Coach Brian O’Connor believes that for players, a big part of playing summer ball is the freedom to go away and figure out a few things on their own. The Virginia staff tracks stats and will occasionally will check in with players, but that’s about the extent of the interaction.
Two months after leaving town for the summer, those players are now back in Charlottesville. On Tuesday, they’ll take the field for the first workout of the new school year. Even if O’Connor wasn’t checking box scores every morning, he’s still excited about what how his guys played while they were gone.
“I felt like, especially from our position players, we had some guys that had really exceptional summers, with some returning guys and then some incoming freshmen,” said the head coach, who is heading into his 19th season at UVa. “Summer ball is a really, really vital part of their development and I feel like there’s some guys that really did some good things.”
Rising junior outfielder Chris Newell was an all-star at the Cape. Second-year infielder Jake Gelof hit .370 with a 1.042 OPS in 32 games at the Northwoods League. At the Futures League in New England, incoming freshman catcher Ethan Anderson slashed .427/.522/.667 and also led the league in homers and RBI. First-year infielder Griff O’Ferrall led the Perfect Game League in New York with a .404 batting average and in runs scored.
Those two first-years were among five freshmen position players to play in collegiate leagues this summer. From O’Connor’s perspective, putting up those big numbers is just a bonus. The real point is getting a first taste of the game at “a different level.”
“It’s with a wood bat, the pitching’s at a different level, it’s a day-to-day grind,” he explained. “So I feel like that process really springboards them into college from a baseball standpoint.”
Between those incoming freshmen and five transfer pitchers, UVa will have 18 new players in the program this fall—though they’ll be without first-year right-hander Jay Woolfolk this fall. The Hoos added three graduate transfers, lefty Brian Gursky from USC and right-handers Will Geerdes from Columbia and Dylan Bowers from Northern Colorado. The other transfer pitchers, right-handers Joe Miceli and Mason Dillow, last played at junior colleges.
That group will try to help restock a staff that saw all three pitchers who started UVa’s three College World Series games in June—Andrew Abbott, Griff McGarry, and Mike Vasil—get drafted, and also lost veteran relievers Stephen Schoch, Blake Bales, Kyle Whitten, and Zach Messinger.
“We lost 80 percent of our innings off the mound,” O’Connor pointed out. “We lost a lot, so it’s more guys to get in and compete and fill out the staff.”
The Wahoos will have a few familiar veteran faces back for one more college season. Infielder Devin Ortiz, outfielder Alex Tappen, and right-handed reliever Paul Kosanovich are all capitalizing on the extra season of eligibility granted because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Kosanovich missed this past season’s run to Omaha because of an injury that cost him the last two-and-a-half months of the season, but Ortiz was in the lineup for all 11 postseason games—including his memorable five-inning start on the mound against Old Dominion—and Tappen started 10.
“Those guys do it the right way,” O’Connor said. “We have a lot of new players, we have 18 new players in the program, and you want those guys as the core leading the program and leading the team.”
A pair of third-year pitchers, lefty Nate Savino and righty Matt Wyatt, are the most likely candidates to fill spots in the starting rotation. Both spent time with the US Collegiate National Team this summer, as did second-year slugger Kyle Teel, whose grand slam against Dallas Baptist sent the Hoos back to the College World Series.
After leading UVa in all three slash lines (.335/.416/.526) and tying for the team lead with nine homers, Teel was named a first-team Freshman All-American by D1Baseball.com. But he made that team as an outfielder after spending the last month of the season as the team’s primary right fielder.
Recruited as a catcher, Teel will be back behind the plate moving forward O’Connor said.
“That’s what he came here for, and he’s really, really good and very, very skilled back there,” he explained. “Wherever the bat is it’s valuable, but certainly that’s a premium position and that’s what makes him an elite-level player is, here he is that he plays a premium-level position as a high quality level hitter.”
With Ortiz and Tappen returning for their fifth seasons—plus Teel, Gelof, Newell, and junior second baseman Max Cotier—UVa has two-thirds of the starting lineup from Omaha back this year. With Teel moving back to catcher, the Hoos will need to fill gaps in one corner outfield spot and on the left side of the infield. Last June’s CWS run marked the first postseason experience for all of them. In 2022, they’ll comprise a veteran core that now understands not just what it’s like to play on that stage, but what it takes to get there.
“The journey,” O’Connor said. “The NCAA Tournament, the super regional. Those things are phenomenal, great experiences. Once you’ve had that taste and you understand what that experience, our guys are always motivated but certainly once you’ve had that experience you understand okay, this is what it’s all about and what a phenomenal experience.”
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