Cavaliers Now

Virginia Baseball Drops Opener to Michigan 5-4 in 11 Innings

Matthew Newton|
Virginia Athletic

Last season, Virginia won its first nine games of the season and 12 of its first 13. The 2025 Cavaliers, who entered the year ranked No. 2 in the country in the preseason D1Baseball poll, suffered a defeat in their first game of the season.

Despite getting a phenomenal performance from Puerto Rico native Chris Arroyo in his Cavalier debut, No. 2 Virginia couldn't find a run late and ultimately suffered a walk-off 5-4 loss to Michigan in 11 innings in the opening game of the Puerto Rico Challenge at Estadio Francisco Montaner in Ponce, Puerto Rico.

Jay Woolfolk's first outing of 2025 did not get off to the best start, as Michigan put two runners on with a single and a walk and then Mitch Voit delivered an RBI double and another run came home on a groundout to give the Wolverines a 2-0 lead after the first inning.

Virginia had runners in scoring position in each of the first five innings, but didn't capitalize until the top of the fourth. Jacob Ference was hit by a pitch and Harrison Didawick drew a walk to begin the inning, but then Luke Hanson hit into a double play that erased the first two baserunners. Aidan Teel followed that up with a single through the right side to advance Hanson to third base. Teel stole second and Michigan threw down to try to get him, but that allowed Hanson to steal home on the delay for Virginia's first run of 2025.

After giving up two early runs, Jay Woolfolk settled in and struck out three batters in the bottom of the fourth. Eric Becker hit his second double of the game to lead off the top of the fifth and eventually came around to score on a two-out single back up the middle by Chris Arroyo to tie the game at 2-2.

Woolfolk ran into trouble with runners on first and third in the bottom of the fifth, so UVA brought in lefty Matt Lanzendorfer, a graduate transfer from Misericordia, who struck out the first batter he faced to end the inning. In the bottom of the sixth, Virginia inserted junior righty Joe Colucci, who gave up a two-run home run to Matt Spear to put the Wolverines back in front 4-2.

Virginia wasted no time in finding a response as Becker singled to start the top of the seventh and then Chris Arroyo continued his big day in front of his family by blasting a two-run home run to right field to tie the game at 4-4.

Didawick hit a leadoff single to start the top of the eighth, but UVA did nothing with it as Didawick was thrown out attempting to steal second base. Michigan had a similar turn at the plate in the bottom of the ninth as a leadoff baserunner was caught stealing at second. The runner, Greg Pace Jr., initially beat the throw from Jacob Ference, but as he popped up from his slide, his foot left the bag and Henry Godbout did an excellent job of keeping the tag applied. After a video review, Pace was ruled out.

The game went to extra innings and Arroyo drew a one-out walk. What followed was a consequential move that indirectly, but significantly impacted the outcome of the game. Virginia opted to have speedy freshman Jackson Sirois pinch run for Arroyo. The next two UVA batters were retired and Siriois was left stranded on first, so the move wound up having no immediate benefit for Virginia.

Ryan Osinski pitched the eighth, ninth, and tenth innings for the Cavaliers and allowed only one baserunner over that stretch and no hits. He remained on the mound to start the bottom of the 11th and issued a leadoff walk to Voit. Then came part 2 of the effects of that Arroyo move for Virginia, as Brian O'Connor had previously subbed in sophomore Antonio Perrotta to replace Sirois at first base in the field. With one out and a runner on first, Spear hit a sharp grounder to first base that could have been an inning-ending double play if fielded properly. Instead, Perrotta allowed the grounder to get past him and it deflected into the spacious foul territory down the right field line. By the time the ball made it back to home plate, the Michigan dugout had already emptied onto the field as Voit easily rounded the bases and scored on the error for the walk-off 5-4 win for the Wolverines.

The loss, maybe undeservedly, goes to Ryan Osinski, who allowed zero hits and one unearned run while striking out five batters in 3.1 innings of work. The UVA pitching staff largely did its job. The bigger problem was the Virginia offense, which went 3 for 15 with runners in scoring position and 4 for 22 with any runners on base. Eric Becker went 3 for 5 with two doubles and two runs scored out of the leadoff spot and Chris Arroyo went 2 for 4 with three RBI, but the rest of the Virginia lineup struggled to execute at the plate in the first game of the season.

The Cavaliers will play their second game of the Puerto Rico Challenge against Villanova on Saturday at 7pm ET and the game will be streamed on ESPN+.

More Virginia Baseball News

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Virginia Baseball Roster Preview: Projected Lineup, Pitching Rotation

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Virginia Baseball Named 6th-Best Program in College Baseball by D1Baseball

Published
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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