Full report from Virginia baseball’s first fall action: Notes From Chris Pollard, Standouts and More

The Cavaliers played two friendly games with Gardner-Webb

The Cavaliers' 2027 season began with their first preseason contest. | Photo by Xander Tilock

Saturday, Virginia baseball played its first fall ball action of the 2027 season. The Cavaliers hosted Gardner-Webb in a non-televised, public preseason game.

Because this is a fall game, there are relaxed rules. Included in the relaxed rules is the fact that there were two six-inning games — played without intermission — along with flexible lineups. Here is everything from Saturday, complete with postgame quotes and statistics.

Notes from Chris Pollard

Virginia's head coach got to get just about every position player involved over the course of two games. For many players, this was their first time competing against another program while wearing a Cavaliers jersey.

"The most important thing is I want to put our new guys out there in high-leverage situations and see how they respond," Pollard said postgame. "And you saw some good and bad. You mentioned Pierce Quinn. We talked about Bryant James. You know, some other guys we didn't get that type of response, and so now it's like helping those guys this week. The great thing about doing this four times now is that we've got another one of these next weekend. So it's like, all right, let's see how much of this we can clean up over the course of this week going into next weekend."

"I thought [there were] a ton of good takeaways," Pollard said. "I told our guys three things there at the end. One, we got a ton of valuable reps. Two, we put a lot of things on film that we can go back and look at this week and work on. And three, it's obvious we got a lot of getting better to do, so that should only heighten our level of focus and attention to detail for the way we go about our business next week. So all of that's insanely valuable."

Standout players

Pollard listed a few players as standouts.

First-year INF Bryant James: "I thought a ton of positives. I'll start with Bryant James. I thought he was electric defensively. Had a really nice at bat there at the end, and man, what a you know what a twitchy, athletic, rangy dude. He's gonna be really special."

Third-year OF Zach Jackson and third-year INF Reid Howard: "[Those two], the top of the lineup was pretty good. I think they reached seven of eight times. That's exactly what you're kind of looking for. The top of the lineup of those two guys looking to be those two spark plugs because they started that [surge]."

Third-year OF Sal Mineo and fifth-year INF Michael Elko: "I think those those two [stand out and Sal Mineo]  when he's healthy. [Michael] Elko was down and Elko was DH... Wanted to limit the amount that he had run. We did not want him to stretch that into a double. He did, but but I think those three guys along with Elko, some combination of that at the top [of the lineup] should be able to really grind, and you've got you know four guys that can steal a base, and so I like that grouping."

First-year RHP Pierce Quinn: "I thought he had really good bound presence. I thought he worked fast. There was ride to the fastball. It's cutter and bigger shape breaking ball. Got some swing and misses on all three pitches. Again, I thought from a pitching standpoint, unlike you on that, I thought he was a high level player.

More injury updates

Pollard said Sam Harris is out for another week or two. If this was a February game, Pollard said Harris would have played. Instead, Virginia's veteran slugger spent the second game serving as the team's first base coach.

Starting lineup, game one 

• DH Zach Jackson
• SS Reid Howard
• CF Sal Mineo
• C Jake Weatherspoon
• 1B Antonio Perrotta
• 3B RJ Holmes
• DH Michael Elko
• RF Jordan Crosland
• 2B Will Yow
• LF Bryce Neely

• SP Christian Lucarelli

Pitching statistics

• Lucarelli: 1 IP, 0H, 1BB, 1K, 0ER
• Stammel: 2 IP, 1H, 2BB, 3K, 2ER
• Stewart:  1 IP, 1H, 2BB, 1K, 1ER
• Sarré:     2 IP, 4H, 2BB, 3K, 5ER

Game two:

• Prior:  2 IP, 1H, 3BB, 3ER
• Quinn:    2 IP, 2H, 0BB, 0ER
• Guillot:   2IP, 5H, 1BB, 2K, 3ER

Gameplay

Another note — there were no published statistics, official game book or livestream. A large portion of this play-by-play is my interpretation, with a few minor gaps while working on football content.

Top of the first inning:

• Flyout
• Walk
• Lucarelli pickoff
• Lucarelli strikeout

Bottom of first:

• Jackson single
• Howard HBP
• Mineo FC, safe at first
• Weatherspoon HBP
• Perrotta sac fly, Virginia leads 1-0
• Weatherspoon picked off at first

T2:

• Max Stammel on to pitch
• Walk
• Home run, Virginia trails 1-2
• Flyout to RF
• Groundout, C to 1B 
• Strikeout

B2:

• Holmes strikeout
• Elko strikeout
• Crosland groundout, SS to 1B

T3:

• Flyout to RF
• Strikeout
• Walk
• Strikeout

B3:

• Yow strikeout
• Neely walk
• Wild pitch (Or perhaps catcher error, unclear?) Neely advances to second
• Jackson walk
• Howard walk
• Wild pitch, Neely scores. Two runners also advance. Game is tied 2-2.
• Mineo lineout to SS (Pollard said it was hit at 105mph)
• Weatherspoon lineout to 2B

T4

• Thomas Stewart on to pitch
• Single
• Strikeout 
• Howard error?
• Stewart wild pitch, runners advance to second and third
• Walk, bases loaded with one out
• Pitching coach Brady Kirkpatrick and Weatherspoon mound visit to Stewart
• Sacrifice fly to RF. Virginia trails 3-2
• Both runners steal. Runners on second and third
• Walk
• Perrotta and Weatherspoon visit Stewart on the mound
• Bunt to Stewart, who fields and fires to Perrotta for the third out 

