Baseball: Gelof sets UVA home-run record as No. 7 Hoos rout Richmond, 18-0

By Scott Ratcliffe

On a historic day at Disharoon Park, Virginia junior third baseman Jake Gelof became the program’s all-time home run king, as the seventh-ranked Cavaliers run-ruled visiting Richmond Tuesday, 18-0, in seven innings.

With the win, the Cavaliers improved to 29-4 overall on the season, including a perfect 18-0 mark against non-conference opponents, all while extending the nation’s longest home winning streak to 22 games. 

With one out and nobody aboard in the bottom of the fifth inning, Gelof got behind in the count, 0-2, against Richmond reliever Will Gersky. The 6-foot-1, 195-pound native of Rehoboth Beach, Del., then smoked Gersky’s following delivery over the left-field fence to set the program’s new home-run mark, putting the Hoos on top, 4-0. It was his 38th career homer, breaking a tie with former Wahoo E.J. Anderson, whose previous record had stood since 1998.

“It was just pure excitement once I saw it land,” Gelof said of his momentous achievement. “Just really excited and I was happy for it to happen today. It was really cool.”

When asked if he was relieved to have the record out of the way, Gelof had a humble response.

“I guess,” he said. “I mean, it’s a cool thing to have throughout the season, but still got a lot more work to do.”

The Cavaliers added seven more runs in the fifth — highlighted by a Harrison Didawick grand slam to right that scored Luke Hanson, Casey Saucke and Anthony Stephan — to push the lead to 11-0, but they weren’t done yet.

After tacking on three more runs to start the sixth, sophomore first baseman Ethan Anderson blasted the team’s second grand slam of the day on the first pitch he saw, this one over the wall in left-center, for the exclamation point.

On the mound, junior Connelly Early (7-1, 2.72 ERA) was solid, tossing six shutout innings and allowing just two hits and a pair of walks while striking out four Spider batters. The Army transfer was happy to see his teammate Gelof break the home-run record.

“It was pretty sweet to see,” Early said of Gelof’s record-breaking dinger. “I’m so happy for him. It’s a great accomplishment, and it’s nice to have that bat in the lineup behind you.

“Every at-bat, he goes up and makes it difficult on a pitcher. He’s not just a power hitter. He’s got everything, he’s got the tools. When he has two strikes, he’s one of the best hitters, and in the fall and preseason, I remember facing him, and those were not fun ABs.”

Gelof finished the day 1 for 2 at the plate with an RBI and a walk, as he was also hit by a pitch later in the fifth. He’s now batting .374 on the season with 13 homers and 54 RBI. His 53 runs driven in coming into Tuesday’s game led all of Division I.

In addition, Gelof ranked fifth in the nation in total bases (104) while also leading all ACC batters in slugging percentage (.806), doubles (14) and triples (3) going into the week. For his efforts last week in the sweep of Miami, Gelof earned ACC Player of the Week honors for the second time in his career.

“Ever since we plugged him in the lineup his freshman year, he’s in the batter’s box, he’s aggressive, he gets his money’s worth,” said UVA skipper Brian O’Connor. “How about the season he had last year and the one he’s had so far this year? It just speaks to how talented he is and how prepared he is every day to help his team be successful.”

As O’Connor pointed out, Gelof accomplished the feat in just his third season, while only appearing in 38 of the team’s 63 games as a freshman in 2021. It took Gelof only 129 career games (454 at-bats) to break the record, as he hit four homers as a freshman and 21 last season. O’Connor said it’s all been a result of Gelof’s hard work and approach.

“He studies the game and understands from at-bat to at-bat what somebody is going to try to do to him, and he goes up there and gets his money’s worth,” O’Connor said. “And then he battles with two strikes — that was a two-strike home run, and I’ve seen him do that so many times, and that means he doesn’t give the at-bat away, that he’s going to stay in there for all three strikes. And if you take aggressive swings like he does, you’re gonna get rewarded.”

ADDITIONAL NOTES
Courtesy UVA Media Relations

• Virginia extended its win streak against non-conference opponents to 22 games.
• The Cavaliers have won all 21 games at Disharoon Park this season and 22-straight dating back to last season, adding to their program record.
• Kyle Teel went 2 for 4 with an RBI, upping his batting average to an ACC-high, .474. He has reached base safely in all 33 games this season.
• Virginia has score five or more runs in a single inning 15 times this season, including the seven and eight-run outbursts on Tuesday.
• Virginia has won 19 of the last 20 meetings against Richmond and are 18-1 against the Spiders under head coach Brian O’Connor.
• It marked the second straight season UVA has hit two grand slams in the same game since 2000. The Cavaliers hit two in a game at George Mason on April 22, 2002, at ECU on Feb. 15, 2013, against Boston College on March 19, 2022 and today against Richmond.
• Virginia was hit by six pitches in the contest, matching a season high (Longwood – 2/21).

UP NEXT

UVA hosts Mount St. Mary’s at 4 p.m. on Wednesday before hosting Pitt for a three-game set this weekend, beginning with Friday’s series opener with first pitch scheduled for 6 p.m.