It was only a few days before Virginia's home opener against Old Dominion, yet heavy snow was falling from the Charlottesville sky. With half a foot covering the ground and temperatures hovering around freezing, conditions were not exactly ripe for baseball.
Virginia coach Brian O'Connor would not have to deal with this sort of thing at Auburn.
In southeast Alabama the climate is much milder this time of year and during the heart of the season the Tigers draw as many as 4,000 fans. The SEC school tried to lure O'Connor away from the Cavaliers in the summer of 2004 after only one year at Virginia. And considering Auburn's history of success, O'Connor must have been tempted to trade in his Virginia uniform and head south.
But O'Connor knows that in Charlottesville, the snow melts before too long. The temperature rose to 61 degrees yesterday after a frigid weekend, providing almost ideal baseball conditions. And although O'Connor's squad suffered a 5-1 loss to its in-state rivals, the Virginia skipper has to believe he has made the right decision to stay in central Virginia.
Virginia has never been much of a baseball powerhouse, but O'Connor is on his way to changing that. The Cavaliers had never reached the NCAA Regionals two consecutive years until O'Connor arrived. But during the two seasons with O'Connor in charge, Virginia recorded more than 40 victories and even earned a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Regionals for the first time in school history.
O'Connor has started something here at Virginia and it seems like he'll be around for the long haul to finish the job.
In the hyper-competitive ACC, O'Connor managed to land the conference's top recruiting class coming into the 2006 season. Clemson is currently the nation's No. 1-ranked team and Georgia Tech and North Carolina occupy the No. 3 and No. 4 spots, respectively, but the future of the ACC seems to reside in Charlottesville.
"We've got a lot of talented players that are new players to the program," O'Connor said. "It's just a matter of how they continue to develop and adjust to college baseball."
One of O'Connor's freshmen, starting second baseman David Adams, was drafted in the 21st round of the 2005 MLB draft, but elected to come to Virginia instead of joining the Detroit Tigers system. Two other newcomers, pitcher Shooter Hunt (34th round) and third baseman Jeremy Farrell (41st round), also chose the Cavaliers over professional contracts.
And the players he already has here aren't too shabby, either. Sophomore first baseman/pitcher Sean Doolittle earned preseason All-America honors after a stellar freshman campaign. In his first season wearing a Cavalier uniform, Doolittle hit .313 with 11 home runs and 57 RBI while going 3-2 with a 1.64 ERA in relief work. Playing for Team U.S.A. this summer, Doolittle hit .347, good enough for second on the team.
Left fielder Brandon Guyer returns after a stellar freshman season when he posted a .282 batting average. Casey Lambert, the school's career leader in saves, returns for his junior season this year. Sophomores Robert Poutier (5-1, 0.73 ERA, 49.0 IP) and Pat McAnaney (7-0, 1.55 ERA, 52.1 IP) are also back.
McAnaney recorded the first loss of his career yesterday and team captain Tom Hagan and Doolittle both looked dejected during the post-game press conference, but the young Cavaliers have plenty of time to improve before ACC play.
"This game is different from other college sports in that we play 56 ball games," O'Connor said. "The way you go about your business is sometimes different every day and the approach of the team. With half of our kids being new, they need to learn about what that approach has to be every day."
With only three of those 56 games under their belt thus far, this will certainly not be the only storm the Cavaliers will have to weather this season. Even so, with O'Connor at the helm, the long-term forecast looks warm and sunny for the Virginia baseball program.
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