The Hoos started practicing last week at Disharoon Park, and the coaching staff will use the fall to figure out which pitchers will start and which ones will come out of the bullpen.
“I think we’re going to have plenty enough options [in relief], both right-handed and left-handed,” O’Connor said. “I just have no idea who the closer would be or anything like that. I think the talent’s there. It’s just a matter of figuring out where to position them.”
Sophomore pitcher Nate Bassett, who had Tommy John surgery last year, is healthy again and will be available for scrimmages later in the fall. A 6-foot-3, 220-pound sophomore, Bassett has “electric stuff,” O’Connor said, but no college experience.
Hodges and Jack O’Connor, both expected to be among UVA’s weekend starters last season, continue to rehab and won’t pitch this fall. It’s uncertain when they’ll be cleared for competition, said Brian O’Connor (no relation), but “if we get one of them back or two of them back, that’ll even be a bigger shot in the arm for us.”
The Cavaliers are still adjusting to life without O’Ferrall, who won the Brooks Wallace Award as the nation’s top shortstop last season. But Becker, Godbout and Hanson were all shortstops in high school, as was freshman Jackson Sirois, and Brian O’Connor is confident one of them will prove to be a capable successor to O’Ferrall at that position.
“It’s going to be open competition all fall to kind of see who emerges,” O’Connor said, “and then we’ll move from there.”
Ford, a Freshman All-American last season, when he hit 17 homers and had a team-high 69 RBIs, has a new home on the field. He’s moved from first base to right field, where “I think he’ll be an elite-level outfielder,” O’Connor said.
After bulking up to about 230 pounds over the summer, the 6-foot-5 Ford “physically looks like the guys that play the game at the highest, highest level,” O’Connor said. “Part of the move for him to go to the outfield is that I think that’s what’s best for our team, first. But also I believe this guy’s going to play the game for a long time, and he looks like what corner outfielders look like at the highest level.”
Among the candidates to replace Ford at first base is Antonio Perrotta, a 6-foot-4, 235-pound sophomore. Perrotta appeared in 13 games last season was 5-for-11 (.455) at the plate, with one homer.
The freshman class includes Max Prozny, a reserve…