Three Cavaliers Competing at USA Baseball Collegiate Training Camp

Ethan Anderson was invited to join Griff O'Ferrall and Jay Woolfolk at this week's USA Baseball Collegiate National Team training camp

Virginia first baseman Ethan Anderson received a late invite to join the USA Baseball Collegiate National Team training camp taking place this week in Cary, North Carolina. That makes three current UVA baseball players competing for a spot on the national team roster, as shortstop Griff O'Ferrall and pitcher Jay Woolfolk received invites earlier this year. 

In his second season in a Virginia uniform, Ethan Anderson played a key role in helping the Cavaliers get back to Omaha for their sixth College World Series appearance. Starting all 65 games at first base, Anderson earned a Third-Team All-ACC selection after batting .375 with 15 home runs, 66 RBI, a program-record 26 doubles, and the fourth-most hits in a single season in school history with 97. The switch-hitter batted .357 in the NCAA Tournament with four home runs and 10 RBI. 

UVA closer Jay Woolfolk was the first Cavalier to receive a training camp invite back on May 15th. The talented multi-sport athlete was named a Freshman All-American by Collegiate Baseball Newspaper and D1Baseball.com in 2022 and followed that up with a solid sophomore campaign this spring, posting a 2.91 ERA in 34.0 innings pitched with 38 strikeouts to 20 walks. Woolfolk pitched one inning at the training camp on Sunday and retired the side in order, striking out two batters along the way.

Woolfolk is suiting up for the "Stars" in the Stars vs. Stripes intrasquad series and his UVA teammates Ethan Anderson and Griff O'Ferrall are playing for the Stars as well. Anderson reached base safely twice on Sunday, bringing in an RBI with one of his walks. O'Ferrall also brought in an RBI with a base hit in the bottom of the third inning. 

A sophomore shortstop, O'Ferrall received his invite on May 27th in the midst of his stellar second season at Virginia. O'Ferrall started all 65 games at shortstop in 2023 and has now started every single game of his two-year collegiate career at UVA. He batted .396 this season with 108 hits, 76 runs, and 42 RBI and was a First-Team All-ACC selection. 

O'Ferrall, Woolfolk, and Anderson are three of the 56 best non-draft eligible college baseball players who were invited to participate in the USA Baseball Collegiate National Training Camp, which includes a five-game Stars vs. Stripes intrasquad series taking place from Sunday, June 25-Thursday, June 29 at the USA Baseball National Training Complex in Cary, North Carolina. Following the training camp, USA Baseball will name its final 26-man Collegiate National Team roster that will represent the United States in a pair of friendly series against Chinese Taipei and Japan from June 30-July 12. 

Virginia has had a player on four of the last five USA Baseball Collegiate National Teams, with Kyle Teel continuing that trend by making the roster in 2021 and 2022. 13 Cavaliers have made the USA Baseball Collegiate National Team all-time:

Bill Narleski (1986)
Seth Greisinger (1996)
Ryan Zimmerman (2004)
Sean Doolittle (2005, 2006)
Mark Reynolds (2006)
Jacob Thompson (2007)
Branden Kline (2011)
Matt Thaiss (2015)
Jake McCarthy (2017)
Andrew Abbott (2019)
Nate Savino (2021)
Matt Wyatt (2021)
Kyle Teel (2021, 2022)

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