It all changed with one swing of the bat.
Until last Saturday, the No. 6 Cavalier baseball team (32-8, 11-6 ACC) was in a funk. It had all started one week before, when the Cavaliers lost an embarrassing game to Duke (23-16, 4-14 ACC) in which the Cavaliers committed two errors and gave up 13 runs.
The funk continued the next day, when the defense committed another two errors, and into the following week against VCU (21-15). Though the Cavaliers put eight runs on the board, they committed another two errors and scored many of their runs on thoughtless mistakes by VCU.
Last weekend, Virginia hosted a tough Georgia Tech squad that had forced the Cavaliers against a wall. The Yellow Jackets (23-14, 10-7 ACC) stole Friday's game, winning on a passed ball and a suicide squeeze. The next day they were one out away from taking Saturday's game and the series.
Fortunately for the Cavaliers, sophomore David Adams had other plans. He took a pitch off junior Danny Payne and torched it in to the left-field bleachers, giving the Cavaliers the 7-6 win on the walk-off homerun.
With Sunday's game rained out, Virginia had to prove Tuesday against Richmond that Adams' homerun was no aberration.
And the Cavaliers did not disappoint.
Virginia squashed the Spiders Tuesday, tagging Richmond for 12 runs on 16 hits, winning 12-5.
Senior Mike Mitchell, who wore No. 42 in honor of Jackie Robinson, led the Virginia attack with four hits. Sophomore Greg Miclat stole two bases, setting the single-season Virginia record for stolen bases with 27. Junior Brandon Guyer extended his hitting streak to 25 games, the longest current streak in the ACC.
But, today, the Cavaliers have a much more daunting task ahead of them as they travel to No. 14 Clemson, the Cavaliers' most anticipated series of the season.
"All three of these games are sold out; they've been sold out for awhile," Virginia coach Brian O'Connor said. "It's going to be a great environment for our players to play in."
Doug Kingsmore Stadium is known for its rowdy fans and is known as one of the finest stadiums in college baseball by Baseball America. The stadium is consistently a host in the NCAA regional tournaments.
"You know there's going to be some heckling down there, but we need to play within ourselves, and play Virginia baseball," Miclat said. "Take it one game at a time, execute, do all the fundamentals and we'll be fine."
Clemson is an aggressive team, having stolen 107 bases in 2006, requiring the Cavaliers to focus on fundamentals. If the Cavaliers aren't on their game, the Tigers' ferocity could be too much to handle.
"When [there are] two good opponents, I think it comes down to the final couple of innings, who wants it more, and who makes the plays and who gets the clutch hits," O'Connor said.
If O'Connor is correct, this weekend's series could look very much like last weekend's series against Georgia Tech -- intense and not over until the very last pitch.
Clemson is coming off a season in which it advanced to the College World Series. Though the Tigers lost 14 lettermen from the 2006 squad, they are still one of the nation's top teams. They have one of the ACC's weakest offenses, but the Tigers don't allow many runs, hits or walks, and they have won plenty of games.
The team is confident that if the Cavalier offense can get on the board, the Virginia pitching staff should be able to hold down the Tiger offense.
"I think our starting pitching's got to be able to go out there and match them," O'Connor said. "Hopefully we can hang in there and beat them at the end."
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