With two more months remaining in the regular season, the Cavalier baseball team hopes 2007 won't be a rollercoaster, because they are on a high.
After taking two out of three from the Tar Heels in Chapel Hill last weekend, Virginia (19-4, 3-3 ACC) moved up to No. 5 in Baseball America's poll.
"Any time you can win two out of three on the road in this league, that's a very successful weekend," Virginia coach Brian O'Connor said. "I thought we played very good baseball this weekend, especially offensively. We swung the bats very well against a pretty talented pitching staff."
The Cavaliers put up nine runs this weekend. UNC entered the series with a 2.10 ERA and left with a sky-rocketed 2.47 ERA three games later.
Due to rain Friday, the opener was cancelled in lieu of a doubleheader Sunday. Virginia claimed victory in the first two games of the series, but the Cavaliers failed to secure the sweep, losing the second game Sunday 9-4. Freshman Matt Packer picked up the loss on the game.
"It's very difficult in baseball to sweep a doubleheader," O'Connor said. "The majority of the time, it's a split. Carolina had its back against the wall and we got their best baseball."
UNC picked up three runs in the second inning of the final game. Virginia failed to turn a double play that O'Connor said kept Packer in a tight squeeze and caused much of his demise.
"[Packer] pitched better than the scoreboard showed," O'Connor said. "He's a guy that will not have a lot of strikeouts and will force the other team to put the ball in play, and you've got to make the plays behind him."
Though Packer did not perform his best last weekend, the Cavalier bullpen found little problem retiring Tar Heel batters.
The Virginia bullpen allowed four runs in 13 innings this weekend. Junior Jake Rule (2-1) and sophomore Andrew Carraway (3-0) both had impressive performances. Rule pitched three innings Saturday, giving up one run on three hits and picking up the win in the extra-inning game.
Carraway pitched three runs in the first game Sunday, allowing one run on four hits, also picking up the win.
"The back half of the game is, arguably, the most important," Carraway said. "If you can be successful there, you're going to be successful in the end."
Today, the Cavaliers travel to Richmond to take on the Spiders (9-9).
The Spiders have won four of their last five games, finding victories over Yale, Old Dominion, Valparaiso and Towson.
The Spiders have also played William & Mary and VMI this season, teams Virginia has already beaten. Richmond lost to VMI 2-1 and W&M 9-3.
"With these midweek games, it's easy to let down, since you've got the really intense weekend series," Carraway said. "But if you let up at all, a team like Richmond, at their place, can beat you."
Nonetheless, Carraway said the victory over UNC should give the team plenty of confidence going into Richmond.
Making the midweek start for the Cavaliers will be junior Pat McAnaney. The southpaw is coming off an injury he suffered before the season began and will fight to get a place in the Cavalier rotation. The start will be his first of the season and his second appearance of the year.
With so much success thus far for Virginia, O'Connor and Carraway agreed that Virginia has plenty of reasons to be happy, as long as they take Richmond seriously.
With plenty of games left to play, the Cavaliers hope this season will be more like an airplane and less like a parachute.
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