Intel Report 3/25/24: New Offseason Reading UVA Spring Sports Roundup 3/27 Next UVA Spring Sports Roundup 4/01

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UVA Spring Sports Roundup 3/27

UVA Spring Sports Roundup 3/27

By Josh Burton


The first official week of spring brought a lot of success for UVA’s spring sports. Let’s take a look at how they’ve fared and what lies ahead.

Baseball

The 9th ranked Hoos have continued to build on the momentum since beating Wake Forest, winning all five games since our last writing.  They beat defeating Georgetown, swept the weekend series at Pitt, and came back to take down Richmond at the Dish last night.

 

 

There have been major storylines so far on both sides of the field for the Cavaliers. They have been one of the nation's top offensive teams, ranking 1st in hits and doubles, 2nd in batting average and 4th in on base percentage while also being in the top 25 for home runs nationally.

On the other side of the field is where some of the potential issues have shown for the young Wahoo squad. The Hoos currently rank outside the top 100 in ERA while just barely making the top 100 in fielding percentage. In 14 of their wins this season, they’ve had to come from behind. While the offense is showing to be one of the premier units in all of college baseball, they simply can’t expect to continue this pace all year. 

The good news is this is a fairly young group of arms who are still working to find their fit within the system. Sophomore Kevin Jaxel has been coming on strong of late, making his first career start on Sunday in the win over Pitt. While he was aided by some short innings to keep his pitch count down, he was able to go five innings, giving up only one run. His emergence as a top pitcher out of the pen while also being capable of starting in a pinch could pay major dividends for this team.

It was announced last night that Jack O’Connor is out for the remainder of the season. Jack was last seen in the Sunday game against Wake Forest, where he had to leave mid-batter. This is another tough blow for the pitching staff. They will certainly need more guys to step up without one of the better arms on the staff.

Up next the Wahoos have one of their toughest tests of the season, a weekend series at #11 Duke. Fans may remember the Hoos ousting Duke in the Super Regionals last year to advance to the College World Series. This will be a Thursday-Saturday series with the opening game's first pitch set for 6 pm.

Men’s Lacrosse

This year it feels like every week has been another opportunity for someone on the #2 ranked Men’s Lacrosse team to write their name in the history books. This week was no different as they picked up wins over Albany and Drexel, with Connor Shellenberger becoming UVA’s all-time points leader in the victory over Albany.

 

 

This week the Hoos will only have one contest as they travel to #16 Harvard on Saturday (3/30). This game is scheduled to get under way at noon.

Roundup

UVA Softball had a big week as they picked up a win over Rutgers followed by a major 2-1 series victory over #11 Clemson at Palmer Park for their first series win over the Tigers in program history. Senior pitcher Madi Harris had a huge weekend on the mound, going 2-0 over 9.1 innings including pitching 5 shutout innings in relief in Sunday’s series-deciding finale. They kept the momentum rolling with a win at Liberty last night. Softball will be back in action tonight at JMU (weather permitting) before heading to Villanova for a quick two-game series this weekend. 

#8 Women’s Lacrosse had a mixed bag of results this week as they took down #6 JMU before falling to #7 Syracuse in a tight 15-14 contest. They’ll be back in action at Duke this Saturday for a 1 pm start. 

It was another great stretch for #4 Men’s Tennis both individually and as a team. Heading into the week, Inaki Montes was named ACC Player of the Week while also picking up ACC Doubles Team of the Week with his doubles partner James Hopper. The team went on to pick up road victories over #14 Florida State and Miami in identical 4-1 sets. They won’t be in action again until next Wednesday (4/3) when they travel to Virginia Tech for a 3 pm start time.

#6 Women’s Tennis had a good week, winning the first two contests of a four-match homestand, defeating Syracuse and Boston College last weekend. They’ll host #10 NC State this Thursday (3/28, 4 pm) before hosting Wake Forest on Saturday (3/30, 1 pm).

Lastly, I have to give a shout out to the Women’s Swimming and Diving team as they won their fourth consecutive national championship over the weekend. Head Coach Todd DeSorbo was named CSCAA Coach of the Year while Gretchen Walsh was named Swimmer of the Year.

 

 

(Featured Image Credit: Josie Drumheller/UVA Athletics) 

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