The official debut of the Chris Pollard era in Charlottesville is just about here, with Virginia hosting Wagner this weekend for a three game set at the Dish. First pitch is scheduled for Friday, February 13th at 3 pm, followed by Saturday and Sunday contests, each beginning at 1 pm. All action will be broadcasted on ACC Network Extra.<\/p>\n
Based on what the coaching staff has revealed, as well as general intel around the program, here is our best projection at an Opening Day lineup:<\/p>\n
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* Kyle Johnson is expected to play RF on days he does not pitch. Antonio Perrotta (LHH) is a good candidate for the DH spot.<\/p>\n
The starting rotation is a lot more set in stone for now. Johnson will more than likely be the Friday guy and fellow left-handed Duke transfers Max Stammel and Henry Zatkowski will anchor the back-end spots, in either order.<\/p>\n
For a more in-depth look at the \u2018Hoos in the preseason, check out our pitcher<\/a> and position player<\/a> previews.<\/p>\n What to know about Wagner<\/p>\n Following a 31-22 showing in 2025, the Seahawks were picked 3rd in this year\u2019s NEC Preseason Poll. Craig Noto, a Staten Island guy through and through, returns for his fifth season as Wagner\u2019s head coach.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n Wagner\u2019s ace is slated to be Colin\u00a0Trizuto, hailing from San Mateo, California. The senior right-hander made 15 starts for the Seahawks last season, compiling a 4.96 ERA and 1.36 WHIP in 61.2 innings of work.<\/p>\n On the hitting side, the name to watch is graduate outfielder Lukas Torres. Torres closed the season on a 13-game hitting streak, logging 41 total RBI and a .409 batting average in conference games. As a team, Wagner finished top three in the NEC in average, on-base percentage, and slugging, and they return a chunk of their key contributors.<\/p>\n Virginia is exciting opportunity for the Seahawks, who have not faced a major brand opponent since their 2024 opening series at North Carolina.<\/p>\n The outlook for Virginia<\/p>\n This is a trio of games that the Cavaliers are expected to dominate, but plenty can be learned about this brand new roster.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n It will be our first close-up look at top tier MLB Draft prospect A.J. Gracia. The former Blue Devils star brings in as much talent with both the bat and the glove as we have ever seen at UVA.<\/p>\n If all goes as planned, we can also see some of this immensely talented freshman class, starring two-way player Jayden Stroman and flame-throwing reliever Noah Yoder.<\/p>\n On a more familiar note, Harrison Didawick \u2014 who previously broke the UVA home run record before enduring some brutal stretches in 2025 \u2014 will officially begin his quest for a comeback season. Eric Becker is another captain that is expected to have a big year, returning at the shortstop position.<\/p>\n Most importantly of all, baseball is back on Grounds, and despite legendary head coach Brian O\u2019Connor\u2019s sudden departure in June, the excitement around this program has not skipped a beat as we head into a new chapter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The official debut of the Chris Pollard era in Charlottesville is just about here, with Virginia hosting Wagner…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":568222,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2290],"tags":[17719,5,8871,54470,6758,46701,74850,74849,9591,74851,9057],"class_list":{"0":"post-568221","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-baseball","8":"tag-acc-network","9":"tag-baseball","10":"tag-charles-schwab-field-omaha","11":"tag-eric-becker","12":"tag-harrison-didawick","13":"tag-kyle-johnson","14":"tag-noah-murray","15":"tag-sam-harris","16":"tag-tcu-horned-frogs","17":"tag-the-seahawks","18":"tag-virginia-cavaliers"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116058009247540488","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/568221","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=568221"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/568221\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/568222"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=568221"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=568221"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=568221"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}