Barber: Jay Woolfolk rewards Virginia's faith, pitches it to Super Regionals (2024)

CHARLOTTESVILLE – After striking out Mississippi State’s Dakota Jordan on three pitches to end the third inning Sunday night, Virginia starting pitcher Jay Woolfolk pumped his fist and then waved his arms, exhorting the roaring crowd to get on its feet.

A month ago, Woolfolk wondered aloud how big a role he might have for UVa baseball during the postseason. The former Cavaliers’ football quarterback had struggled in his first season focusing solely on one sport.

But Sunday night, with a chance to advance to the NCAA Super Regionals on the line, Woolfolk got the ball against the Bulldogs.

“I believe at this level, if you recruit the right kind of players that are talented and fit into your organization, you stick with them,” O’Connor said this week. “Because if you stick with them, when you really need them, they come through.”

Woolfolk, the Chesterfield native and former Benedictine star, had struggled in his first season since walking away from football.

But Sunday night, he turned in his longest outing of the season, going eight innings and holding the Bulldogs to two runs on eight hits in a 9-2 Virginia win. For his efforts, he was named Most Outstanding Player of the Charlottesville Regional.

“I know this season might not have been the best I wanted it to," Woolfolk said, "but when you have teammates like these guys and coaches like Coach Oak who believe in you and keep throwing you out in those type of situations, you never lose confidence in yourself no matter what goes on on the mound.”

The Cavaliers, thanks to top-seed Arkansas’s stunning elimination in its regional, will now host Kansas State in a Super Regional this coming weekend.

Woolfolk struck out seven, walked one and picked off State’s David Mershon in the sixth inning for the second out of the frame.

“You give young men an opportunity like Jay Woolfolk had tonight, and you see what they’re made of,” O’Connor said. “When his team counted on him and he needed to step up, he pitched the best game that he’s pitched in our uniform in three years.”

After the third out of the seventh, a groundball to shortstop, Woolfolk bounced off the field, again throwing his arms up in the air and whipping the fans behind the UVa dugout into a frenzy.

He pitched a scoreless eighth, then exited to a standing ovation after allowing a leadoff single in the ninth.

VCU transfer Chase Hungate picked up the final three outs.

After impressive freshman and sophom*ore years, when he also played football at UVa, including starting a game at Notre Dame, Woolfolk pitched less and got hit more and harder this season. Entering Sunday, he was 2-1 with a 6.85 ERA this season, this after starting his college career with a 5-1 record with nine saves and an ERA under 3.00, pitching in a College World Series and for Team USA.

In early May, he told the Charlottesville Daily Progress, “This team can go to Omaha without me, but I can be a big piece if I’m doing what I need to do.”

Sunday, he did just that, rewarding O’Connor’s faith in him.

For the third straight game, a UVa pitching staff pegged as the club’s weakness delivered. Friday, Joe Savino and Hungate pitched the Cavaliers to a 4-2 win over Penn in the regional opener.

Saturday, Evan Blanco and freshman Matt Augustin stymied Mississippi State in a winner’s bracket game that UVa won 5-4.

Then Sunday, Woolfolk pushed all the season’s struggles down and held down the Bulldogs in the most dominant outing of his career.

Virginia’s lineup is built off homegrown talent like Woolfolk. Sunday’s starting nine included three juniors, three sophom*ores and a freshman, all of whom have played their entire college careers at UVa and five of whom are native to the Commonwealth.

But O’Connor isn’t afraid to supplement, and the final two spots in the batting order were occupied by center field Bobby Whalen and catcher Jacob Ference, graduate transfers from Indiana and Salisbury.

Saturday night, Whalen drove in the game-winning run in the bottom of the ninth. Sunday, Ference singled in Whalen in the third to put Virginia ahead 3-2.

Runs proved hard to come by in this series, even for a Cavaliers lineup that set a school record for home runs this season and averaged just under 10 runs per game going into this regional.

Finally, in the ninth, UVa erupted for six runs to put the game away.

O’Connor didn’t overreact, didn’t tinker with his lineup much. He trusted the hitters who had carried the team to another 40-win regular season.

And Sunday night, he trusted Woolfolk. And Woolfolk delivered.