Virginia Lands Salisbury Star Catcher Jacob Ference Out of Transfer Portal

Brian O'Connor and the Cavaliers have found a potential replacement for 2023 ACC Player of the Year and first-round MLB Draft pick Kyle Teel at the catcher position. Jacob Ference, a star catcher from Salisbury (DIII), is headed to Virginia via the transfer portal for his final season of college baseball, per a report from Salisbury Athletics earlier this week.

A 6'2", 210-pound graduate transfer from Mount Airy, Maryland, Ference has been a consistent playmaker both offensively and defensively for the last three seasons, beginning in 2021, when he helped lead the Sea Gulls to their first-ever NCAA Division III National Championship. In 101 career games, including 91 starts, Ference has a career .318 batting average with 99 hits, 87 RBI, and 20 home runs.

14 of those homers came this spring as Ference enjoyed a breakout senior season at the plate. Ference earned a First-Team All-Coast-To-Coast Athletic Conference selection after batting .364 with 45 RBI, 48 hits, 47 runs and a single-season program record 14 home runs. He also turned in a .986 fielding percentage and recorded 246 putouts, 29 assists, and committed only four errors all season.

Behind Ference's strong production both at the plate and behind it, Salisbury advanced to the NCAA Division III Baseball Championship for the third-straight season. Those three-consecutive deep postseason trips give Ference an abundance of experience as he makes the leap to one of the top Division I baseball programs in the country.

Ference fills a serious need on the Virginia roster, as the Cavaliers were left with a significant hole after Kyle Teel, the first player in program history to be named a First-Team All-American by six different publications, was selected by the Boston Red Sox with the No. 14 overall pick in the first round of the 2023 MLB Draft. With Teel gone, UVA was left with not many options at the catcher position. The only other players listed on Virginia's roster as possible catchers were Travis Reifsnider, who exhausted his eligibility in 2023, Colin Tuft, who transferred to Tulane at the end of the season, and Ethan Anderson, who was ranked the No. 13 catcher in Perfect Game's 2021 recruiting rankings coming out of high school, but who has yet to get behind the plate in his first two seasons at Virginia. It remains an option to have Anderson move to catcher next spring, but now the Cavaliers can keep Anderson at first base, where he flourished this season, assuming Ference can slide in at catcher.

Jacob Ference is the fifth (reported) player to transfer to the Virginia baseball program this offseason, joining Penn left-handed pitcher Owen Coady, Elon right-handed pitcher Joe Savino, Randolph-Macon right-handed pitcher Hayden Snelsire, and Indiana center fielder Bobby Whalen.

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