UVA Pitchers Dominate, Virginia Baseball Shuts Out UNC-Wilmington 7-0

Virginia's offense has scored 39 runs through the first three games of the season. But on Sunday, it was the UVA pitching staff that powered the Cavaliers to their third-straight win to start the season. True freshman Jack O'Connor threw five scoreless innings and Jake Berry and Jay Woolfolk continued to shut down the Seahawks out of the bullpen as No. 19 Virginia shut out UNC-Wilmington 7-0 on Sunday to conclude the Hughes Bros. Challenge in Wilmington, North Carolina.

A highly-touted pitching prospect from Arlington, Virginia, O'Connor took a little bit of time to get settled in, surrendering a walk and a single in the first inning. But once he warmed up, O'Connor was unhittable. He struck out the side in the second inning and allowed just one baserunner through the rest of his outing. O'Connor finished with a statline seven strikeouts, three walks, one hit, and zero earned runs in five innings pitched.

The UVA bats gave O'Connor and the Virginia pitchers plenty of run support. Griff O'Ferrall started the game with a leadoff walk and then Ethan O'Donnell singled to put two runners on with no outs. Jake Gelof came up to the plate and delivered a home run for the second game in a row, smashing a three-run homer over the center field wall to put Virginia up 3-0.

Jake Gelof = Instant Offense.

His three-run jack has us up 3-0 after one inning.#GoHoos pic.twitter.com/qOHB2vgLXO
— Virginia Baseball (@UVABaseball) February 19, 2023

The Cavaliers added runs in the fourth and sixth innings on an RBI single by Justin Rubin and an RBI groundout by Harrison Didawick. UVA scored two runs in the top of the ninth as Ethan O'Donnell doubled to score O'Ferrall and then Gelof drove in his fourth run of the game with a single to score O'Donnell.

Jake Berry replaced O'Connor in the sixth inning and gave up just one hit through three innings of work and struck out three batters to get Virginia to the ninth inning. The dual-sport superstar Jay Woolfolk made his season debut in the ninth and delivered a 1-2-3 inning with two strikeouts to close out the game.

Virginia outscored its opponents 39-9 this weekend to start the season 3-0. UVA will return home to host Longwood on Tuesday at 3pm at Disharoon Park.

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