Brian O’Connor sat at the computer in his office in Disharoon Park, assessing the Virginia baseball team’s slow start with a pair of reporters. At one point, the Cavaliers’ head coach looked off to his right and started reading some statistics off his desk.
“There isn’t going to be many games this year that Zack Gelof is going to go 0-for-4, and Logan Michaels is going to go 0-for-4, and Alex Tappen,” O’Connor said.
That was the box score from Sunday’s series finale at Florida State. A game in which the Wahoos were able to scrape together just two runs on five hits. A game that saw the UVa lineup fail to put a runner on base after the third inning. A game that—thanks to 6.1 innings of one-run baseball from starter Mike Vasil and some late-game “wizardry” from closer Stephen Schoch, who stranded the bases loaded twice in 2.1 innings of work—the Cavaliers still managed to hold on to win, 2-1.
The Wahoos avoided getting swept by the Seminoles with that victory when a loss would have dropped them to 1-5 in the ACC through two weekends of conference play. In turn, That would have been the worst start after two ACC weekends in O’Connor’s 18 seasons at the helm.
But Virginia still returned home at 2-4 in the league and 6-5 overall. On Monday morning, D1Baseball.com dropped the Hoos out of its latest national top 25, after spending last week at No. 16. Baseball America had UVa at No. 21 in the country, a week after they were ranked eighth, and two weeks after they sat at No. 2.
“At some point, you’ve got to win the series,” O’Connor said. “In order to be successful in league play, you’ve got to win two out of three. And in order to win at the end of the year, you’ve got to win a series. To go to Omaha, it comes down to winning two out of three.”
The margin for error has been razor-thin for the Cavaliers early in ACC play. Prior to traveling to Tallahassee, they went 1-2 in three one-run games at North Carolina. Over UVa’s two conference weekends, opposing starters have combined for a 1.86 ERA and 42 strikeouts in 38.2 innings pitched.
Despite leading the ACC with 29 strikeouts and 18.1 innings pitched, and also ranking among the league leaders in both ERA (1.96) and opponent’s batting average (.161), UVa Friday night starter Andrew Abbott is just 1-2 through three outings. The senior left-hander has been out-dueled in both of his conference starts.
Last Friday in Tallahassee, his 14 strikeouts were the most for a UVa starter since Nathan Kirby struck out 18 in his no-hitter at Pitt in 2014. But a pair of rare two-out walks in the third inning—Abbott has only walked six batters on the season—led to a single by Florida State’s Robby Martin that scored both baserunners. They were the only two runs of the ballgame.
In his eight innings for FSU on Friday, starter Parker Messick gave up just three hits and no walks, and struck out 11. The lefty and reliever Hunter Perdue combined for the first shutout of the Cavaliers since March 2019. On Monday, Messick was named ACC pitcher of the week for that performance.
“It’s hard to imagine you have a Friday night starter who strikes out 14, and maybe the other guy did a little bit better. But he did do just a little bit better,” O’Connor said. “It’s not just about the strikeouts. It’s about the runs on the board.”
And that has been a consistent challenge for O’Connor’s team early in ACC play. UVa has scored just 12 runs through six conference games, the fewest in the league. The Hoos also rank at the bottom of the league in batting average (.165), on-base percentage (.215) and slugging percentage (.213) in conference games.
The overall numbers aren’t much better. The team’s 52 runs rank eighth in the ACC but that total is bolstered by a pair of midweek double-digit performances against VMI and George Washington. UVa’s batting average (.218) is 13th in the 14-team league and the Wahoos are again last in both on-base (.311) and slugging (.296). They’ve hit a league-low three home runs.
Contrast those early overall statistics with last season’s: UVa was among the top teams in the country in several categories (seventh in runs per game (9.0), 18th in batting average (.309), sixth in slugging percentage (.514), 10th in home runs (22) and 11th in on-base percentage (.418)) when the pandemic abruptly ended the season after 18 games. All nine regulars from that lineup are back in the UVa dugout this year.
Amid those struggles, players have talked about leaning on the fundamentals they’ve learned from the UVa coaching staff and resisting the urge to tinker with swings. Using senior infielder Devin Ortiz as an example, O’Connor said the worst thing players can do is panic.
“There’s been eight balls so far this year that that guy has hit on the absolute screws, right at the center fielder or right at the left fielder,” O’Connor said. “And if it’s 10 feet to the right or the left, it’s a double. That’s just the game.
“What you can’t do is get frustrated with it,” he added. “You’ve just got to stay with it and steady, and all of a sudden a few of those fall, and you’re in a different mindset.”
The Cavaliers open a season-long eight-game homestand today against Richmond. This weekend, they will welcome Notre Dame to town, a team that, like UVa, has played back-to-back road series to open ACC play. The Fighting Irish have already taken two of three at both Wake Forest and Clemson.
In total, UVa plays 11 of its next 12 games in Charlottesville. Pitt and Miami will also come to town for ACC weekends as part of that stretch. Last year’s team was 13-2 at home when the season ended. This year’s veteran group has a chance to regain some similar momentum over these next three weeks.
“We’ve just got to keep working. There’s not a magic pill for it,” O’Connor said. “Anybody would tell you that we had thought that we’d be in a better position at this point. All that we can do is continue to work, continue to fight, and I just really, really believe that the game will come back around to you.”
JOIN CAVSCORNER TODAY!
If you are not already a member of CavsCorner, come join us and see what all of the buzz is about.
Click HERE to subscribe and get all of the latest news and join hundreds of other UVa fans in talking about Cavalier football, basketball, and recruiting. You won't be disappointed!
