Hoos off to historic start to season at the plate
Brian O’Connor took the printed-out copy of the box score he’d just been handed, folded it in half vertically and glanced at the home team’s statistics. Within moments, Virginia’s head baseball coach turned to sports information director Scott Fitzgerald and asked, “That had to be a record, right?”
Indeed it was.
O’Connor’s ball club had just finished off a 19-1 win that completed a three-game weekend sweep of Cornell and kept the Wahoos unbeaten through the season’s first two weekends. UVa posted 60 runs against the Big Red, the most in a three-game series in program history and the most in any three-game span at Virginia since 1891.
“There’s something to be said for taking advantage of opportunities and taking care of business,” O’Connor said afterward, "and we certainly did the whole weekend.”
UVa is now 7-0 for the sixth time in O’Connor’s 19 seasons as head coach. This year’s team has scored 90 runs, easily eclipsing the 78 scored by the 2008 team—O’Connor’s first to start with seven straight wins—for most through seven games in O’Connor’s tenure. The Hoos are averaging 12.9 runs per game; take away the 1-0 win over Bellarmine on opening day, and they’re averaging 14.8.
Not to be outdone, the pitching staff has given up just 15 runs through the season's first two weekends. That matches the fourth-lowest run total for UVa opponents through seven games in O'Connor's tenure. The current team's plus-75 run differential is the best after seven games in the past 19 seasons.)
Contrast that offensive onslaught to last year’s 4-3 start, when the Wahoos scored 35 runs through seven games, the fewest over the past 19 seasons. Because of COVID-19 precautions, last year’s schedule featured 12 weekends of ACC baseball. So after a 3-1 start against UConn and VMI at home, UVa spent the second weekend in Chapel Hill—and scored just six runs total while dropping two of three to North Carolina. The Hoos had just three home runs as a team after seven games last year.
They’ve hit at least three long balls in three of the first four games of their current nine-game homestand, including four in Sunday’s win. Jake Gelof’s two-run shot off the roof of the Clubhouse in left-center field gave him four on the homestand and five in seven games this season. UVa didn’t have a player hit the five-home run threshold until its 32nd game last season.
It was a noteworthy weekend for Gelof. He went deep twice on his birthday on Friday, becoming the first UVa player to homer twice in a game since his brother Zack two years ago against NC State. He finished that game with eight RBI, the most for a Cavalier since Kenny Towns hit a pair of grand slams at East Carolina on opening day 2013. On Sunday, he followed that home run with a two-run double in the second inning, a leadoff triple in the fourth and a single in the fifth to become the first UVa player to hit for the cycle since Hunter Wyant at High Point on March 12, 2001.
Gelof is slashing .611/.655/1.722 though seven games. Nine of his 11 hits have gone for extra bases, including five home runs. He’s driven in 19 runs. He finished the weekend 7-for-8 with three homers, two doubles and a triple, with seven runs scored and 13 RBI in the three games against Cornell—all after O’Connor bumped the sophomore third baseman from seventh in the lineup to the cleanup spot on Friday.
“I love making him look smart, for sure,” Gelof said with a big smile after Sunday’s game.
As a team, the Hoos are slashing .349/.475/.591. Nine players have started at least four games; five are hitting better than .300, and all but one has at least five RBI. Hitting in the two-hole this season, sophomore catcher Kyle Teel crushed his first homer of the year, a grand slam off the top of the overhang beyond the UVa bullpen in right field at Disharoon Park. Teel is hitting .286 on the season, but with nine walks on the year—he matched the school record with five in Friday’s win—his on-base percentage is third on the team at .531.
“Right now we’re just having fun, and I think that’s a big part. Winning’s a lot of fun,” Teel said on Sunday. “Working hard every day, bringing the energy and having fun are the most important things that we’re doing right now.”
With center-fielder Chris Newell a late scratch on Saturday and out again on Sunday, the lineup for the weekend’s last two games included four first-years: Griff O’Ferrall, Casey Saucke, Colin Tuft and Ethan Anderson. O’Ferrall scored four times on Friday and three times on Sunday. Anderson had three hits and drove in three runs on Saturday. Tuft had a pair of hits and scored twice on Sunday.
Saucke had three hits including a solo homer on Sunday, extending his hit streak to all six games he’s started. He went 7-for-12 with seven runs scored and four RBI against the Big Red, raising his season slash line to .545/.655/1.000.
The one-sided results of the past four games have also allowed O’Connor to get other inexperienced players on his roster some game reps. Including two-way lefty/infielder Matthew Buchanan and first-year pitcher Jay Woolfolk, who finished Sunday’s game in right field, 18 position players have appeared in games for UVa.
“That’s what you can do to help build depth,” O’Connor said. “You just don’t know what’s gonna happen the next day. You could have a player or two that’s not available for you. And now at least you got some guys that have some at-bats under their belt.”
UVa still has five more games at home before traveling to Duke to open ACC play in two seasons. The five teams UVa has faced to open the season are currently a combined 9-24; the three teams remaining on the homestand—William & Mary, Penn State and George Washington—are a combined 6-11.
The current seven-game winning streak is the Cavaliers' longest since winning seven straight during the COVID-shortened 2020 season. The last time UVa had a longer winning streak was in 2017, when the Wahoos opened the season 10-0 and later ripped off eight straight in April.
Four previous UVa teams under O’Connor—in 2008, 2009, 2013 and 2015—carried unbeaten records into conference play. In 2017, the Hoos won their first 10 games and lost just once before opening ACC play. This year’s team has a chance to continue strengthening its foundation before hitting the road for Durham.
“That said, there’s tough ones coming, that’s for sure,” O’Connor said. “There’s close ballgames coming and there’s areas that we can continue to improve on.”