Baseball: No. 21 Virginia prepares for final ACC regular-season series at Georgia Tech

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Posted on Thursday, May. 18, 2023, 6:00 am

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Courtesy UVA Media Relations

Photo: UVA Athletics

No. 21 Virginia will play its final three-game series of the season at Georgia Tech beginning Thursday at Mac Nease Baseball Park at Russ Chandler Stadium in Atlanta. First pitch for Thursday and Friday’s contest will at 6 p.m., while the series finale on Sunday will take place at noon.

HOW TO FOLLOW

TV: ACCNX
RADIO: WINA (98.9 FM/1070 AM/WINA.com) – Thurs. & Fri. only | Virginia Sports App/VirginiaSports.com (Sat.)
LIVE STATS: VirginiaSports.com

PROBABLE PITCHING MATCHUPS

Thursday – 6 p.m.
Virginia: RHP Nick Parker (5-0, 4.32 ERA, 50.0 IP, 15 BB, 63 SO)
Georgia Tech: RHP Luke Schmolke (6-3, 7.42 ERA, 47.1, 41 BB, 51 SO)

Friday – 6 p.m.
Virginia: LHP Connelly Early (10-1, 2.70 ERA, 60.0 IP, 14 BB, 70 SO)
Georgia Tech: RHP Aeden Finateri (2-3, 4.07 ERA, 55.1 IP, 14 BB, 48 SO)

Saturday – Noon
Virginia: TBA
Georgia Tech: RHP Jackson Finley (2-4, 5.63 ERA, 46.1 IP, 15 BB, 41 SO)

LEADING OFF

  • Virginia (41-11, 16-11 ACC) enters the last weekend of the regular season with a 16-11 conference record, needing two wins and a Duke loss to Miami to earn at least a share of the Coastal Division title.
  • UVA has not won the Coastal Division since winning back-to-back titles in 2010 and 2011. UVA has finished second in the Coastal seven of the last 11 seasons.
  • Virginia comes into the weekend on a six-game win streak, second longest in the ACC (Clemson – 8) and tied for ninth-longest in the country.
  • The Cavaliers will play their first game(s) outside the Commonwealth of Virginia since April 23.
  • UVA’s 41 wins are the second most of any team in the country. The Cavaliers were the second team behind Wake Forest to the 40-win plateau. Virginia was also the first to 30 wins.
  • The Cavaliers secured their first 40-win season since 2017 with a 4-1, series clinching win over Louisville on Saturday (May 13). Virginia has 13 40-win seasons in program history, 12 have come under Brian O’Connor.
  • Two of the top offenses in the country square off this weekend in Atlanta. Virginia ranks No. 1 in the country in hits (617) and doubles (142) while Georgia Tech is second in both categories (609 hits & 133 doubles). Virginia’s .335 batting average is second in all of DI baseball while Georgia Tech’s .324 is fifth.
  • Virginia is the only program in the country to rank in the top-30 in both batting average (2nd – .335) and ERA (5th – 3.81).
  • Virginia comes into the weekend as the national leader in both hits (617) and doubles (142).
  • UVA is the only team in the country to rank in the top-10 in BOTH batting average (2nd – .335) and ERA (9th – 3.86). UVA and Oral Roberts (13th .313 & 7th .385) are the only to programs to rank in the top 30 of each category.
  • Since 2009, Virginia has a 51-25 (.671) record against ACC foes coming out of exam break.

AGAINST GEORGIA TECH

  • Virginia returns to the Flats for the first time since 2021, a series victory that jumpstarted UVA’s run to the College World Series. The Cavaliers dropped the series opener 6-5 but went on to win the final two to clinch the series. UVA won 14 of the next 20 ACC games after a 4-12 start in league play.
  • Georgia Tech (30-22, 12-15) owns a 77-61-2 advantage in the all-time series that began in 1924 but under Brian O’Connor, UVA has won 38 of 55 meetings (60%).
  • UVA has won five of the last six series against the Yellow Jackets, including three when dropping the series opener (2017, 2021, 2022).
  • Griff O’Ferrall went 6 for 14 (.429) with a double, triple and eight RBI in last year’s three-game set against Georgia Tech.

ON RECORD WATCH

  • Ethan Anderson needs one double to break UVA’s single season doubles record. He is tied with Stephen Bruno (2012) and Dan Street (2002) with 23. Not far behind are Kyle Teel and Jake Gelof who have 22 and 20 doubles this season, respectively.
  • Gelof became the first Cavalier ever to hit 20 home runs in back-to-back seasons with his 20th in the opener against Louisville last Saturday. He needs one home run to match his career mark of 21 set last season and two to tie Brian Buchanan’s 29-year old record of 22 set in 1994.

Most Home Runs Single Season in UVA History

1. Brian Buchanan (1994) 22
2. Jake Gelof (2022) 21
3. Jake Gelof (2023) 20
4. Jon Benick (2001) 18
5. Jarrett Parker (2009) 16
Joe Koshansky (2004) 16
  • With 79 RBI this season, Gelof is three RBI shy of breaking his own school record set last season. He now owns the top two run producing seasons in program history. He needs seven RBI to match Steven Proscia’s career mark of 182.

