The 2007 Cavalier baseball team has begun to rise above the pack. At 8-4 in the ACC, Virginia is tied for first place in the Coastal Division with Georgia Tech and North Carolina. Virginia already brought down UNC and will look to take Georgia Tech next weekend.
At No. 3 in the country, Virginia has climbed six spots since the beginning of the season, slowly sifting through the competition and rising above the top teams in the nation.
In the lineup and the pitching staff, which are both in the top 10 in the country, individual players are rising to the top of the roster and becoming the driving force for the Cavaliers.
Though he is just a freshman, Matt Packer has climbed his way into the rotation as the Saturday starter and set himself apart from the rest of his class.
Virginia coach Brian O'Connor and the rest of the coaching staff saw Packer rise to the top to claim the prestigious rotation spot he now holds.
As a senior in high school, Packer went 14-0 with 180 strikeouts and a 0.48 ERA in 87 innings.
That was good enough to have Virginia call his name. But his high school stats alone didn't get him into the rotation.
"We recruited Neal Davis, Matt Packer and Jeff Lorick with all the same intentions that all three of them could pitch significantly for us," O'Connor said. "Through fall ball, Matt Packer showed that he was consistent. I felt that Matt Packer had a special quality to him -- not that the other guys don't. But he's got a lot of poise and he can pitch in the clutch, and that's what you need to do to win on the weekends."
When the club returned to Charlottesville after Winter Break, Packer received the news that he would be competing with other pitchers for a weekend spot.
With one week to go before the beginning of the season, Packer was told he had won the right to start Sunday. He had one week to prove right off the bat he was everything his scouting report said he would be. But the wait was not as nerve-racking as one might think.
"[Finding out] was almost a relief," Packer said. "Because we didn't know who was throwing, and once we finally knew, we could focus on the one game."
That one game came in Conway, S.C. Feb. 17 against Coastal Carolina, which currently stands at No. 14 in the country.
Packer threw 4.2 innings in his first collegiate game, giving up two runs on seven hits; he took a no-decision in the game.
Like sophomore Jacob Thompson last season, Packer demonstrated that true freshmen can be just as effective as any other players on the field. With less physical development necessary in baseball, O'Connor said there is less of a transition period from high school to college, so freshmen are able to compete better in baseball than in other sports.
Since his first game in South Carolina, Packer has continued to improve and has moved up to the Saturday position in the rotation.
"He's bounced back from average starts to pitching very well like he did against Miami and he's going to continue to do that," O'Connor said. "He's got a lot more poise than most kids do his age."
Now with eight starts under his belt, Packer is 3-1 with a 3.12 ERA. His 44 strikeouts rank sixth in the ACC.
The one stat going against him so far this season is that opposing batters hit .311 against him.
But his quality 3.12 ERA shows Packer knows how to pitch well with runners on base and reflects that his defense plays well behind him.
With about half the season remaining, the biggest games still lie ahead of Packer.
In the next three weeks, he will take on Georgia Tech and No. 18 Clemson, two strong ACC squads.
After rising through the freshman class and proving he can compete at the collegiate level, Packer can now take on the challenge of moving up in the Virginia pitching staff.
Standing alongside Thompson and junior Sean Doolittle, Packer can look to them as examples of the best pitching in the ACC.
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