Walk-off hits — most notably from Chris Taylor (No. 6) in 2011 — dogpiles and a perfect game have made up some of the best moments in Disharoon Park history. (Photos by Matt Riley and Emily Faith Morgan, University Communications; illustration by John DiJulio, University Communications)
Throughout last weekend, University of Virginia head baseball coach Brian O’Connor said he was receiving text messages from friends who were watching his Cavaliers play in the NCAA Tournament.
The nature of the texts weren’t so much about the way UVA swept through the three games of the Charlottesville Regional as much as they were about how it all looked from their vantage point.
“I’ve gotten so many messages to say that this environment here at The Dish is the best they’ve seen on TV,” O’Connor shared Sunday following the Wahoos’ 9-2 win over Mississippi State University in the regional championship. “Just how loud the crowd is, how much they’re into it.”
Postseason baseball at Disharoon Park – known mainly as Davenport Field from 2002 through 2017 – has been a staple of O’Connor’s tenure in Charlottesville, as the Hoos have hosted NCAA Tournament games in 12 of his 21 seasons.
O’Connor said he wasn’t exaggerating when he called the atmosphere surrounding the most recent set of games “the most electric that it has been” in his UVA career.
The energy at The Dish is only expected to ramp up this weekend as Virginia, aiming for its seventh trip to the College World Series, hosts Kansas State University in a best-of-three super regional series.
Ahead of Friday’s Game 1 – set for 7 p.m. and an ESPN2 broadcast – we’re taking a chronological look back at some of best moments in the stadium’s history.
March 29, 2011 – The Perfect Game
Twenty-seven George Washington University batters came to the plate against UVA’s Will Roberts, and all 27 were retired by the junior right-handed pitcher. No hits, no walks, no errors.
Roberts, in a 2-0 Wahoo win, threw the first perfect game in UVA history – and only the 24th in the annals of NCAA Division I baseball.
After the final out was recorded, teammates lifted Roberts and briefly paraded him around the field.
“The fact that they lifted the kid up on our field with our fans is really cool,” O’Connor said. “It made me smile and it still brings a smile to my face.”
June 13, 2011 – Euphoria by Chris Taylor
It’s regarded as one of the most iconic moments across all UVA sports: Chris Taylor’s walk-off single to send the Wahoos to the 2011 College World Series.
Taylor’s two-out, two-RBI hit through the middle of the infield gave the Cavaliers a 3-2 win in the decisive game of a super regional series against University of California, Irvine, whipping Davenport Field into a frenzy.
June 9, 2014 – Goodbye Terps, Hello Omaha
Let the record state that the final time the University of Maryland competed as an Atlantic Coast Conference school – and before they moved to the Big Ten – the Terrapins fell to Virginia.
UVA beat its longstanding ACC rivals, 11-2, in the decisive game of another super regional series at Davenport Field. The Cavaliers began the 2014 season ranked as the No. 1 team in the country and ended it with a trip to the College World Series in Omaha, Nebraska, where they finished as national runners-up.
June 6, 2015 – The OmaHit, Part II
In shades of Taylor, freshman Ernie Clement ripped a two-run, walk-off single into left field to clinch another super regional series for UVA over Maryland.
It added another chapter to a Cinderella postseason run for the Wahoos, which finished in Omaha with the program’s first – and so far, only – national championship.
April 30, 2022 – Ryan Zimmerman Day
In a renovated Disharoon Park, a sold-out, record crowd of 5,919 arrived on a sun-splashed Saturday afternoon to see the Hoos beat the archrival Virginia Tech Hokies and honor one of the program’s all-time greats.
Ryan Zimmerman, who starred at UVA from 2003 to 2005 before doing the same with the Washington Nationals, was back at his alma mater as the program retired his No. 11 jersey.
“The three years that I was here, I grew as a college baseball player, but I also grew as a person,” he told the crowd. “I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t go here.”
The sign on display behind the UVA dugout said it all: “Hoos in 3”
After dropping the first game of the super regional series to Duke University, Virginia rallied to win the next two and advance to the College World Series for the sixth time in 14 years.
Senior pitcher Brian Edgington was the headliner in Game 3, throwing a complete game and sparking the Hoos to a convincing 12-2 win over the Blue Devils.
"It was kind of like a rally call and people started to get behind it."
Down a game in the Super Regional, @UVABaseball heard a rally call throughout The Dish: Hoos in 3.
Getting the ball with a chance to clinch the Charlottesville Regional for the Cavaliers, pitcher Jay Woolfolk was never better wearing orange and blue.
After a struggle of a regular season, the junior right-hander set career-highs for innings pitched (eight) and strikeouts (seven) as UVA topped Mississippi State, 9-2.
O’Connor called Woolfolk’s performance – which was rewarded with a rousing standing ovation from the sold-out crowd, as well as a regional Most Outstanding Player honor – “one of the best outings we’ve had in my 21 years at Virginia.”
