By Jeff White (jwhite@virginia.edu)
VirginiaSports.com
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — For the second game of the 2023 College World Series in Omaha, Neb., Chris Arroyo was in uniform at Charles Schwab Field, as were several other players who are on Virginia’s roster this year. Arroyo, however, wasn’t a Cavalier then. He was a relief pitcher for Florida, and he watched as his team rallied to edge UVA 6-5 that night.
“It’s still a sensitive topic,” Arroyo said with a smile at Disharoon Park. “I was in the other dugout, and I never thought I would end up at Virginia.”
A 6-foot-2, 225-pound left-hander, Arroyo wanted to be a two-way player, and the Gators’ coaching staff saw him exclusively as a pitcher. And so he entered the transfer portal in the summer of 2023 and landed at Pasco-Hernando State, a junior college in New Port Richey, Fla.
He could have transferred to another Division I program that year, but Arroyo worried that he’d be cast in a role similar to the one he had at Florida. “I was like, ‘I know I can hit. I want to prove that this year, and I want to get better. I want to go the JUCO route.’ I just wanted to be the best version of me.”
However unconventional his move might have been, it paid off for Arroyo. At Pasco-Hernando State, he was named a first-team All-American in the National Junior College Athletic Association’s Division II. He posted a 5-4 record on the mound and hit .403, with 19 home runs (a program record) and 52 RBIs.
“I still thank God for putting me there to this day,” Arroyo said. “My coach, Lyndon Coleman, he did everything that he could have to get me where I’m at today. As soon as I got there, we just got to work, work, work, work. It was nonstop work, basically, and it got me here.”
In the summer of 2023, Arroyo had played for the Charlottesville Tom Sox of the Valley League. He’d enjoyed his experience in Central Virginia and learned more about UVA, where he thought he’d fit well in head coach Brian O’Connor’s program. Arroyo said he told Coleman that “the only way I’ll go up north would be to Virginia. So it actually worked out for me.”
Arroyo transferred to UVA last summer and joined a program coming off its second straight trip to the College World Series. O’Connor, who’s in his 22nd year at Virginia, said Arroyo will be used as a starting pitcher and, when he’s not on the mound, at first base.
“He had an incredibly impactful fall,” O’Connor said….