Cavalier Offense Remains Hot as UVA Takes Series from Georgia Tech

Winning a series is all that matters in the ACC for baseball and after four series to begin the year, the Cavaliers are 4-0 in that department with a 9-3 record. Over the weekend, after dropping the first game in a tight, 2 run ball game, the UVA offense bounced back in a big way to assure the series victory was easily clinched.

Friday: Georgia Tech 6 - Virginia 4

The normally potent Cavalier offense was held in check to just four runs thanks to timely outs. An analysis of the boxscore would likely give the conclusion that the score should be flipped as UVA totaled 11 hits to the Jackets’ 7 and Georgia Tech had three errors on the evening. The biggest difference was the home run column in which Georgia Tech had a tally thanks to a two run home run in the fourth that gave them all the runs they needed.

Nate Savino struggled on the mound allowing all six GT runs in just 4 innings thanks to seven hits and three walks. The bright spot was Dylan Bower and Jay Woolfolk coming on in relief and shutting out Georgia Tech over the remaining five innings.

Saturday: Virginia 13 - Georgia Tech 9

The quiet bats on Friday would come alive on Saturday to even up the series at one. Griff O’Rerrall, Devin Ortiz, and Alex Tappen would all notch three hits a piece, all but one of the starters for UVA tallied a hit, and every single batter in the UVA lineup would score during the game at least once.

Brian Gursky got the start for UVA and would last four innings allowing three runs on five hits and three walks. After working a clean shutout inning in the 5th, the bullpen relief core of Paul Kasanovich, Matt Wyatt, and Brandon Neeck would allow GT to score two runs in each of the 6th, 7th, and 8th innings, but UVA had already put the game away in the 6th thanks to a 7 run inning from the offense.

Sunday: Virginia 18 - Georgia Tech 9

The bats remained hot on Sunday and put up another large number in the run column. A three run inning in the 2nd, a 10 run inning in the 4th, and another 3 run inning in the 5th would be more than enough for UVA to win the series. All 10 Cavaliers that had a plate appearance would score a run while Griff O’Ferrall, Devin Ortiz, Jake Gelof, Casey Saucke, and Max Cotier would all have at least two RBI on the game.

Gelof hit his 14th Home Run on the season, which is tied for 6th best in a season and just 8 behind Brian Buchanan’s 1994 record of 22 home runs in a season in the UVA record book. The home run also gave UVA their 39th home run at Disharoon Park which sets the single season record for home runs hit at home by a UVA team. The 2017 team hit 38 home runs at home over 34 games and this 2022 squad just hit their 39th in their 19th home game. As a team, they’ve hit 47 home runs on the season, just 20 shy of the program record of 67 hit by the 1988 team.

Takeaways

It appears the Hoos might have one of the top offenses in baseball. Through 12 games of ACC competition they’re averaging 9.75 runs a game. Georgia Tech is supposed to have one of the better pitching staffs in the conference and UVA averaged more than 11 runs a game over the series. Scoring double digit runs against any team in the country will put UVA at a distinct advantage most opposing offenses won’t be able to overcome.