Cavaliers Now

Jay Woolfolk Strikes Out 10, Virginia Baseball Beats Dartmouth 11-3

Matthew Newton|
Virginia Athletics

That's more like it.

For just the second time this season, the Cavaliers played good baseball in all facets from start to finish and came away with a convincing victory. Jay Woolfolk recorded a career-high 10 strikeouts and allowed just one earned run in six innings and the UVA bats delivered as well, with seven different Cavaliers posting an RBI to propel Virginia (5-3) to a strong 11-3 victory over Dartmouth (0-4) to open a three-game series on Friday afternoon at Disharoon Park.

Do not be misled by Dartmouth's 0-4 record. The Big Green opened their season on the road at Texas and were swept by the Longhorns, but they lost those three games by scores of 4-3, 3-2, and 4-1. So, for a winless team, Dartmouth has a pretty good body of work already of being competitive in true road games against ranked opponents.

Virginia scored as many runs in the second inning as Texas scored against Dartmouth in any single game last weekend. The Cavaliers put some significant pressure on Dartmouth in that second frame with Henry Ford hitting a leadoff single, Trey Wells joining Ford on base with a one-out single, and Jacob Ference loading the bases by getting hit by a pitch. Harrison Didawick brought home the game's first run with an RBI groundout and then Dartmouth committed an error to allow two more runs to score. Eric Becker then singled up the middle to score another run to make it 4-0.

That was all the run support needed for Jay Woolfolk, who bounced back from his brief three-inning outing last week against Oregon State with one of the best starts of his career. Woolfolk retired the first 12 batters he faced, striking out the side in the second inning and striking out a batter swinging on a full-count for his seventh punch out of the game to end the fourth inning. In the bottom half of that fourth frame, Virginia tacked on another run as Harrison Didawick crushed a solo home run off of the foul pole in right field.

Woolfolk's perfect game came to an end in the top of the fifth, as he gave up a double and a single which led to Dartmouth's first run of the game, but he managed to get out of that inning without any further damage and then added two more strikeouts in the sixth to finish his outing. In total, Woolfolk faced just 20 batters in six innings, just two more than the minimum, and gave up only one earned run on two hits and struck out a career-high 10 batters. Going back to the last year's NCAA Tournament, Woolfolk's last three starts at Disharoon Park have been legendary, with a combined 24 strikeouts across that trio of appearances. Friday was also the first time Woolfolk completed a start without issuing a single walk.

The UVA bats, which have been inconsistent at best early in this 2025 season, continued to do their job in the bottom of the fifth, as Ford hit a ground-rule double down the left field line on the first pitch he saw and then scored on a single by Aidan Teel, who later came around to score on a single by Jacob Ference. In the following inning, Ford singled to score Henry Godbout and then another run came in on a bases-loaded walk by Wells to make it 9-1.

Charlie Oschell replaced Woolfolk in the seventh and loaded the bases on a double, a hit-by-pitch, and a walk before being replaced by Blake Barker, who struck out the first batter to get it to two outs but then walked in a run before getting the Cavaliers out of the inning. Virginia again responded with two more runs in the bottom half of the seventh, as Hanson singled and then freshman Jackson Sirois hit a pinch-hit two-run home run in his first-career at-bat at Disharoon Park. It was also the first collegiate hit for Sirois.

Barker retired the side in order in the top of the eighth and Virginia finally did the same in the bottom half, failing to score a run for the first time since the third inning. Dartmouth got one run in the top of the ninth on an inside-the-park home run off of Lynchburg transfer Wes Arrington, who also gave up a single and hit a batter in the ninth but used a couple of strikeouts to end the game with no further damage done.

Nine different UVA batters recorded a hit, headlined by Henry Ford, who went 3 for 4 with two runs scored, while Harrison Didawick had two RBI and a home run. Jay Woolfolk was credited with his first win of the season and the 10th win of his career to headline a stellar showing from the UVA pitching staff, which issued only two walks and gave up just three earned runs on five hits to go along with 16 strikeouts.

Game 2 of the three-game set between Virginia and Dartmouth is set for 1pm on Saturday at Disharoon Park and the game will be streamed on ACC Network Extra.

More Virginia Baseball News

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UVA Baseball: Cavalier Bats Thwarted in 7-2 Loss to No. 7 Oregon State

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Matt Newton
MATTHEW NEWTON

Matt launched Virginia Cavaliers On SI in August of 2021 and has since served as the site's publisher and managing editor, covering all 23 NCAA Division I sports teams at the University of Virginia. He is from Downingtown, Pennsylvania and graduated from UVA in May of 2021.

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