Brian O’Connor warned a few weeks ago that at some point this season, Virginia would, as he put it, “get punched in the mouth.” That shot to the kisser came this weekend in Coral Gables, where Miami strengthened its grip on first place in the Coastal Division by sweeping O’Connor’s Cavaliers.
The biggest series in the country proved largely one-sided; a “humbling weekend,” as the head baseball coach called it on Monday afternoon. Miami held the Hoos to just two hits on Friday night, then escaped a bases-loaded jam in the ninth for a one-run win on Saturday before pulling away for a 10-run victory on Sunday to complete the sweep. It ended a streak of eight straight series wins for UVa going back to last April; Miami extended its winning streak to 13 straight games, including nine in a row against ACC opponents.
It’s also the first time UVa has lost consecutive games this spring. Now 26-6 overall and 9-6 in the ACC after getting swept, Virginia dropped five spots to No. 8 in the latest D1Baseball.com Top 25 on Monday. Miami jumped from that No. 8 spot to No. 2 in the country in those rankings.
“The season’s a journey. It’s a long journey and every one of them is different,“ O’Connor said before Monday’s practice at Disharoon Park. “This is our weekend when we got it put to us and we’ve got to work and get a little bit better at practice and take on ODU [Tuesday] night.”
O’Connor has never had a team in his 19 seasons at Virginia go a full season without dropping an ACC series. His 2011 and 2014 teams, which both wound up in Omaha, came the closest, losing only their final weekend series before the conference tournament. UVa hasn’t run through ACC play without getting swept since the 2017 season.
He also contended that if Kyle Teel’s sharply-hit ball with the bases loaded hadn’t been ripped right back toward Miami closer Andrew Walters, it likely drives in a pair of runs and gives the Wahoos a ninth-inning lead on Saturday night. Instead, Walters was able to get Teel at first base to end the game, possibly changing the complexion of the entire series.
“Most of the season this year, in the first half of the year, a lot of those things have went our way,” O’Connor said, “and it didn’t this weekend. So we’ve just got to stay with it and continue to do what’s made us successful.”
But the Hurricanes were also able to expose some concerns for the UVa coaching staff. Miami out-slugged the nation’s best offense all weekend, hitting seven home runs across the three games. Virginia pitchers had given up a total of 15 home runs through the first four weekends of ACC play. UVa pitchers also issued what O’Connor called “bad walks,” particularly in the final two games of the series.
“When you face a really good offense like Miami has,” O’Connor said, “if you don’t execute they expose you.”
O’Connor hopes to use Tuesday night’s game against Old Dominion as an opportunity to get some of his pitchers back on track. That starts with right-hander Will Geerdes, who will make his first UVa start against the Monarchs.
The grad transfer from Columbia has been the team’s closer for most of the year, but because of the dominance of the Cavaliers’ offense, has yet to pitch in a save situation. On Sunday, he took over for starter Jake Berry with the Hoos trailing 5-3 after 3 1/2 innings. After a leadoff strikeout, Geerdes allowed the next seven hitters to reach base—four walks, two singles and a hit batter—before getting pulled. Geerdes was charged with six runs (five earned) in 1/3 of an inning; his season ERA ballooned from 1.53 to 4.00.
“This guy needs innings,” O’Connor explained. “He needs to learn how to pitch, and so I felt like the best thing for our team is to give him a chance to start tomorrow and then chop the game up from there.”
The plan is for at least four pitchers to get work against the Monarchs, with O’Connor mentioning Dylan Bowers and freshman Jay Woolfolk as other relievers he expects to take the mound. Bowers worked 2/3 of an inning in Sunday’s loss; Woolfolk pitched 1 2/3 innings on Saturday, and gave up the tying run on a wild pitch.
O’Connor shot down the suggestion that with Geerdes starting on Tuesday, Devin Ortiz could be in line for a bigger pitching role on weekends. Ortiz has started five midweek games for UVa this season, but won’t be making his second career start against ODU on Tuesday. His first, a game that will live in UVa postseason baseball lore, came in the deciding game of last year’s NCAA Columbia Regional. It was Ortiz’s first career start on the mound; he ended the game with a walk-off home run in the 10th inning.
Old Dominion brings a 22-8 record to Disharoon Park for Tuesday’s rematch. The Monarchs rank seventh in the country in scoring at 9.7 runs per game; UVa still leads the country, averaging 10.3 runs per game. ODU’s 66 home runs as a team—18 more than the Hoos have hit—is third-most nationally.
Virginia has lost just once in 20 games at Disharoon Park, and a perfect 17-0 against non-conference opponents this season. O’Connor is eager to see how his team responds to its first true setback of the season.
“All I’m consumed with is [Tuesday] night we come out and play good Virginia baseball,” he said. “I don’t know whether we’ll win the game or not, but I just want us to play a good style of aggressive baseball.”
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