They each ended their Saturday night at the ballpark similarly and began Sunday’s matinee against Louisville in the exact same spot.
“He just puts his head down and works every day,” Virginia junior catcher Kyle Teel said about Hoos sophomore shortstop Griff O’Ferrall.
Said O’Ferrall of Teel: “He’s been great in every at-bat and every game.”
With the exception of Saturday, of course, when Teel and O’Ferrall combined to go 0-for-8 with six strikeouts.
Those are not the kind of results the Cavaliers’ leadoff hitter, O’Ferrall, and cleanup man, Teel, have become accustomed to during an otherwise sparkling campaign in which the two UVa standouts are battling each other for this season’s ACC batting crown.
Teel said the two haven’t spoken about the chase yet, “but I will say this, me and Griff both went 0-for [on Saturday] and we were together in the cage and we were having a little hitting sess[ion] off the machine,” after the game.
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They each wanted to get back on track as quickly as possible to help the Hoos continue picking up victories with the end of the regular season rapidly approaching. Their hitless Saturday dropped both of their averages to .415 and a tie for the conference lead in the category heading in to Sunday’s series finale against the Cardinals.
“We’re glued together when we put in work,” Teel said, “and we have similar approaches, and I think that’s something that’ll happen, but what we’re focused on is taking it day by day, pitch by pitch and doing what we need to do.”
O’Ferrall said: “We don’t talk about the stats part so much, but we definitely push each other.”
Like in Sunday’s 8-3 series-sweeping victory over Louisville when O’Ferrall tallied two hits in his first two at-bats and Teel was 3-for-3 with a double.
Heading into the final series of the season — UVa is at Georgia Tech for three games Thursday through Saturday — Teel’s .415 mark paces the conference while O’Ferrall’s .407 clip is second and on his teammate’s heels.
“Honestly, it’s not a big thought in my head,” O’Ferrall said, “because we’re getting down to crunch time right now and we’re treating every game like the playoffs, so that’s first and foremost. We’re trying to win every game, but if at the end of the day me and Kyle have a friendly competition, then that’s awesome, too.”
If Teel takes the crown, he’d become just the fifth catcher in the last 30 years to win the ACC batting title. The others to do it were Georgia Tech’s Jason Varitek (1993), Florida State’s Buster Posey (2008), Miami’s Yasmani Grandal (2010) and Georgia Tech’s Joey Bart (2018), who all went onto be first-round MLB Draft picks — something Teel is projected to be this summer.
He’s been leading the conference in hitting for most of the spring, but O’Ferrall tightened the gap by hitting .435 (47-for-108) since the start of April.
“Coming into the year, [Teel] has a big name so everyone is pitching him carefully and pitching him offspeed and trying to do anything to keep him off balance,” O’Ferrall said. “But he hasn’t looked uncomfortable … so to see someone bring it in every at bat like that is super impressive for sure.”
Edgington earns honor
Virginia pitcher Brian Edgington was voted ACC Pitcher of the Week, the league announced on Monday afternoon. He’s the first UVa pitcher to earn the honor this season.
On Sunday, Edgington threw six innings of two-hit ball while striking out eight to help the Hoos knock off Louisville and complete a series sweep of the Cardinals.
“Everything was working for him,” Teel said on Sunday. “His stuff looked really good overall and he hit his spots. He made my life really easy back there.”
The veteran right-hander retired 18 of the 20 hitters he faced to pick up his seventh win of the campaign and lower his season ERA to 3.33.
Woolfolk gets Team USA invite
Hoos sophomore reliever Jay Woolfolk was invited to training camp with USA Baseball’s Collegiate National Team, the organization announced on Monday.
Woolfolk, the two-sport athlete who will also contend for UVa’s starting quarterback job come August, has made 23 appearances out of the bullpen this spring and is 2-0 with seven saves and a 2.17 ERA. He has racked up 33 strikeouts in 29 innings.
Fifty-six of the best non-draft eligible college players are invited to training camp with Team USA for a five-game intrasquad series in Cary, N.C. from June 25-29 before USA Baseball names a final, 26-man roster that will play in a series with Chinese Taipei and Japan from June 30-July 12.
Thirteen Cavaliers have played for Team USA previously, including Teel in each of the last two years.
Hoos hold in poll
The Cavaliers stayed put at No. 21 in the latest D1Baseball Top 25 released on Monday. In addition to winning all three games against Louisville, the Cavaliers beat Radford last Wednesday and were 4-0 last week.
