By the Numbers: At halfway point, Hoos taking aim at record book

Virginia’s lineup has spent the last two months pummeling opposing pitching. As a result, the Hoos go into the second half of the regular season schedule with some school records squarely within reach.

The Wahoos hit the halfway point of the 55-game regular season with their latest onslaught, Sunday’s 18-9 win over Georgia Tech that clinched a fourth straight series win to begin ACC play, something a UVa team hadn’t done since 2014. Virginia put the game out of reach with the program’s biggest inning in more than six years, a 10-run fourth. Jake Gelof’s solo homer in the sixth was the 39th the Hoos have hit at home this season, already a school record—with at least 16 more games at Disharoon Park remaining.

“We’ve been hitting the ball well all year,” Gelof said of that record following Sunday’s win. “I think that’s what it really shows us.”

Perhaps no one in the country has hit the ball better than Gelof this spring. He began the week ranked eighth nationally with a .439 batting average, and leading the country in slugging percentage (1.010), home runs (14) and RBI (51). On Tuesday, the sophomore third baseman and UVa junior lefty Nate Savino were both added to the midseason watch list for the Golden Spikes Award, given to the top amateur baseball player in the country.

As a team, no lineup in the country is scoring at a better clip than UVa’s 11.1 runs per game. The Hoos also head into Wednesday’s home game against Liberty leading Division I in both batting average (.335) and on-base percentage (.443); they rank fifth in slugging percentage (.554) and 14th in home runs per game (1.68). All four stats would be best in Virginia baseball history over the course of a full season.

Those aren’t the only school records in jeopardy—especially considering those single-season records also include postseason stats. The Cavaliers are currently ranked No. 3 in the country by D1Baseball.com with a 25-3 overall record, including a 9-3 performance in ACC play. In its first in-season projection of the NCAA tournament’s field of 64, Baseball America had the Hoos as its No. 3 overall seed—which would mean postseason baseball in Charlottesville for the first time since 2016.

UVa is also on pace to again play in the ACC tournament, extending a streak that extends to the tournament’s inception in 1973. So this week likely does not represent the true halfway point of the Hoos’ season. But it’s still a chance to look at which records could fall over the coming months as Virginia’s lineup slugs its way through the next two months.

(Note: The previous 17 teams to play a full season under UVa coach Brian O’Connor have played an average of 62 games. That 62-game average was used to extrapolate full-season projections for the Cavaliers’ current 28-game performances.)

The oldest individual record in the Virginia fact book. Tom Phillips’ .452 batting average has been the best in program history for almost three-quarters of a century.

Neither Gelof nor freshman Casey Saucke is on pace to knock Phillips out of the top spot, but at the midway point of the regular season, both could find themselves knocking on the door to an exclusive club. Only eight players in program history have hit .400 in a season. Keith Werman, who hit .414 in 2010, is the only one to have done it since the turn of the 21st century.

Over a full season, Gelof’s .439 batting average would rank second all-time at UVa. Saucke’s .408 would rank sixth.

The first of a few school records that Gelof is threatening to topple.

Only four players in program history have finished a season with a .500 on-base percentage. The last player to do it was Mike Papi in 2013; his .517 OBP that spring ranks second all-time at UVa. Bill Narleski’s .524 OBP has been the standard for almost four decades.

Neither Saucke and Griff O’Ferrall would crack the top 10 with their current on-base percentages, though Saucke’s .482 isn’t far from the .486 that Greg Miclat posted in 2007 and Werman matched three years later. Still, just putting themselves in the conversation is an indication of the job the two freshmen have done through the first two months of their college careers.

With that NCAA-leading 1.010 slugging percentage, Gelof isn’t just threatening to shatter the school’s single-season record. He’s also on pace to take down the ACC record set by JD Drew, who slugged .961 as a junior at Florida State in 1997.

(The NCAA slugging percentage record, by the way, is 1.140, set by Oklahoma State’s Pete Incaviglia in 1985. Incaviglia and Drew will both come up again later in the conversation.)

Brian Buchanan and Chuck Arnold (an even .800 in 1956) are the only UVa players to post an .800 SLG for a full season. The best slugging percentage of the 21st century was Jarrett Parker’s .664 in 2009, which currently ranks seventh in school history.

Both Saucke and fifth-year outfielder Alex Tappen could join Gelof in changing that. Saucke’s .684 SLG would rank sixth in school history over a full season; Tappen’s .679 would rank seventh.

