The Cavaliers' 8-3 thrashing over Norfolk State last night only confirmed what I learned as soon as I started following the baseball team -- this team is one of, if not the best at Virginia.
When I was making my decision to come to Virginia, I remember hearing about how the great the football games were. Everybody dressed up and we sung the "Good Ol' Song." Basketball in the winter was awesome because we got to play every team in the ACC at home (we used to anyways -- dumb expansion). In the spring, the sport to follow was lacrosse. We were returning national champions and a Saturday afternoon with the men's lacrosse team at Klöckner was the place to be.
Two Continental Tire Bowl victories in a row are nothing to brag about. You can't be satisfied with the ACC play-in game for basketball. Lacrosse is in danger of not even making the tournament after being preseason No. 1.
Little did I know that one of our best teams would be the baseball squad. What makes the story even more intriguing is the remarkable transition the Cavaliers have made in just one year.
Last season the team finished 29-25 and in sixth place in the ACC. The last time they made NCAA regionals was 1996. This season, the Cavaliers have jumped to a No. 15 national ranking and are dominating the ACC with a 14-4 conference record and 33-7 mark overall. The most ACC wins any of the other schools currently have is nine. The Cavaliers have four sweeps of ACC schools including three wins over then-No. 17 Georgia Tech, for their first sweep of the Yellow Jackets ever.
Where did this metamorphosis come from?
It started with the hiring of Brian O'Connor as head coach this past offseason. O'Connor was as assistant coach at Notre Dame, where he was named 2001 National Assistant Coach of the Year and led the recruiting effort in 2002 that landed the nation's top recruiting class as ranked by Baseball America.
The Cavaliers only play two freshman regularly, centerfielder Tim Henry and southpaw closer Casey Lambert. Other than that, it's basically the same lineup as last year, yet the results have been anything but similar.
"You got to give [O'Connor] a lot credit for the attitude he's instilled in the team," senior Kyle Werman said. Last year "we worked really hard and it's just we weren't as aggressive and that's really shown. That's such a big part of the game. Teams come in knowing that we going to run, so they're changing their game. It makes it a lot of fun for us too."
Although O'Connor would agree that his aggressive style has been an obvious change from last year, he also thinks the right mindset is critical to success.
One thing he's really tried to instill is "a mental toughness and a mental approach," he said. "That's part of the reason we put these kids through what we did in our winter workouts, our conditioning workouts, just because we needed to develop a mental attitude on this team of toughness...I really believe that has a carry over to the season when you get into difficult situations in a game and how much it means to you to win or lose."
There are only two home games left while school is in session, tonight versus Virginia Tech and next Tuesday against Radford. The team is poised to have their greatest season in Virginia history and make a deep run into the NCAA tournament.
If you haven't made it out to the immaculate Davenport Field to watch O'Connor's boys play, then your U. Va. experience is not complete, because something special is happening with this Virginia baseball team.
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