The Virginia baseball team has backed up its No. 1 ranking this season, dominating opponents in its quest for the first national championship in team history. This weekend, the Cavaliers head north for a weekend matchup against Boston College (15-24, 6-14 ACC), hoping to retain that momentum before breaking for final exams.
Virginia (40-4, 18-3 ACC) comes to the series after its midweek game against VCU was cancelled because of rain, and coach Brian O'Connor expressed some concern about the downtime, a lull his team has not been accustomed to this season.
"This game's meant to be played every day or as much as possible to keep your skill level [high]," O'Connor said. "But we can't do anything about Mother Nature and we just take from it what we can."
The cancellation actually may have helped the Cavaliers get some needed rest - the team had to head to Boston early yesterday morning for extra practice time, as the Eagles' field lacks lights. Practice will be important for Virginia, which must work to maintain its finely-tuned quality of play through finals.
"Final exams is always an interesting time for us because we don't play a game for 10 days," O'Connor said. "That's a long period of time not to play. The message is to continue to push forward ... and finish strong so that we can feel good coming out of the final exam break."
The break will halt a rolling Cavaliers team which has been performing superbly in all aspects of the game. Their .312 team batting average puts the Cavaliers in the top 25 in the country, while their 2.31 team ERA ranks sixth in the nation. The pitching staff has been outstanding, with juniors Danny Hultzen and Will Roberts each picking up eight wins, tied for fifth in the nation. Saturday's starter, senior Tyler Wilson, may trail Hultzen and Roberts in wins, but his coach recognizes his performances should have merited better results.
"He has five wins on the year, but quite frankly he should probably have seven or eight," O'Connor said. "That's baseball that he hasn't been able to win those games, but ... he's a big time starter in our league and can do it every time out."
Virginia's formidable rotation and lineup have produced an almost unbelievable .909 win percentage and its 40-4 record constitutes the best start in school history.
"We've got a bunch of good players that work very hard," Hultzen said of the success. "One of the great things about this team is that everyone stays level-headed. No one lets success or failure go to their head."
That mentality will be helpful as Virginia faces a Boston College team which desperately needs an upset this weekend. The Eagles have won only two of their last 10 games, and will require some help to make next month's ACC Tournament.
"Every team in our league desires [to be] one of the top eight teams to be playing in Durham in the ACC Tournament," O'Connor said. "They're in a position now with three weekends left that they need to win some ball games against some good league opponents to have that opportunity."
The Eagles have yet to win a game against teams in the top of the ACC standings. They also have struggled to find consistent starting pitching, with only two players starting more than five games for the team, and have posted a 5.56 team ERA. Coming from a tough ACC, however, Boston College still poses a threat for a Cavalier team which hopes to head to the break on a high note.
"They had a very good club last year, an NCAA Tournament team with some powerful hitters, so we're going to have to go up there and play the same baseball that we have all season long," O'Connor said. "If we do that I think the results will be good"
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