For the sixth time in program history, the Virginia Cavaliers will travel the 1,186 miles from Charlottesville to Omaha to play in the College World Series. UVa clinched the latest trip to Omaha with a 2-1 Super Regional series win over conference-rival Duke at Disahroon Park, playing in front of three sell-out crowds.
Before UVa makes the trek to “somewhere in the middle of America,” we’re taking a look at how they rallied from a Game 1 loss to the Blue Devils to walk out of a tough series with a pair of convincing wins, as well as a look at what’s ahead for the Wahoos.
Virginia dominated Duke’s pitching throughout the weekend on the way to punching its ticket to Omaha.
After missing a game-winning walk-off home run by a couple of feet on Friday, the Wahoos had their backs against the wall in Saturday’s Game 2. Leadoff hitter Griff O’Ferrall went yard on the second pitch of that game, which set the tone for the rest of the weekend. UVa racked up 26 runs on 30 hits and 10 walks over Saturday and Sunday’s games, en route to a pair of blowouts.
Virginia had success at the plate in all sorts of ways, from pretty much every player in the lineup. UVa hit six home runs, with O’Ferrall and Jake Gelof hitting one each, and Ethan Anderson and Anthony Stephan homering in both Game 2 and Game 3. UVa simply made too many timely hits to give Duke a chance, going 17-for-36 with runners in scoring position, and a whopping 7-for-9 with a runner on 3rd base and less than two outs.
The Cavaliers kept putting the ball in play, too, with just eight strikeouts over their two victories. Avoiding K’s and advancing runners can be pivotal in postseason baseball, and they simply kept the line moving all weekend.
Anderson had a tremendous weekend at the plate for the Hoos, and probably had the biggest impact on the series win as anyone on the team. On Saturday, UVa jumped out to a 4-0 lead but a three-run fourth inning made the game tight once again. In the subsequent half inning, Anderson got those runs back with a three-run homer, easily clearing the right-field fence. And on Sunday, he drew three walks and went 1-for-2 in his other two trips to the plate, with the one hit being a two-run home run in the sixth to once again help the Cavaliers answer, going up 9-2 after the Blue Devils made it 5-2 with a homer of their own.
UVa will take the hot bats to the CWS hoping to keep the line moving and continue to put pressure on their opponents. The Wahoos have punished the ball in the postseason, outscoring their opponents 55-16 in their six games over the past two weekends. Simply put, if they keep hitting like they did this weekend, they can beat anybody they’ll face in Omaha.
While UVa was excellent at the plate, the Hoos have gotten it done on the mound, too.
While the hitting will draw most of the headlines from the weekend, and rightfully so, what the Cavaliers did on the mound was impressive, too. Duke has a lineup that can make opponents pay if they put too many runners on base, or have a shaky at-bat here and there. Virginia saw that first hand in Friday’s series opener, and on Saturday when the Blue Devils rallied for three runs with two outs and two strikes to back-to-back hitters.
Nick Parker had a quality outing on Friday, allowing three runs in 6.2 innings pitched with four strikeouts before being pulled in the seventh. Jay Woolfolk was charged with Duke’s two runs in the seventh that ultimately won the game for the Blue Devils, but UVa didn’t lose Game 1 purely on pitching. And in the two subsequent games, good pitching early in both contests allowed the Hoos to get off to good starts, going up 4-0 on Saturday and 5-0 on Sunday.
Connelly Early started Saturday’s Game 2, and was once again excellent after a great outing to clinch last weekend’s Regional. He threw 107 pitches against Duke on Saturday, allowing three runs in seven innings of work, finishing with eight strikeouts and no walks. Early gave up nine hits but shut the Blue Devils down when he needed to, outside of the fourth inning where all three runs were unearned.
And on Sunday, Brian Edgington took it the distance. The sixth-year starter threw a complete game on 114 pitches, striking out 11 batters and allowing just two runs, both on a homer that barely cleared the fence in the sixth inning. Edgington, like Early, has been excellent in both of his starts in the NCAA Tournament, handling the Blue Devils after breezing past Army in the opening game of the Regional.
Having both starting pitchers in Games 2 and 3 combining for just one walk is astounding, and it helped keep a potent Duke offense from having too many opportunities to move runners over and start rallies. It’s also worth noting how little UVa had to rely on its bullpen throughout the Super Regional: Virginia used seven pitchers throughout the three-game Super Regional, with just three bullpen appearance (Evan Blanco, Woolfolk, and Jake Berry on Friday and Jake O’Connor on Saturday) with none repeating. Duke used nine different pitchers on Sunday alone, and had 16 appearances throughout the weekend.
UVa’s four-team pod for Omaha is set.
The Wahoos will open the eight-team tournament with No. 2 seed Florida on Friday night (7 p.m., ESPN), as the Gators survived a scare in their regional where they played out of the loser’s bracket following a loss to Texas Tech. They eventually beat the Red Raiders twice to advance. In the Supers, they handled conference rival South Carolina in a two-game sweep to head back to Omaha.
Florida and UVa squared off in the 2015 College World Series three times, with the Hoos taking two of three to move on to the Championship Series, eventually taking down Vanderbilt to win it all. The Gators have another talented team, led by All-American outfielder Wyatt Langford, who is hitting .373 this season with 18 homers, and will go very high in the upcoming MLB Draft.
TCU will also appear on UVa’s side of the bracket, and will head to Omaha as a red-hot and dangerous team. The Horned frogs had a rocky start to the season, and at one point were 23-20, but they’re 19-2 since and haven’t lost in the postseason. After winning the Big 12 Tournament, TCU swept the Fayetteville Regional, knocking out No. 3 overall seed Arkansas to move on. They then hosted No. 14 Indiana State in the Super Regionals, and bested the Sycamores in two games to reach the College World Series. Having lost just two games since May 1st and none in nearly a month, nobody is looking forward to playing the Horned Frogs right now.
And finally, the Cinderella of this year’s field, Oral Roberts, will be the final team on this side of the bracket. ORU clinched its spot on Sunday night, beating Oregon in a Super Regional that went the distance in Eugene. Oral Roberts stunned the college baseball world by coming out of the Stillwater Regional, headlined by No. 11 seed Oklahoma State, to win the regional as the No. 4- seed. When they take the field this weekend, the Golden Eagles will be just the third team to start a regional as a No. 4-seed and make it to Omaha, joining Fresno State and Stony Brook on that list.
Still, ORU is a 51-win team that’s won 23 of its last 24 games, went 23-1 in league play and have already taken down some quality teams in this tournament. So it wouldn’t come as a huge shock if the Golden Eagles find a way to win a game, or more, in Omaha.
We’ll have a more extensive breakdown of the College World Series and UVa’s draw later in the week.
