After a perfect first week of the season at the Dish, the Virginia Cavaliers took their talents down south for a weekend in DeLand, Florida. UVA did not dominate this trio of games like they would have hoped, but was able to escape with a pair of wins, improving their overall record to 6-1.
Friday, February 20: Virginia 21, Monmouth 8 (8 innings)
Virginia managed to exceed their 14.8 run average in their first four contests with another offensive outburst against Monmouth.
The slow start that plagued A.J. Gracia in 2025 has been nowhere to be found in a Wahoo
uniform. The consensus first round MLB Draft talent launched three of his four weekend homers in this game’s first six innings. Noah Murray and Sam Harris each added two long balls of their own to the tally.
On the pitching side, Henry Zatkowski had uncharacteristically poor command once again, but was able to trudge through four innings. Kevin Jaxel, however, looked extremely sharp by all accounts in his 1.2 innings of work, grabbing a well-earned win in the box score. Jaxel has been nearly perfect in his senior campaign, allowing just two hits, zero walks, and zero runs through six innings pitched.
Saturday, February 21: Stetson 6, Virginia 5
The Wahoos suffered their first loss of the season at the hands of the hosting Stetson Hatters, who actually led for a majority of the game, taking advantage of 12 total walks by Virginia pitching on top of three errors in the field.
There was a moment where it appeared that the Cavaliers may steal a win after R.J. Holmes, who was filling in for the injured Eric Becker at shortstop, led off the ninth with a game-tying blast off the scoreboard.
However, the Hatters were able to manufacture the winning run in the bottom half of the frame at the hands of Samuel Fernandez, who launched a walk-off over the head of a shallow Gracia in center field.
Despite Stetson’s mediocre start to 2026, this is by no means supposed to be a bad ball club. The program is coming off of back-to-back 40+ win seasons in which they made the NCAA Tournament, and the Hatters were picked to win the Atlantic Sun again in the preseason conference poll.
With that said, the process by which the Cavaliers lost this game is the more concerning angle. Hopefully, this sloppy play can be simply be chalked up to a brand new coaching staff and roster competing for the first time in the middle of February, but only time will tell.
Sunday, February 22: Virginia 5, North Dakota State 4
UVA managed to avoid a disastrous weekend by chipping away late to survive the efforts of a now 1-6 North Dakota State.
John Paone followed up his first career start at VMI with a similar type of outing on Sunday. The freshman right-hander limited a first inning jam to a pair of runs and tossed 2.2 clean innings after that, striking out six total batters.
Harrison Didawick reached base three times, and is now 13-for-31 (.419) with four stolen bases in this young 2026 campaign. Kyle Johnson’s pinch hit home run in the eighth proved to be the winning RBI for the ‘Hoos.
Up Next: The Cavaliers are back home for a meeting with George Washington (1-5) on Tuesday, February 24. Then lies a weekend series against VCU (4-3), with the first two contests at the Dish, followed by a single game in Richmond on Sunday, March 1.