B4

• Perrotta grounder to 2B, throwing error by 2B. Perrotta safe at first
• Holmes HBP
• Elko flyout to shallow LF
• Crosland walk, bases loaded
• Yow strikeout
• Neely strikeout

T5

• Serigne Sarré on to pitch
• Single
• Runner steals second
• Runner steals third (from my perspective he was out, I don’t think there is replay today)
• Walk
• Runner steals second 
• Strikeout
• Single, one run scores, other runner advances to third — Virginia trails 4-2
• Runner steals second, throwing error, lead runner scores, throwing error, runner advances to third. Virginia trails 5-2
• Strikeout
• Crosland dives for the very difficult catch in RF, can’t get it. RBI double. Virginia trails 6-2
• Flyout to deep RF

B5

• Jackson triple? Unclear — LF got a glove on it but it was an extremely difficult catch. He tips it into foul territory and he crashes into the wall. LF now exiting the game with a trainer, and the crowd applauds as he walks off the field under his own power
• Howard RBI triple to RF, Virginia trails 6-3
• Mineo RBI single to RF, Virginia trails 6-4
• Thomas O’Connell to hit for Weatherspoon
• Mineo steals second
• O’Connell single to RF, throw offline — O’Connell advances to second
• Perrotta sacrifice groundout to 1B. Mineo scores, Virginia trails 6-5. O’Connell advances to third
• Holmes RBI single, game tied 6-6
• Holmes steals second
• Elko RBI double. Virginia leads 7-6. Cannon Murtagh to pinch run
• Crosland groundout to SS
• Yow groundout to SS

T6

• Single
• Runner steals second
• Walk, runner steals third
• RBI bunt single, Sarré overthrows 1B but Howard makes a diving catch backing up Perrotta, which holds the lead runner at second
• Flyout to deep RF, lead runner tags up to third
• Runner steals second
• Two-RBI double off the RF wall, Virginia trails 9-7
• [Missed the second out, apologies]
• Full infield mound visit
• Strikeout

B6

• Neely walk
• Jackson flyout to LF
• Howard HBP, Bryant James in to pinch run.
• Mineo HBP
• O’Connell flyout to RF, James out trying to tag to third (before Neely touches home). Double play, no runs score

Game over. Virginia and Gardner-Webb are playing two six-inning games. The Bulldogs take the first one 9-7.

Game two play-by-play

T1

Cannon Murtagh in at LF, Barrett Bucholz in at CF, Will Mahala in at RF, Noah Murray in at 3B, Lee Sowers in at 2B, Bryant James in at SS, Bradley McCafferty in at C, Colton Guillot in at DH and Ryan Prior in to pitch.

• Walk
• Walk
• Mound visit, Kirkpatrick and O’Connell out to talk with Prior
• RBI double
• RBI groundout to 2B, lead runner advances to third
• RBI groundout to SS
• Ground ball to 2B, runner safe at first
• Runner steals second
• Walk
• Prior picks off the runner at second
• Gardner-Webb leads 3-0

B1

• Perrotta strikeout
• Murray walk
• Guillot flies out to CF
• Mahala cranks a two-run home run to LF, Virginia trails 3-2
• Sowers strikes out

T2

• Groundout to SS
• Single 
• Flyout to RF
• Pickoff to 1B, runner is out

B2

• Murtagh strikes out
• McCafferty strikes out
• James strikes out

T3

• Pierce Quinn in to pitch.
• [Out]
• Groundout to SS
• Groundout to SS

B3

• Bucholz flyout to LF
• O’Connell double? Missed this
• Perrotta groundout to 1B, O’Connell advances to third
• Murray walk
• Will Broderick on to hit, groundout to 2B

T4

• Groundout to SS
• [Out]
• Single
• Wild pitch, runner advances to second
• Single, runner out at third 

B4

• Mahala strikes out
• James walks
• Murtaugh singles
• James steals third, advances to home off of throwing error. The game is tied 3-3. Murtaugh advances to third
• McCafferty strikes out
• James grounds to SS, fielding error. Murtagh scores and Virginia leads 4-3
• Bucholz singles, James scores. Virginia leads 5-3.
• Bucholz steals second
• O’Connell flies out to CF

T5

• Guillot takes over on the mound
• Single to RF
• Kirkpatrick out to talk with Guillot
• Strikeout
• Double to RF
• Two-RBI triple to RF. Game is tied 5-5
• Full infield talks with Guillot
• RBI single to shallow CF, Gardner-Webb leads 6-5
• Grounder to 3B, runner safe at first
• Wild pitch, runners advance
• Groundout, runners advance
• Strikeout

B5

• Perrotta flyout to deep LF

• Murray strikeout
• Broderick flyout to LF

T6

• Single — by Brady Pollard
• Guillot hits a batter 
• Flyout to shallow LF
• Groundout to 3B, both runners advance
• Walk
• Groundout to SS

B6

• Mahala groundout to 2B
• Sowers walk
• Wild pitch, Sowers advances to second
• Murtaugh walks
• Wild pitch, both runners advance
• McCafferty grounds out to SS, Sowers scores. The game is tied 6-6
• Murtaugh steals third 
• James flies out to deep RF.

Game two ends in a 6-6 tie.

What's next?

Virginia's next preseason game is Sept. 27 at Georgetown, to be played in Tysons, Va. at Capital One Park. First pitch is scheduled for 1 p.m.