None of the three starting pitchers Virginia plans to deploy this weekend were members of the Cavaliers last year.
This is a new-look rotation UVa will debut over the next few days.
“I believe they’ll go out and give us great starts,” UVa coach Brian O’Connor said.
Elon transfer right-hander Brian Edgington is slated to start Friday’s 2 p.m. season-opening bout against Navy — a contest that on Wednesday was announced will be played at Disharoon Park in Charlottesville instead of at the Hughes Bros. Challenge in Wilmington, N.C., where bad weather is expected.
Saturday and Sunday games against Ohio and host UNC Wilmington, respectively, are still scheduled to be played at Brooks Field in Wilmington.
Former Coastal Carolina right-hander Nick Parker gets the ball on Saturday for the Hoos ahead of freshman righty Jack O’Connor — no relation to the skipper — on Sunday.
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“We lost 86% of our innings last year and that’s like unheard of,” Brian O’Connor said. “There’s so many new faces and there was only one way to do it, and that was to have the players earn what they get based on their performance.”
He said he and pitching coach Drew Dickinson factored in both fall practices and the last three weeks of preseason to make their determination about the rotation, which lost last year’s top starter Nate Savino and No. 2 starter Brian Gursky to pro ball. Savino was a third-round MLB Draft pick of the Arizona Diamondbacks and Gursky inked a free-agent contract with the New York Mets.
“It’s helped us be better as a staff that nothing was cemented with three- or four-year guys who have been here and had roles locked,” Parker said. “It’s helped us be more competitive as a staff. Everything was open to everybody, so everything that was gotten was earned.”
The experience Edgington and Parker have, though, benefited them, according to O’Connor.
Edgington was a second-team All-Colonial Athletic Association choice last spring for his 6-4 mark with a 3.56 ERA and 86 strikeouts over 86 innings with the Phoenix. The graduate student, who began his career with St. Joe’s, pitched one season with the Hawks, one in junior college and three with Elon.
Parker threw eight scoreless innings for Coastal Carolina in a win over East Carolina in the same Greenville Regional that UVa played in this past June. He was 6-3 with a 4.45 ERA in 2022.
“When you see Brian Edgington and Nick Parker pitch in these scrimmages and you’ll see it when the games count,” O’Connor said, “when you’re 22, 23 years old, you have a different level of poise out there. It’s not fast for them. They know how to manage situations. They know how to control the running game. They take time in between pitches. They’re in control of the game.”
Said Parker: “The experience I’ve had is just one that shows you can compete at a high level and that there’s going to be times when you struggle, but being able to go back to some of those times where you’ve fought through and have the process of how to handle certain situations is important. You have something you can go back to, so it’s not super uncharted waters all the time.”
Edgington said when O’Connor and Dickinson were recruiting him, they didn’t promise him anything, but made it clear there would be opportunity to pitch his way into a meaningful role as well as chances to develop further as a pitcher at UVa.
“Just getting more national exposure here compared to Elon,” Edgington said about what O’Connor and Dickinson discussed with him, “and then just kind of cleaning up some things with my mechanics as well as trying to improve some of the pitches that I had.”
About getting the nod for opening day, Edgington added: “That’s very exciting.”
As for the 6-foot-5, 235-pound first-year, Jack O’Connor, he starred at Bishop O’Connell High School in Arlington last spring and was the 2022 Washington Catholic Athletic Association Player of the Year. He was ranked as the second-best prospect in the Commonwealth and the 15th-best right-handed pitcher nationally by Perfect Game.
