Careers come full circle for UVa fifth-year seniors
When Alex Tappen first got to Virginia four years ago, his weight-lifting partners included Caleb Knight and Will Allocca. When an injury to Cam Simmons prompted the Hoos to move Tappen to the outfield, Simmons and Jake McCarthy were both quick to take the first-year under their wing.
Knight was a senior catcher in his second season in that UVa program that fall, back in 2017. McCarthy and Simmons were both juniors, while Allocca was entering his second season in the program. To Tappen, they were all invaluable resources at the outset of his Virginia baseball career.
“It’s just the work and the dedication that it takes, and the accountability that you have to take,” Tappen recalled taking from those veterans. “Not only for the baseball side of it but also for school. Those were definitely things that were enforced on me pretty early from those guys, which definitely were super impactful in my journey here.”
Now Tappen is the sage veteran trying to share his wisdom with the next generation of new UVa baseball players this fall. He’s one of three players, along with infielder/pitcher Devin Ortiz and pitcher Paul Kosanovich, taking advantage of the extra year of eligibility granted by the NCAA by returning to Virginia for a final college season.
Kosanovich joined the program as a junior college transfer for the 2019 season. Tappen and Ortiz arrived a year earlier as freshmen. Neither expected to one day be entering a fifth season in Charlottesville. But when head coach Brian O’Connor left the door open after last summer’s run to the College World Series, both players made the decision to return.
“This is my fifth year. It’s crazy to believe how fast it flew by,” said Ortiz. “But one more year of eligibility and this is my last time I can use it, so I’m happy that I’m able to come back and do it here, for sure.”
“I don’t think I would really be able to live with myself if I left a year of eligibility on the table and moved with life. I’m not ready to do that,” admitted Tappen. “I love baseball too much and I love this program too much.”
The Wahoos went just 29-25 that 2018 season when Ortiz and Tappen were freshmen and missed the NCAA Tournament for the first time in O’Connor’s tenure, which dates back to 2004. They missed the postseason again in 2019, then most of the 2020 season was canceled because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Last season, the Hoos overcame an 11-14 start (including a 4-12 ACC record) to not only end the program’s postseason drought but reach the College World Series. It was Virginia’s fifth trip to Omaha, all since 2008, but a new experience for every player on the roster.
Tappen homered three times in 10 games in his first NCAA Tournament, while Ortiz finished with a team-high nine postseason RBI and also carved his name in Virginia baseball lore with four shutout innings and a walk-off homer against Old Dominion to send the Hoos to a super regional. The two players stayed in contact while considering whether to return to UVa this fall. Both were drawn in part by the lure of unfinished business.
“I guess the goal this year is to obviously do the same thing,” Ortiz said, “but this time, win it.”
During those conversations over the summer, they also discussed the responsibility that comes with being a fifth-year senior in the UVa program. They returned this fall as the veterans on a roster that, between transfers and incoming freshmen, features 18 players who weren’t part of last year’s CWS run. In workouts this fall—the Cavaliers officially open fall practice on Tuesday, with a scrimmage against the Ontario Blue Jays on Saturday and the annual Orange & Blue World Series set to start next week—Ortiz and Tappen have tried to figure out their personal leadership styles.
“It’s important to have these conversations with the younger guys,” Ortiz said, "and tell them, ‘Obviously when we’re at the field, we’re gonna work hard on baseball. But it’s beyond that. It’s managing your education and your time management, and just doing the best that you can for yourself and also for us.”
Ortiz admitted that it took him a few months to learn those lessons as a first-year. He praised the collective baseball IQ of the Cavaliers’ newcomers, while Tappen has been impressed by their ability to process and apply the information that’s been thrown at them in workouts. The new freshmen have also picked up on the importance of showing up at Disharoon Park each day ready to work.
“That’s something you learn pretty quickly here,” Tappen said, “because if not then you kind of get left behind. But they’re definitely quick learners and they’re definitely asking all the right questions and they’re doing the things that they need to do, which is super important in the initial stages of being here and being in this program.”
And when Tappen is talking with those rookies, in his head he can hear his old mentors like Caleb Knight and Will Allocca delivering the same messages to him when he was a freshman.
"I definitely hear myself saying some of the same things,” he admitted with a chuckle. “It’s just so funny because it goes to show that we have a culture here at the University of Virginia and everybody is bought into it. And when you’re going over these ideas and these concepts to these first years, and you stop and you think about it, you’re like, ‘Wow. I’ve really taken this for a ride. I’ve taken all of this information from all of these people and now it’s my turn to give back, which is a super cool experience.’”
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