Tuesday night felt like a microcosm of the Virginia baseball season — an overpowering performance fueled by timely offense, shutdown pitching and fundamental defense. It was a cut and dry approach that may not have been thrilling, but it accomplished exactly what it needed to and left the Cavaliers once again ahead after nine innings.
Victories have become commonplace for the Cavaliers this season. They have taken the field 43 times this season, and 37 times they have left victorious. It has been a stunning run, but it was in no way assured heading into this season. Two months ago, the now-mighty Cavaliers started their season off the national radar.
“Coming in the season, we had a lot of guys that weren’t really proven,” redshirt senior Jared King said.
Outside of King on first base, the Cavaliers lost their entire starting infield to graduation. They turned to sophomores Nick Howard and Branden Cogswell and senior Reed Gragnani to fill the spots — all of whom had some starting experience, but they were quickly thrust into the spotlight at one of college baseball’s premier schools.
On the pitching staff, the doubts were even bigger. Coming into the season, the grand total of collegiate starts among Cavalier pitchers was 17 — and the bullpen was largely made up of freshmen. Injuries kept redshirt junior Whit Mayberry and junior Artie Lewicki on the sidelines for the beginning of the season, and the coaching staff was not sure when or if they would pitch. This doubt was enough to leave the powerhouse Cavaliers off the top 25 in most of the national preseason polls. The players, however, gave little credence to what anyone was saying about their team.
“Going into the season, I wasn’t really focused on how many wins we were going to get, where our ranking was,” freshman starter Brandon Waddell said. “Our focus really as a team was just to be the best that we can be, and everything else would take care of itself.”
The inexperienced players quickly adjusted, as the team reeled off 14 consecutive wins and lost just three games in the first half of the season. The questions surrounding the pitching staff seemed to vanish as the weekend rotation of Waddell, redshirt senior Scott Silverstein and Howard gave strong performance after strong performance. The bullpen, anchored by junior Kyle Crockett, consistently slammed the door shut in late innings. Virginia feasted on midweek opponents and took five straight weekend series from ACC teams. The team quickly ascended the rankings, jumping from unranked to No. 25 to No. 8 in short order.
“Our expectations are always up there,” sophomore outfielder Derek Fisher said. “You learn the second you step in here that the expectations are through the roof, and you learn pretty quickly that the way we go about things is that we have the mentality that we can beat anybody.”
Given coach Brian O’Connor’s success in Charlottesville, the team’s ascension probably should not have come as a great surprise. He has guided the Cavaliers to nine consecutive postseason appearances in a system predicated on breaking down the game into absolute fundamentals — limiting errors in the field, throwing strikes on the mound and swinging at the right pitches at the plate.
“We just strung together good at bats,” Cogswell said. “Pitchers were throwing their pitches, hitting their spots. It’s fun to be a part of when everything offensively, on the mound, and defensively is clicking. You enjoy being out there.”
Two weeks ago, that run seemed to hit a rough patch. A shocking midweek loss to Radford gave the team its first non-conference loss of the season, and the following weekend the team dropped two of three games to Georgia Tech in a big ACC series. Last Wednesday, the Cavaliers barely escaped in extra innings against Old Dominion. The stretch gave the Cavaliers true adversity for the first time in the season, but they felt it was a necessary experience.
“That’s baseball,” O’Connor said. “You’re not going to roll through this season winning all of your ballgames. I think the true character of a team is how they respond maybe when you hit that wall or things don’t go your way.”
Their response was immediate and ended any ideas that the Cavaliers’ bubble was about to burst. Against then-No. 5 Florida State, Virginia strung together three brilliant performances, as Waddell, Silverstein and Howard each threw career performances in a three-game sweep. On college baseball’s biggest stage, the Cavaliers showed how far they have come this season. The wins propelled Virginia to a consensus No. 5 ranking, but O’Connor is careful to not let his players think too much of high rankings, just as they did with low rankings.
“I hope they don’t think about [success] in those terms,” O’Connor said. “Obviously this was a big weekend, but there’s a lot left to play and a lot left to play for. … I don’t think that the players will think that this cements them into any kind of category moving forward, other than just to draw a lot of confidence that you beat a high-caliber opponent.”
Having reached their highest point of the season so far, the Cavaliers still have a long way to go. Though the school year is ending, their schedule still goes on for another month. There are three more ACC series, including a dangerous trip to No. 1 North Carolina on the final weekend of the regular season. After that lie the ACC tournament and the prospect of the NCAA tournament. The athletic department certainly has faith in the team — and are already selling tickets for a possible regional or super regional series in Charlottesville. The Cavaliers always believed that they were going to be able to build a good season, and now they just want to keep their run going as far as it can go.
“I definitely think we’re a good team,” Silverstein said. “I definitely thought we were a good team coming into the season. We’ve had some hiccups along the way, but that’s part of a long baseball season. I’m hoping we can grind it out the rest of the way.”
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