Virginia Baseball Roster Preview: Projected Lineup, Pitching Rotation

Matt Newton | Feb 11, 2025

Virginia Athletic

The 2025 Virginia baseball season has arrived. Brian O'Connor's Cavaliers will begin their journey to a third-straight trip to Omaha this coming weekend in Puerto Rico with games against Michigan, Villanova, and Rice.

Expectations have never been higher for UVA baseball entering the 2025 campaign. The Cavaliers are ranked in the top five in each of the national college baseball preseason polls, including a No. 2 ranking according to D1Baseball, and the ACC's coaches voted Virginia as the preseason favorite to win the Atlantic Coast Conference for the first time since 2015.

Six different Cavaliers have been named Preseason All-Americans by various college baseball outlets and Evan Blanco, Harrison Didawick, and Henry Ford were named to the preseason watch list for the Golden Spikes Award, presented annually to the nation's top amateur baseball player.

While many coaches downplay the meaning of preseason rankings and accolades, Brian O'Connor gave a simple message to his team about embracing the attention and the pressure.

"The players understand that it's been a while that we've been this highly preseason ranked, but I love it," O'Connor said. "Bring it on." 

Let's take a look at the roster that is garnering so much preseason recognition, beginning with an evaluation of who the Cavaliers lost, returned, and added from last year's team. Then, we'll take a stab at projecting Virginia's batting order, position starters, and pitching rotation.

Virginia Baseball Roster Turnover

Departures: SS Griff O'Ferrall, DH/C Ethan Anderson, RF Casey Saucke, DH Anthony Stephan, CF Bobby Whalen, RHP Chase Hungate, LHP Angelo Tonas, RHP Joe Savino, RHP Cullen McKay, LHP Owen Coady

Returners: 2B Henry Godbout, C Jacob Ference, 1B/OF Henry Ford, OF/DH Harrison Didawick, SS Eric Becker, 3B Luke Hanson, OF/RHP Aidan Teel, OF Walker Buchanan, LHP Evan Blanco, RHP Jay Woolfolk, RHP Matt Augustin, RHP Bryson Moore, RHP Kevin Jaxel, LHP Dean Kampschror, LHP Matthew Buchanan, RHP Ryan Osinski, LHP Blake Barker, RHP Jack O'Connor, LHP Bradley Hodges

Additions: UTL/LHP Chris Arroyo, OF/C James Nunnallee, INF Jackson Sirois, C Trey Wells, RHP Joe Colucci, LHP Tomas Valincius, LHP Matt Lanzendorfer, RHP Alex Markus, RHP August Richie, RHP Drew Koenen, RHP Wes Arrington

There are some very notable names on that departures list; namely, MLB Draft picks Griff O'Ferrall, Ethan Anderson, Casey Saucke, and Anthony Stephan and outbound pitcher transfers Chase Hungate (Mississippi State) and Cullen McKay (Coastal Carolina). But the Cavaliers return maybe the deepest lineup in college baseball, with five regular starters coming back and seven players who batted better than .300 last season returning, as well as their two best starting pitchers in Evan Blanco and Jay Woolfolk and a host of experienced pitchers in the bullpen.

Here is what we have for a projected batting order and position starters for the Hoos and then we'll have some notes from Coach O'Connor afterwards.

2025 Virginia Baseball Projected Batting Order/Position Starters

*2024 batting average in parenthesis*

1. 2B Henry Godbout (.372)
2. SS Eric Becker (.362)
3. 1B Chris Arroyo (.403)
4. RF Henry Ford (.336)
5. DH Harrison Didawick (.292)
6. C Jacob Ference (.350)
7. 3B Luke Hanson (.286)
8. CF Aidan Teel (.400)
9. LF James Nunnallee (Freshman)

Of course, this is just an educated guess at what UVA's batting order and lineup might look like on Friday. Given the hitting and on-base production of Godbout and Becker last season, they seem likely candidates to sit atop the batting order in the place of O'Ferrall and Whalen. After that, a 3-4-5 of Arroyo, Ford, and Didawick should have the necessary power to clear the bases. Ference and Hanson return in the bottom half of the lineup and then Aidan Teel should be ready for a bigger role after playing 12 games in the field last year in addition to 20 appearances on the mound. Finally, true freshman James Nunnallee was drafted in the 14th round of the MLB Draft by the Milwaukee Brewers and was due a signing bonus of $150,000, but decided to go to UVA instead. Brian O'Connor said that Nunnallee had "earned" a spot in the batting order based on his hitting production in the fall.

