For the last two seasons, 123 straight games, there was no question who would set up behind the plate with Kyle Teel in a Virginia uniform. Down the first base line, Ethan Anderson watched with a new appreciation for the position he had played his entire life and a desire to return to catcher.

“There’s been times in the past on a hot day or I’m tired, where I’m like ‘Why am I back here?'” Anderson said. “Not being behind there for two years, being behind [Kyle Teel], I’ve really appreciated being behind there. I’ve told myself no matter how tired I am, how hot it is, I’m never going to complain when I’m behind the plate.”

This spring Anderson is back at catcher, the position where he ranked No. 1 in the state of Virginia coming out of high school. He will try to fill the role left by Teel, the 2023 ACC Player of the Year and the program’s first Buster Posey Award winner, given to the nation’s top catcher. A tough act to follow, but one Anderson has pleaded with his coaches for ever since he arrived at Disharoon Park.

“Every single year I went to [head coach Brian O’Connor] and trying to catch,” Anderson said. “We had Kyle for a couple years. But at the end of the season last year I continued to tell him I wanted to catch and he’s like ‘alright, you got to really work towards it.'”

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