Hello I went to the 7pm O&B WS game tonight because I’m a sicko. Here are some random thoughts about what I saw, I got there in the bottom of the 1st and Orange team was up 1-0. Game only last five innings, final score was 8-3 blue team.
1st year LHP William Kirk started for Orange. Was encouraged by what I saw, he was 89-90 with good control and movement on his offspeed pitches. He was getting ahead in counts a lot but struggling to put hitters away and gave up two solo shots back to back to Arroyo and Hanson, but otherwise did well in his 4 innings of work. Also has a good pickoff move. Can see why the staff is high on him.
2nd year RHP Bryson Moore started for Blue. He’s definitely bigger than he was last season, is listed at 6’3 210 lbs. Sat 90-91 on the FB, good changeup in the mid 80’s and his signature big looping curveball in the low 70’s. Looked pretty good, scattered some runners but did give up a two run HR to Henry Ford.
Chris Arroyo impressed me, he hit a bomb to the right of the blue monster in RCF on a rope. Kinda reminds me of Derek Fisher (the baseball player who played for us, not the Laker legend).
Hanson hit a bomb halfway up the LF bleachers that was just right of the foul pole. Also looked good at SS.
1st year James Nunnallee looks like a menace. Really good approach at the plate, violent swing. Had a single up the middle in his first AB and then a really, really good battle against Dean Kampschror where he fouled off a bunch of tough pitches only to poke a base hit into RF. As good as advertised in the little I saw of him, seems like a classic leadoff hitter.
Ford is dealing with I think a slight hamstring injury so wasn’t running or playing the field. But he hit a MOONSHOT over the LF bleachers off Moore so it must not be hampering him too much.
Aiden Harris is a work in progress. Saw a healthy diet of offspeed pitches and had some trouble laying off them. Also looked a bit shaky at 3rd in between innings, though he did make a nice snag off one hop on a hard hit ball with a strong throw to 1st for the out.
Fielding was shaky, around four or five errors with I think only three counted on the scoreboard. Kinda to be expected in fall ball but Didawick had another really bad throw from CF to 3rd. Not sure what’s up with his arm.
Alex Markus RHP transfer from W&M got the first two outs of his inning of work and then got hit around a bit. Couple of errors didn’t help him but he was finding a little too much of the plate, was 91-94 on his FB with a couple of good mid 80’s sliders but gave up like three or four singles in a row.
Saw three AB’s of his, first was a walk second was a K and third was another walk. Third AB in particular he showed a good eye and took some tough pitches off the plate. Also played a good CF for blue.
Will add after his first walk he immediately stole 2nd. Could see him being a threat on the basepaths.
Hoos are ranked #6 in D1baseball’s top 100 college baseball programs ranking, which is the highest ranking for a non-SEC team.
“In our inaugural Top 100 Programs list in 2015, Virginia was fresh off a national title and back-to-back trips to Omaha, resulting in a No. 2 ranking — and it was a coin toss with Vandy for the No. 1 spot. The program dipped a bit over the next four years, culminating in back-to-back seasons that ended without a trip to regionals in 2018 and 2019. But Virginia has stormed back to national prominence emphatically with three CWS trips over the last four years, re-establishing itself as the premier program in the ACC. With seven trips to Omaha and 18 regional appearances in 20 years as head coach, Brian O’Connor is already an ABCA Hall of Famer, and he’s still just 53 years old, which means he has many years left to lead this program with his steady hand. And associate head coach Kevin McMullan has been by his side for that entire span, giving this program unmatched leadership stability. The Cavaliers continue to lure blue-chip high school talent to Charlottesville and then develop stars year after year, and they have proven adept at nailing their evaluations in the transfer portal, even though they have not done much big-game hunting. Disharoon Park is a beautiful ballpark that keeps getting better, and Virginia has created perhaps the ACC’s best game-day atmosphere during O’Connor’s tenure, giving the program something else to sell recruits along with premier academics and a sterling track record of talent development.”
It’s gonna be another fun season, team should be fantastic and the program is in great shape. Am a tad bit worried about our defense but trust that BOC and our staff will get that sorted out by February.
It took some time (too long) for the defense to come together last year. But it was solid by the postseason.
I expect it to be a little rough in the fall with the entire roster being utilized. But these are high level players, so you only want it to be but so rough.
True — but the entire Athletics dept was Nike except for baseball in his first 12 years, which was Rawlings uniforms and NewEra caps. Then to Nike for both, now whatever the hell this thing is…
EvoShield is huge in baseball. Started with protective equipment but after dominating that space they have expanded into everything baseball. (Also sponsor several elite national travel teams).
