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The road to glory for Jay Woolfolk this season was filled with landmines, but the junior right-hander fought through adversity leaning on his coaches, teammates, family and his faith to reach the pitcher’s mound in Omaha.
The way both Virginia and North Carolina provided late-inning drama in postseason play in order to advance to the College World Series, it figured Friday’s opening game between the ACC rivals would come down to the wire.
UNC’s center fielder, hitting .314 on the season with 65 RBI coming into the game, is considered a top-20, first-round draft pick by The Sporting News in the upcoming Major League Draft.
“I’m excited every single day I come to Disharoon Park and look forward to the opportunity to sustain this championship college baseball program.”
Virginia coach Brian O’Connor, who is taking his seventh team to the mecca of college baseball, addressed that very topic with his club on Tuesday.
Kansas State felt the full fury of Virginia’s best baseball of the season, the pitching coming around at just the right time to blend with the nation’s most explosive offense.
Trailing 3-0, the Cavaliers blasted through in the fifth, sixth and seventh innings to take control of the game.
Brian O’Connor will rely heavily on his pitchers against the visiting Wildcats, starting with tonight’s opening game (7 p.m., ESPNU) in the best-of-three series.
Virginia will host Kansas State, the winner of the Fayetteville Regional, in a best-of-three game Super Regional this weekend at Disharoon Park.
In what turned out to be the longest performance of the junior right-hander’s career, Jay Woolfolk more than answered the bell, handcuffing Mississippi State’s explosive batting order and propelling Virginia to a 9-2 victory.
Virginia advanced to tonight’s championship game, while Mississippi State faces St. John’s at noon in an elimination game.
UVA trailed 4-2 with one out and the rookie would essentially be facing the top of the Bulldogs’ dangerous batting order with so much at stake.
Grad student Joe Savino combined with reliever Chase Hungate to hurl nine innings of four-hit baseball and handcuffed Quaker batters, striking out 11 and walking only one.
No one could be more grateful to start the opening game of the NCAA Baseball Tournament than Virginia pitcher Joe Savino.
Sophomore outfielder Harrison Didawick leads the team in roundtrippers with 23 and needs one more to break Jake Gelof’s single-season school record, which was set last year.
A brief look at the remainder of the field in the Charlottesville Regional for this coming weekend.
When the TV cameras and reporter microphones were turned off, Brian O’Connor couldn’t contain his excitement about hosting another NCAA baseball regional this coming weekend.
Disharoon Park will serve as one of the 16 regional host sites for the 2024 NCAA Division I Baseball Championship. Virginia will host a four-team, double-elimination tournament May 31 – June 4.
Fourth-seeded Virginia had its four-game win streak snapped with a 12-7 loss to fifth-seeded Florida State in a Pool D elimination game on Friday.
Fourth-seeded Virginia recorded its ACC-best, fifth shutout with a 13-0, seven-inning win over ninth-seeded Georgia Tech during ACC pool play on Wednesday in Charlotte.