CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA (CVILLE RIGHT NOW) – Less than 20 minutes after Virginia opened the 2026 baseball season with a win over Wagner, crews were out in the stands at Disharoon Park, shoveling out ice that still remained.

They were clearing the final remnants of an accumulation of snow and ice that threatened to cancel the Cavaliers’ home baseball and softball series this weekend.

With about 7-inches of packed ice frozen solid on the surfaces at Disharoon Park and Palmer Park, it took a massive team effort to get the fields ready to play ball.

“It was unbelievable just the way everybody worked together,” first-year UVA coach Chris Pollard told Cville Right Now after debuting with a 13-7 on Friday. “Everybody was just so tireless in their efforts. Chipping ice all the way up until about 12 p.m. today, right about the time we were about to start BP. I’m so happy to not see ice out here on this field, I don’t know what to do with myself.”

Snow and ice fell heavily in the Charlottesville area Jan. 24-25. Then, for most of the next three weeks, temperatures remained below freezing, leaving the UVA facilities packed under a layer of ice.

“It was just a heavy lift by a lot of people to even get us to a point to be able to consider outdoor competition again,” UVA’s Associate Athletic Director for Facilities John Welch told Cville Right Now. “Every day created a new challenge because it never really got above freezing and the lows were in single digits. It was not ideal. Typically after a storm like this, most of the snow and ice has melted away in a few days. This lingered for weeks.”

The week before the storm, Virginia had moved up the start time for its men’s basketball game and moved its women’s game up a day, both to a Saturday double-header. By that point, the athletic department had already formulated a plan to get the school’s team back to practicing as quickly as possible.

That started with clearing practice facilities including the Lower Turf field and the George Welsh Indoor Practice Facility.

“We wanted to be in a position, that once the storm was over we could return to as normal an operation as possible,” Welch said.

The women’s lacrosse team’s Feb. 6 season-opener was moved to the Lower Turf field, where the Cavaliers fell to Navy, 12-10. The men’s team opened against Colgate on Feb. 8, winning 19-14 at the indoor facility. Both games were played without fans.

Welch, UVA of Athletics Maintenance Elliott Biskup, and UVA Director of Sports Turf Maintenance Jesse Pritchard then turned their focus to the baseball and softball programs. The fields at Disharoon and Palmer had been covered with tarps before the snow and sleet fell.

“Once it actually froze, we were in trouble,” Pritchard said. “It wasn’t physically gonna move with just shovels, or really even tractors, very much. We kinda had to wait until we had some some of the first sunny days afterwards, with some good temperatures.”

Pollard and the baseball staff went to work shoveling their field, spending about 18 hours shoveling over three days to be able to get in some practice before the Wagner series.

“Without the baseball staff, that 3-acre piece of property would not have been clear for their home series,” Pritchard said. “They were pretty incredible.”

Pritchard brought in 23 pounds of black kiln dried sand, something he had not done before in his time at UVA. As temperatures rose, he spread 1,000-1,500 pounds a day to help expedite the melting.

Still, Pritchard said he advised the athletic department to contact other venues in case the fields could not be readied in time. None were available.

“I knew that this wasn’t a slam dunk that it was all gonna be gone,” Pritchard said. “A week-and-a-half out, when everybody saw 60 degrees for a couple days in the middle of the week, I kept saying, that does not mean that the snow would be gone. But we kind of got backed into a corner a little bit, and we just had to make the best of it.”

Pritchard and Welch said workers were still chipping away at ice at problem spots in the two venues – both warning tracks and the well-shaded right field at Disharoon – as teams were getting ready to take batting practice.

“Jesse Pritchard and his staff have been amazing and worked so diligently and so hard to make sure our field looked great,” UVA softball coach Joanna Hardin said after her team’s 20-0 win over Delaware State on Friday. “It’s phenomenal and it’s done really well. The only way we were able to open up today, and we threw this earlier game in a couple of weeks ago, was because of his staff and our facilities staff of John Welch and Ryan Paddock and their whole crew. I just give a shout out and appreciate all of our people for coming in and getting after it the last couple of weeks to insure we could open up at home this week.”

Welch said UVA never considered canceling the games in the days leading up to them.

“We wanted our fans to be a part of the experience on opening weekend,” he said. “We really just threw everything at the entire facility to make sure everything was safe and accessible for everyone.”

Pritchard said seeing the games played Friday gave him more a sense of relief than pride.

“I would say that going to Scott Stadium on a Saturday morning before the fans are in is rewarding,” Pritchard said of the Cavaliers’ home football stadium. “Looking at the finished product is rewarding. I would say, coming in for a baseball regional or, another event like that at softball, when everything looks as good as it possibly can, is rewarding. I would not say that coming in and looking at the baseball field, pretty freaking beat up from shovels and plows and tractors and everything else, and the same at softball, is rewarding. It might be a relief, but not necessarily rewarding.”

But Welch, Pollard and Hardin said Pritchard, Biskup and their crews deserve praise as heavy as the snow and ice they moved.

“It was a lot of pride in the team,” Welch said. “At the end of the day ,you look at the amount of work. This was weeks worth of work, by a number of people, to get to the place where we saw ourselves this past weekend. I’m just impressed and really proud of the amount of work that a lot of people put in to get Disharoon and Palmer open and playable.”