Virginia baseball was battling in a crucial ACC contest at NC State April 6. In the seventh inning, the Cavaliers held a relatively safe lead of six runs. Coach Brian O’Connor took the baseball from freshman pitcher Tomas Valincius after he put two runners on base, ending a relatively solid outing. What followed was a collapse in unfathomably frustrating fashion. O’Connor’s bunch lost 9-8, snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.
April 6 was one example of a persistent issue for Virginia in 2025 — the bullpen has struggled mightily to maintain leads and slam the door, leaving the Cavaliers with several losses that should have been wins. The bullpen’s issues have only compounded those of a starting rotation that took a few weeks to find its footing, spoiling good starts and failing to mitigate the consequences of bad ones.
In fairness, Virginia’s bullpen has been forced into action more than O’Connor probably anticipated — his starters have not consistently pitched through six or seven innings, leaving the rest of the game up to the bullpen. Still, the Cavalier bullpen has generally failed to exhibit the consistency necessary to propel Virginia to a deep playoff run.
Right now, a group of five pitchers forms the backbone of the Virginia bullpen — graduate Matt Lanzendorfer, junior Ryan Osinski, senior Matthew Buchanan, junior Kevin Jaxel and sophomore Drew Koenen. Of those five, Osinski, Buchanan and Jaxel pitched for the Cavaliers in 2024. The other two pitchers came to Charlottesville over the offseason in an effort to shore up a beleaguered pitching staff. The results are mixed.
The foremost success story is Lanzendorfer, one of two hurlers who have posted 20 or more innings alongside Osinski. Lanzendorfer’s 3.68 earned run average is less indicative of his excellence than the .192 batting average of hitters against him. With 22 innings under his belt, Lanzendorfer has proven himself as O’Connor’s first option, a reliable high-leverage reliever for the late innings and Virginia’s best bullpen addition over the offseason.
Osinski has appeared in 20 innings so far but has not had the same success as Lanzendorfer. O’Connor clearly trusts him, perhaps because he was successful earlier in the season, but Osinski has struggled as of late, allowing a run in four of his last six appearances. The 6-foot-6 righty is still one of O’Connor’s primary options, but other relievers have found more recent success and appear primed to eat into Osinski’s share of high-leverage innings.
In the wake of Osinski’s unreliability, Buchanan has begun to fill the void. A left-handed hurler who boasts a 0.93 ERA, Buchanan didn’t pitch often to start the year — his first appearance was March 8 against Boston College — but he was solid in limited action. Buchanan has only allowed a run in one of his appearances, posting five straight scoreless outings since then. It’s a limited sample size, but returns have been promising — if he can project his success over longer outings, Buchanan will become a major option out of the pen and a critical piece of the Cavaliers’ postseason hopes.
Jaxel and Koenen, two righties with ERAs below 3.00, round out the top five pitchers in the bullpen. Jaxel is currently sidelined with an injury but was one of Virginia’s most productive pitchers before going down — O’Connor hopes to get him back before the end of the season. As for Koenen, who spent his first season at Dartmouth, the 2024-25 season has been a roller coaster. The last five outings have not been encouraging, featuring a deluge of walks and runs — through the prior eight appearances, though, Koenen allowed just two earned runs, most notably working 4.2 scoreless innings against Oklahoma February 23.
Right on the fringe is graduate Wes Arrington, who has recorded a host of productive outings but has made a habit of issuing walks, leading to constant baserunners and runs. Arrington simply lacks consistency — he flashes plus stuff from time to time, but a 5.40 ERA encapsulates his struggles so far this season.
Behind Arrington, most of the remaining pitchers operate in low-leverage situations. The most interesting case of the bunch is graduate Alex Markus, the William & Mary transfer with an impressive 1.74 ERA through 10.1 innings. The underlying metrics don’t necessarily support his success, however — he has allowed 11 walks, and he tends to allow them in bunches, allowing two or more walks in four different appearances. Opposing batters are hitting .250 against him, a higher mark than expected given his ERA. Perhaps Markus will begin to operate in a high-leverage role, but O’Connor seems content to employ him sparingly for now.
In short, Lanzendorfer, Osinski, Buchanan, Jaxel and Koenen are the best combination of volume and quality that the Cavaliers have to offer. They will be heavily relied upon heading into the final stretch of the regular season, especially as starting pitchers struggle to go deep into games. Even among this group, uncertainty abounds, whether because of injuries or recent poor showings. Beyond those five, the uncertainty continues to grow, forcing O’Connor to rely heavily on his favored options even as they struggle.
In every one of these cases, the one consistency is inconsistency — a frustrating theme, given that the starting pitchers have also faltered this season. The bullpen was an area O’Connor made a point of addressing this offseason, bringing in several veteran pitchers to shore up a staff that struggled for the majority of 2023-24, but his efforts have been moderately successful at best.
Overall, the Cavaliers have had a season to forget, falling well below the expectations levied by a No. 2 preseason ranking. Virginia’s team ERA, including starters, is the eighth-best in the ACC — perfectly mediocre, a major reason for this season’s disappointments. It will have to improve if the Cavaliers have any aspirations of a postseason run, and it starts — and ends — with the bullpen.
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