Cavaliers Now

Arroyo's Grand Slam, Didawick's Robbery Lift UVA Baseball Past VMI 6-4

Matt Newton

Virginia Athletic

Chris Arroyo hit a grand slam in his second-ever at-bat at Disharoon Park and Harrison Didawick robbed what would have been a game-tying home run in the eighth inning as Virginia (4-3) held off VMI (7-1) for a 6-4 victory in the home opener on Tuesday night at Disharoon Park. The largest crowd for a home opener in UVA baseball history, with 3,934 fans in attendance, were treated to an entertaining game from start to finish.

After missing the first two weeks of the season, Virginia's ace pitcher Evan Blanco made his 2025 debut and it did not go as well as Blanco or the Cavaliers had hoped. Brian O'Connor said Blanco would be on a pitch count, but that limit wound up being just 25 pitches, or one inning's worth. Blanco gave up three hits in the top of the first, the second of which scored a run to give the visiting Keydets the 1-0 lead. Virginia had a chance to respond in the bottom of the first with bases loaded and no outs, but failed to score even a single run from that golden opportunity.

VMI made it 2-0 in the top of the second as a run scored on an error by Henry Ford, but the Cavaliers were able to find an answer in the bottom half of the inning. Luke Hanson, singled, James Nunnallee walked, and Henry Godbout walked to load the bases with two outs. Up came Chris Arroyo, who turned on an 0-1 pitch and blasted it into the bullpen in right field for a grand slam.

Prior to that inning, Arroyo had been out in the bullpen warming up to go into the game, but Wes Arrington ended up working the second inning instead, leading to Arroyo running back to the dugout from right field to prepare to hit. A few minutes later, he deposited his home run right back into that same bullpen where he had been warming up.

Arroyo then pitched the top of the third and struggled, issuing two walks and hitting another batter to load the bases with no outs. He struck out the next batter and then gave up an RBI groundout. After Arroyo walked another batter to reload the bases, Kevin Jaxel entered the game and Virginia got out of the jam on a pick-off play that baited the runner on third into trying to steal home, where he was thrown out by Ford to end the inning.

After a scoreless fourth frame, Virginia pushed two more runs across in the bottom of the fifth as Trey Wells and Harrison Didawick started the inning with a pair of singles, with Didawick's coming on a bunt, and both of them eventually scored as VMI's catcher couldn't squeeze the ball on a play at the plate, making it 6-3 Virginia.

Kevin Jaxel posted zeroes on the board in the fourth, fifth, and sixth innings and then Blake Barker kept it going by striking out the side in the top of the seventh. Joe Colucci entered the game in the eighth and gave up a leadoff triple followed by a sacrifice fly to make it 6-4. Then came the second-biggest play of the game, as VMI's Seth Buchanan turned on a pitch from Colucci and took it deep to left field, just inches away from tying the game with a two-run home run. Instead, Harrison Didawick positioned himself perfectly at the wall and leapt up to make the grab to rob the homer.

Ryan Osinski came in and got the last out of the eighth inning and then picked up two strikeouts in the ninth to earn the save and secure Virginia's 6-4 victory. Jaxel was credited with the win after pitching 3.1 scoreless innings and striking out four batters.

Offensively, Virginia set a season-high with 11 hits, three of which came off the bat of Chris Arroyo, who went 3 for 5 with four RBI on the grand slam. Trey Wells and Henry Ford each had two hits as well.

Up next, Virginia hosts Dartmouth in a three-game series this weekend in Charlottesville. First pitch for game 1 is set for 3pm on Friday at Disharoon Park and the game will be streamed on ACC Network Extra.

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Published
Matt Newton
MATT 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.