The No. 16 Virginia baseball team will come into its matchups against Georgetown tonight and William & Mary tomorrow with renewed confidence following an 11th-inning win against Wake Forest Sunday.
Virginia (31-11, 13-8 ACC) won two of three against the Demon Deacons, this weekend, overcoming a tough 14-3 loss Saturday night to win 3-2 Sunday in 11 innings, restoring lost confidence.
"After you lose a game like you did [Saturday] night, there's some confidence issues," Virginia coach Brian O'Connor said. "It gets the team feeling good about ourselves and knowing that they don't have to succeed all the time in an individual at-bat or a play, that a teammate will pick them up to give them a chance to win."
The teammate Virginia has continued to look to during this season has been sophomore catcher Franco Valdes, who has been a force at and behind the plate. He came up big Sunday with a double to start the rally toward the victory.
"Franco has come up with a lot of big clutch hits, and I love that," O'Connor said. "He's swinging a hot bat when his team needs him the most."
Not only was Valdes' presence appreciated at the plate Sunday, but the pitchers also could rely on him behind the plate to block pitches at crucial times when runners were on base.
"I came in in the eighth," senior pitcher Michael Schwimer said of Sunday's match. "And I [threw] a slider in the dirt, and I know I can do that because I know Franco's going to block everything."
Valdes earned the position as Virginia's go-to catcher after transferring from Broward Community College in Miami.
"The reason that Franco Valdes is catching every day is because he's got energy behind the plate," O'Connor said. "He handles the pitchers very well, he's athletic, he's got quick feet, he blocks balls and that's what you need. There are countless balls late in that ballgame [Sunday] that we threw sliders in the dirt, and the kid blocked every one of them."
Valdes' high-intensity play -- as well as the team's overall energy -- must continue if the Cavaliers want to emerge as a top contender in the ACC. One of its next opponents, William & Mary (29-12, 13-7 Colonial Athletic Conference) will offer a serious challenge, having just come off a weekend sweep of VCU and having won 13 of its last 15 games.
Now that Virginia has worked through its early season problems and its players have gained more experience, the Cavaliers hope to be successful on the road ahead.
"They're 40 games into the season now, and they're like veterans now." O'Connor said. "All the experiences that they've had throughout this year, they should now be going out there with all the confidence in the world that they can perform at this level."
The Cavaliers will test their ability tonight and tomorrow with the first pitch for both contests at 6 p.m.
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