CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – Virginia baseball head coach Brian O’Connor has announced his program’s schedule for the 2018 season. The Cavaliers open their season Feb. 16-18 in Orlando at Central Florida’s tournament, before coming home Feb. 20 to the newly-renovated Davenport Field to begin their home schedule against VMI.
The schedule features 19 games against teams that competed in the 2017 NCAA Tournament. Four of UVA’s 10 ACC series are against programs that played in the NCAA tournament last year.
Virginia has a challenging tournament to open the season, with games against 2017 NCAA Tournament teams UCF and Rice as well as Samford.
UVA then returns to Charlottesville to open its 35-game home schedule with a 10-game homestand at Davenport Field, which is in the midst of multi-million dollar expansion, bringing a new grand entry in right field, an expanded concourse down the right-field line that extends around the right-field pole toward right-centerfield, a field-level club area with seating for approximately 140 fans, chairback seats along the first baseline and new concessions and restroom facilities. The renovations are scheduled to be finished in time for the home opener.
The Cavaliers’ first homestand features a three-game series with Eastern Kentucky as well as a three-game series versus Yale, which won the Ivy League and picked up two NCAA tournament victories last season. The season-opening homestand concludes with a March 6 contest against Davidson, which ousted No. 2 national seed North Carolina in reaching an NCAA Super Regional last year. Virginia begins its ACC schedule March 9-11 against Duke at Durham Bulls Athletic Park and plays three of its first four conference series on the road.
The Cavaliers kick off their home ACC slate March 16-18 against Boston College. UVA also plays Virginia Tech (April 6-8), North Carolina (April 13-15), Clemson (April 27-29) and Georgia Tech (May 11-13) in home ACC series. UNC and Clemson each were NCAA Regional hosts last year.
In addition to the Duke series, the Cavaliers travel to Miami (March 23-25), Pitt (March 30-April 1), Louisville (April 20-22) and Wake Forest (May 17-19) in conference action. Louisville reached the College World Series last year, while Wake Forest was an NCAA Super Regional participant.
Virginia does not face Florida State, NC State or Notre Dame in the ACC regular season.
UVA plays home-and-home series with Old Dominion and VCU in non-conference action. The Cavaliers and Rams match up in Richmond at The Diamond on March 27 and in Charlottesville on May 1. UVA takes on ODU April 3 at Davenport Field and returns to Norfolk’s Harbor Park, home of the triple-A Norfolk Tides, three weeks later on April 24.
The 2018 ACC Baseball Championship returns to Durham Bulls Athletic Park, home of the triple-A Durham Bulls, in Durham, N.C., May 22-27.
The regular-season schedule is subject to change based on broadcast selections made by the ACC’s television and digital media broadcast partners. Both dates and times of games could be altered.
Now in his 15th season as head coach, O’Connor has led Virginia to 14 straight NCAA tournament appearances, the fourth-longest active streak in the nation. Virginia returns 22 letterwinners from its 2017 squad that posted a 43-16 record played in the NCAA Fort Worth Regional. UVA won the 2015 National Championship and has earned four College World Series berths and six NCAA Super Regional appearances since 2009.
