LEADING OFF

  • Under head coach Brian O’Connor, Virginia is 11-2 against non-conference foes coming off exam break.
  • Virginia (37-11) is 24-0 this season against non-conference opponents and has won 28-straight regular season games against non-conference foes dating back to last year.
  • UVA is the only team in the country without a non-conference loss this season and has never finished a year unblemished in non-conference play in the history of the program.
  • UVA is 11-2 against Commonwealth foes this season.
  • UVA’s 37 wins this season are tied for the second-most in the country and trail only consensus No. 1 Wake Forest’s 39. Virginia was the first team in college baseball to eclipse the 30-win plateau with a 16-4 win over Mount St. Mary’s on April 12.
  • Virginia comes into the midweek as the national leader in hits (575) and doubles (135). The team batting average of .336 is the second highest in the country.
  • UVA is the only team in the country to rank in the top-10 in BOTH batting average (2nd – .336) and ERA (9th – 3.94).

NO PLACE LIKE HOME

  • Virginia boasts a 28-4 mark at home this season and is tied with Arkansas for the second most home wins in the country behind Tennessee (29).
  • UVA has won 25 or more games at home 14 of the 20 seasons under head coach Brian O’Connor.
  • A victory on Wednesday would match UVA’s win total at home from last season. The Cavaliers haven’t won 30 games at home since 2013.
  • The Cavaliers have won 25 or more home games in back-to-back seasons for the first time since 2013 and 2014. UVA won 25 or more games at Disharoon Park in each of Brian O’Connor’s first 11 seasons, including a school record, 35 twice first in 2011 and again 2013.
  • The Cavaliers have won over 77 percent of their games (565-169) at Disharoon Park since the facility opened in 2002.
  • UVA is amid an 11-game homestand, the longest stint at home this season. After returning home from Notre Dame, UVA will not leave the Commonwealth for 23 days until its final road series of the regular season against Georgia Tech (May 18-20).

AGAINST RADFORD

  • Virginia and Radford (9-39) will square off for the first time since the 2019 season, a 6-3 win in Charlottesville on April 16.
  • No current Cavaliers have played against Radford over the course of their careers.
  • UVA holds a 20-4-1 advantage in the all-time series that was first played in 1988.
  • Virginia is 10-1 all-time against the Highlanders under Brian O’Connor and has won 12 of the last 13 meetings.

SEEING DOUBLE

  • Virginia leads the country with 135 doubles, 11 more than any other team in the country.
  • Ethan Anderson leads the way with 21, one shy of matching the school record of 22 held by Stephen Bruno (2012) and Dan Street (2002).
  • For the first time in program history, the Cavaliers have three players with 20 or more doubles in a year – Anderson (23), Kyle Teel (21) and Jake Gelof (20).

BEFORE EXAM BREAK

  • The Cavaliers collected a combined 30 hits in two midweek victories over VCU and James Madison last week before breaking for final exams.
  • Virginia erased a three-run, fifth inning deficit to complete the first season midweek series sweep of VCU since 2019.
  • UVA raced out to an 8-0 lead against James Madison before the Dukes steadily chipped away at the Cavalier lead in the final three innings. Jay Woolfolk recorded a four-out save, his seventh save of the season to fend off the late JMU comeback.

ON THE MOUND

  • Connelly Early will make his 12th start of the season and 28th of his career on Tuesday.
  • The lefthander notched his 20th career victory in his outing against JMU last Wednesday. He is one of 16 active NCAA pitchers with 20 or more wins and is tied for 8th most among active NCAA pitchers.
  • Early tossed six shutout innings against JMU his last time on the bump and produced his fourth quality start, tied with Brian Edgington for the most on the staff.
  • Early is looking to become the 12th UVA pitcher ever to record 10 wins in a season and the first since Connor Jones totaled 11 in 2016.
  • Going into Wednesday’s contest, Early trails only Rhett Lowder (10) for the ACC lead in wins. Lowder is one of four pitchers with an NCAA-best, 10 wins.
  • Early ranks in the top-10 in the ACC in WHIP (6th – 1.08), strikeout-to-walk ratio (7th – 4.50) and ERA (8th – 2.89).
  • The Cavalier pitching staff boasts the ninth-lowest team ERA (3.94) in the country and third-lowest in the ACC.
  • Of the 485 strikeouts (12th most in NCAA) recorded by Cavalier pitching, 155 have come looking, tied for the second-most in the country.
  • The Cavalier hurlers also boast college baseball’s 7th-best strikeout-to-walk ratio (3.09) and rank 13th in walks allowed per nine innings (3.34).

POTENT ATTACK

  • The Cavaliers have scored 437 runs this season the fifth-most of any team in the nation and are averaging 9.1 runs per game, the eighth-most in the country.
  • There are 27 players in D-I baseball batting over the .400 mark, two of them are in the Cavalier lineup – Kyle Teel (.423) and Griff O’Ferrall (.411). UVA is one of three schools with multiple players batting .400 (Omaha – 2, Sam Houston – 2).
  • Virginia has struck out 308 times as a team this season, the fewest of any team in the ACC.
  • Virginia has the third largest scoring/run differential in the country.

 Highest DI Scoring Margin/Run Differential

1. Wake Forest +6.3
2 LSU +5.0
3. Campbell +4.7
  Virginia +4.7
5. South Carolina +4.4

 PLAYER NOTABLES

  • Kyle Teel, who has started the last 106 games at catcher for UVA, is fifth in the country in hits (82). He leads the ACC in batting average (.423), hits and hits per game (1.71).
  • Teel needs six more hits to crack the top-10 on UVA’s single season hits lists. He’s the 31st Cavalier to record 80 hits in a season and needs six hits to crack UVA’s single season top-10.
  • Ethan O’Donnell is hitting .556 (10 for 18) with a home run, seven runs scored and seven RBI in his last five games. Against JMU he recorded his third, four-hit game of the season going 4 for 5 against JMU and added a career-high two stolen bases.
  • Casey Saucke has reached base 12-straight games, the longest active streak on the team. The sophomore is batting .409 (18 for 44) in that span.
  • Virginia has four of the top-7 ACC hits leaders in its lineup – Teel (1st – 82), O’Ferrall (2nd – 78), Anderson (4th – 76) and O’Donnell (7th – 70).