Hard as it might be to believe, there was a time in O’Connor’s tenure when the Cavaliers didn’t routinely knock balls out of the park. In 2004, his first season at Virginia, his team homered 32 times in 59 games.
Then known as Davenport Field, UVA’s stadium was a pitcher’s paradise in O’Connor’s first two seasons, measuring 352 feet down each line. After the 2005 season, however, the fences were moved to their current dimensions: 332 feet down each line, 370 feet in the gaps, and 404 feet to center.
Even so, the Hoos didn’t start putting up eye-catching power numbers until recently. In 2015, when they won the College World Series, they hit 35 homers in 68 games. But in 2017, the Cavaliers belted a program-record 71 home runs, and they topped that total in 2022, with 75.
That record didn’t last long, and neither did the mark UVA set in 2023.
“It’s pretty amazing, when you lose O’Donnell, Teel and Gelof out of the middle of your lineup,” O’Connor said.
“It’s sign that the guys from last year got better. They went away in the summer, they worked hard, they got stronger, and they improved their game from last year. And those home runs are coming from everybody in the lineup.”
Great day for some yard work! #GoHoos pic.twitter.com/GP0XHoU2Ku
— Virginia Baseball (@UVABaseball) May 8, 2024
Eight Cavaliers have hit at least five homers each: Didawick (18), Ford (15), graduate transfer Jacob Ference (13), Casey Saucke (9), Luke Hanson (6), Henry Godbout (5), Anderson (5) and Becker (5).
“Everybody has a chance to hit the ball out the ball park,” O’Connor said. “We’re not trying to do it intentionally. But fortunately, they’re squaring it up enough and getting into some good counts. And they’re physical guys.”
The Hoos are big, strong and athletic, and “college baseball these days is older than it used to be because of the transfer portal and the COVID years, and it’s more physical than it ever has been before,” O’Connor said. “And you add those things up, you’ve got a chance to do something special.”
Gelof’s 23 home runs last season were a single-season record, and after “losing the home run king, you don’t expect to hit as many,” Anderson said. Once fall practice began, however, it became clear that these Cavaliers had multiple sluggers.
“Going into the season, we knew that we had a lot of people that were gonna step up,” Didawick said.
“You had an idea that, hey, this…