Courtesy UVA Media Relations

In the first midweek of the 2026 season, the Virginia baseball team defeated the VMI Keydets by a score of 5-2 on Tuesday at Disharoon Park. 

On the mound, seven UVA pitchers combined to strike out 15 Keydets on Tuesday afternoon as the Cavalier bullpen tossed seven innings of one-run ball. 

Kevin Jaxel picked up the win for Virginia (4-0), while Tyler Kapa recorded a four-out save for his first in a Cavalier uniform. In his collegiate debut, John Paone fanned five VMI batters in two innings of one-run ball. 

HOW IT HAPPENED 

The visiting Keydets (4-1) took their only lead of the game when VMI leadoff man Owen Price worked a walk and scored two batters later on a single. Paone thwarted the VMI attack by striking out the side in the first.

After a Keydet error that allowed AJ Gracia to reach base and a walk to Sam Harris in the bottom of the first, Joe Tiroly delivered a two-run double to the wall in right-center to put the Cavaliers out front.

Harrison Didawick stretched the Virginia advantage to 3-1 after the opening frame with an RBI single that plated Tiroly later in the inning.

Following a shutdown frame from Paone in the second, Tiroly drove in the third run of the game on a fielder’s choice with the bases loaded to put UVA up 4-1 after the opening two innings.

VMI threatened during the top of the third with the bases loaded before Jaxel entered the contest and extinguished the potential rally with a strikeout to end the inning.

In the visiting half of the sixth, VMI loaded the bases again with three straight walks to open the inning. Out of the bullpen, Lucas Hartman induced a groundball double play and a fly out to keep the contest at 4-1.

Harris added an insurance run following the seventh-inning stretch on an RBI groundout that scored Noah Murray.

VMI’s Bradley Garner cut the UVA advantage to 5-2 with a solo home run in the top of the eighth for the Keydets final run of the game.

Kapa retired all four VMI batters he faced, helping the Cavaliers secure a 5-2 victory.

ADDITIONAL NOTES 

• With Tuesday’s win, Virginia moves to 113-32 all-time against the Keydets and has won the last nine meetings against VMI dating back to 2018.
• Since the start of 2021, UVA is 36-6 in February.
• With the win, Chris Pollard becomes the second head coach in program history to win the first four games of his tenure.
• The outfield duo of Harrison Didawick and Zach Jackson are the only two Cavaliers to tally a base knock in the first four games of the season.  

UP NEXT

Virginia will hit the road for the first time in 2026 as the Cavaliers head south for a weekend series at Stetson. UVA is slated to play North Dakota State, Monmouth and the host Stetson while in Florida.