 Most Career RBI in UVA History

1. Steven Proscia (2009-11) 182
2. Pavin Smith (2015-17) 178
3. Jake Gelof (2021-present) 175
4. Sean Doolittle (2005-07) 167
5. Ryan Gilleland (1995-98) 166
  • Griff O’Ferrall and Ethan O’Donnell became the 13th and 14th Cavaliers to score 60 runs in a season, respectively. O’Ferrall’s 64 are the sixth-most in a single season in UVA history.

Most Runs in a Single Season in UVA History

1. Jarrett Parker (2009) 76
2. Adam Haseley (2017) 68
3. Brandon Downes (2013) 67
Phil Gosselin (2010) 67
5. Jake Gelof (2022) 65
6. Griff O’Ferrall (2023) 64
  • Kyle Teel needs two more hits to crack UVA’ top-10 in single-season hits. His 86 hits are the most by a Cavalier since Ernie Clement racked up 92 in 2016.

SEEING DOUBLE

  • Virginia leads the country with 142 doubles, 11 more than Georgia Tech who has the second most in the nation.
  • Ethan Anderson’s 23 doubles are the most in the ACC and tied for the second most in the country.
  • For the first time in program history, the Cavaliers have three players with 20 or more doubles in a year – Anderson (23), Kyle Teel (22) and Jake Gelof (20).
  • A total of 16 players in UVA history have recorded 20 or more doubles in a season.
  • UVA has five players with 15 or more doubles, all ranking in the top-eight in the ACC.

Most Doubles in a Season – UVA History

1. Ethan Anderson (2023) 23
Stephen Bruno (2012) 23
Dan Street (2002) 23
4. Kyle Teel 22
Phil Gosselin (2010) 22
Steven Proscia (2009) 22
Dan Grovatt (2008) 22
8. Kenny Towns (2015) 21
John Hicks (2011) 21
Tanner Morris (2019) 21

*Jake Gelof has 20 doubles entering the weekend.

ON THE MOUND

  • Thursday night starter Nick Parker is slated to make his 52nd career start on the mound. His 51 career starts are tied for the second most of any active NCAA DI pitcher.

Most Career Starts (Active NCAA Pitchers)

1. Max Loven, North Dakota St. 55
2. Collin Baumgartner, Kansas 51
Noah Niznik, Southeast Mo. St. 51
Nick Parker, Virginia 51
  • The righthander has turned in back-to-back quality starts including a career-high 12 strikeouts over 6.2 innings against then-No. 20 Duke on April 29. UVA is 9-2 in games which Parker starts.
  • In his outing against Louisville, he allowed one hit over his first five innings and didn’t allow a runner to reach second until the second. He left the game with the bases loaded, two of those runners eventually came around to score.
  • The 12 strikeouts in his start against Duke were the most by a Cavalier pitcher in 2023 and the most since Brandon Neeck struck out 16 in the 2021 NCAA Columbia Regional.
  • Connelly Early will make his third start in 10 days after serving as an opener against Radford on May 10 and getting his weekend start at home on Saturday against Louisville. Early is tied for the ACC lead with 13 starts in 2023.
  • Early is one of seven pitchers in college baseball with double-digit wins (10). He is the 12th UVA pitcher ever to record 10 or more wins in a season and first since Connor Jones had 11 in 2016. He’s looking to become the ninth UVA pitcher to record 11 wins in a season.
  • Against Louisville on Saturday, he turned in his team-leading fifth quality start of the season by pitching six innings and fanning six batters. He scattered four hits and did not walk a batter. Early sat down the first 10 batters he faced and faced the minimum in four of the six frames he pitched in.
  • 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 his 20 wins tied for 8th most among active NCAA pitchers.
  • Early has 21 career victories, tied for the seventh-most among active NCAA pitchers. He is one of 14 active pitchers with 20 or more wins.
  • Early ranks in the top-5 in the ACC in WHIP (4th – 1.03), strikeout-to-walk ratio (5th – 5.00), ERA (5th – 2.70) and walks allowed per nine innings (5th – 2.10).

THE STAFF AT A GLANCE

  • The Cavalier pitching staff boasts the fifth-lowest team ERA (3.81) in the country and third-lowest in the ACC.
  • Of the 525 strikeouts (12th most in NCAA) recorded by Cavalier pitching, 171 have come looking, the second-most in the country.
  • UVA has posted back-to-back 500-strikeout season under pitching coach Drew Dickinson. The Cavaliers broke the school record with 687 in 2021 and struck out 598 batters last season, the third-most in program history. The 525 strikeouts are already the 10th-most in a single season in program history.
  • The Cavalier hurlers also boast college baseball’s 5th-best strikeout-to-walk ratio (3.22) and rank 8th in walks allowed per nine innings (3.20).

POTENT ATTACK

  • The Cavaliers have scored 472 runs this season the sixth-most of any team in the nation and are averaging 9.1 runs per game, the eighth-most in the country.
  • There are 32 players in D-I baseball batting over the .400 mark, two of them are in the Cavalier lineup – Kyle Teel (.415) and Griff O’Ferrall (.407). UVA is one of three schools with multiple players batting .400 (LSU – 2, Sam Houston – 2).
  • Virginia has struck out 328 times as a team this season, the fewest of any team in the ACC.
  • Virginia has the fourth largest scoring/run differential in the country.

 Highest DI Scoring Margin/Run Differential

1. Wake Forest +6.2
2 Virginia +4.8
LSU +4.9
4. Campbell +4.6
5. Oral Roberts +4.0