When Phil Gosselin picked up his 100th and final hit in 2010, he became the first player in program history to reach that threshold. A dozen years later, he’s still the only UVa player to hit that mark.

Whether Gelof can approach that record comes down to a pair of factors: Whether he can maintain his blistering performance of the first half, and how many games the Hoos play. Using a 62-game projection, he’s on pace to fall a few hits short of Gosselin. Should the Wahoos reach the College World Series and Gelof stay hot for two more months, he could take a run at that 100-hit mark.

Over 62 games, Gelof’s 95-hit projection would put him second on the school’s single-season list, one ahead of Jarrett Parker’s total from 2009. Saucke’s 88 hits would match Jon Benick in 1999 and Dan Grovatt in 2009. They’re currently tied for seventh on that list.

Another record that Gelof has a legitimate chance of taking down.

His 14 long balls through 28 games are already tied with four other players for sixth-most in a single season at Virginia. Even over a 55-game projection, he’s on pace to hit a school-record 27. Over 62 games, he’s on pace to hit 31, which would match FSU’s Drew in 1997 (in 67 games) for the most in ACC history. Incaviglia hit an NCAA-record 48 in 75 games in 1985.

Buchanan is the only UVa player to reach the 20-homer plateau in a season. Jon Benick hit 18 in 2001, a mark that ranks second in program history. Tappen is on pace to hit 17 over a 62-game season, which would rank third. Chris Newell’s 15-homer pace would match Mark Reynolds’ 2002 campaign, which currently ranks fifth on UVa’s single-season list.

Yet another record that is in serious jeopardy at the halfway mark of the regular season. And this time it’s not just Gelof threatening to take it down.

Pavin Smith became the first player in program history to drive in more than 70 runs when he finished with 77 as a junior in 2017. Ten other players have reached the 60-RBI plateau. With 60 RBI in a single season, Grovatt (in 2010) and Brian Sherlock (in 1998) are tied for 10th on that list.

Both Gelof and Tappen are on pace to climb the rankings over the next two months. With 51 RBI, Gelof is already just nine short of cracking the top 10. Over 62 games, that comes out to 113 runs batted in—a few shy of the ACC record of 116 set by FSU’s Jeremy Morris over 66 games in 1997.

Tappen’s 43 RBI are already a career high. If the fifth-year senior can maintain that level of production and the Hoos make another run to Omaha, both he and Gelof could become the first 100-RBI players in school history.

UVa’s 1985 team was the best offensive ballclub in program history, averaging 8.65 runs per game. This year’s lineup is putting up almost three-and-a-half more per game. So it makes sense that multiple players are taking aim at Jarrett Parker’s school record.

Parker is the only player in program history to score 70 runs in a season. Through 28 games this spring, five players are on pace to hit that mark led by (who else) Gelof. Extrapolate his 39 runs scored over a 62-game season and he’d finish with 86 for the year.

Sophomore catcher Kyle Teel, the Cavalier’s two-hole hitter, is also scoring at a pace that would threaten Parker’s mark, as are leadoff hitter O’Ferrall and Newell, who has been hitting in the back half of the lineup. Three-hole hitter Devin Ortiz is right there as well, particularly if the Hoos play more than the estimated 62 games.

Adam Haseley currently ranks second in program history with 68 runs scored in 2017. Gosselin crossed the plate 67 times in 2010 and Brandon Downes matched that total in 2013. Those three and Parker are currently the only players to score more than 65 runs in a single season at UVa.

Finally, this record doesn’t appear to be in jeopardy at the season’s halfway point, but a few players in this year’s lineup are still threatening to crack the school’s top 10 list—again, particularly if Virginia ends up playing more than 62 games.

With 61 walks during the Wahoos’ run to the third game of the CWS Finals in 2014, Papi is the lone player in program history with more than 55 in a single season. Only four other players have earned 50 in a season, most recently Joe McCarthy (with 54) during his ACC Freshman of the Year campaign in 2013.

Teel and O’Ferrall both entered this week in the top 10 in bases on balls, while Gelof and Newell were tied for 13th in the league. Extrapolate over 62 games and Teel’s on pace for 53 walks, which would sit fourth in UVa history; O’Ferrall’s 51 would match Jared King in 2012, which currently ranks fifth.

Gelof and Newell are both on a 48-walk pace, which would be good for sixth in a season.

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