Probably the biggest question facing Virginia is how to replace Griff O'Ferrall both from a fielding and batting production standpoint and from a leadership standpoint. O'Ferrall was drafted in the first round of the 2024 MLB Draft after starting every game at shortstop in each of his three seasons with the Cavaliers and finishing his time at UVA with the most career hits (270) and runs scored (196) of any three-year player in program history.

Brian O'Connor says Eric Becker, Henry Godbout, Luke Hanson, and freshman Jackson Sirois each spent some time at shortstop in the fall, but he said Becker is a "significant candidate" to be the regular starter at that spot. A sophomore from Thiells, New York, Becker started 39 games as a true freshman, including 26 games at third base and 13 at second base. Becker batted .362 with 46 hits, 46 RBI, and eight home runs. Godbout should stay put at second base, Hanson seems the most likely option to play the hot corner, and Jacob Ference is back behind the plate for the second season in a row.

We'll talk more about Pasco-Hernando State transfer Chris Arroyo in the pitchers section, but he is a talented two-way player who can do a lot of damage at the plate too. He was a NJCAA Division II First-Team All-American last season, batting .403 with 52 RBI, 19 home runs, and 60 runs scored. O'Connor, who called Arroyo "the MVP of the fall from an offensive standpoint," plans to use Arroyo as a starting pitcher, but on his non-starting days, he'll likely play first base. Henry Ford played a lot of first base as a freshman last season, but he has transitioned to the outfield and will probably slot in at right field. Harrison Didawick started 42 games in left field last season, but has been competing in center field heading into this season and could end up as Virginia's designated hitter as O'Connor said Aidan Teel has looked good in center field. The aforementioned true freshman James Nunnallee could be a day 1 starter in left field with rising sophomore Walker Buchanan competing for that job as well.

Now, let's take a stab at projecting UVA's starting pitching rotation.

2025 Virginia Baseball Pitching Staff

Projected Starting Pitchers
Friday: Evan Blanco
Saturday: Jay Woolfolk
Sunday: Chris Arroyo
Midweek: Bryson Moore

In the mix: Joe Colucci, Tomas Valincius, Kevin Jaxel

Bullpen: Matt Augustin, Dean Kampschror, Matthew Buchanan, Blake Barker, Aidan Teel, Bradley Hodges, Jack O'Connor, Ryan Osinski, Charlie Oschell, Wes Arrington, Matt Lanzendorfer, Alex Markus, August Richie, Drew Koenen

Blanco, who was Virginia's best and most consistent starter all season in 2024, and Woolfolk, who caught fire in the NCAA Tournament last June, are locks to be UVA's top two starters to begin the 2025 campaign. Chris Arroyo seems the most likely candidate to earn the Sunday job after posting a 3.53 ERA with 63 strikeouts last season, but Brian O'Connor also mentioned sophomore righty Bryson Moore, who went 2-0 in four starts and posted a 1.38 ERA in seven total appearances for the Cavaliers last season.

O'Connor said Kevin Jaxel, Joe Colucci, and Tomas Valincius are "in the mix" for starting positions as well, but will be long relievers otherwise. Jaxel struggled in his four starts last season, but was very impressive as a freshman out of the bullpen in 2023. 6'5" righty Joe Colucci, a transfer from Harford Community College, went 8-1 with a 1.86 ERA in 13 appearances last season; we'll see if he can translate to this level but O'Connor has been impressed with him so far. O'Connor also said that freshman Tomas Valincius was about as good of a pitching prospect as you can get from a player that doesn't go immediately to the draft.

O'Connor noted that junior lefty Bradley Hodges and junior righty Jack O'Connor are both still working their way back from injuries sustained last year and are not likely to be available when the season starts, but should be back fairly soon. Of the bullpen pitchers, O'Connor had the highest praise for sophomore righty Matt Augustin, who posted a 4.13 ERA in 28.1 innings and proved that he can handle some intense, high-pressure situations.

Though Virginia lost some solid bullpen pitchers like Chase Hungate and Angelo Tonas, the Cavaliers bring back some experienced guys and also brought in half a dozen transfers who should be able to fill the holes for UVA bullpen.

The 2025 Virginia baseball season will begin this weekend as the Cavaliers are scheduled to take on Michigan (February 14), Villanova (February 15), and Rice (February 16) in the Puerto Rico Challenge in Ponce, Puerto Rico. All three games will be streamed on ESPN+.

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