Veteran leaders helping Hoos stay steady through long season
For the freshman, this slump has been a new experience. But the fifth-year senior has seemingly seen it all.
Casey Saucke was hitless in his last 14 at-bats and just 1-for-his-last-20 heading into Virginia’s game on Sunday against North Carolina. He was back in the lineup for the first time in four games, the longest stretch between starts of his first college season. It was his first time in right field in seven games.
Alex Tappen could relate.
“The biggest thing that I’ve been talking to him and some other guys about is just stay positive, and when your opportunity comes, execute,” the veteran outfielder said. “Do your best to do whatever you can to continue to execute in those situations when you get those opportunities. Because that’s what’s going to allow you to continue to build back up to where you were.”
Tappen has endured his share of struggles in a UVa uniform. He was banged up late in 2019, his sophomore year, and batted just .228 on the season. Hurt again during the COVID-shortened spring of 2020, Tappen appeared in just five of the Hoos’ 18 games. And last year, he temporarily played his way out of the everyday lineup by hitting just .106 (5-for-47) over the season’s first month.
“It’s made me who I am today,” Tappen admitted after his two-hit day on Sunday, including a two-run home run in the bottom of the first inning that ignited a 10-3 UVa victory that completed a three-game sweep of the Tar Heels.
Who Tappen is today is, along with fellow fifth-year Devin Ortiz, one of the veteran leaders not only in a UVa lineup—where both are hitting better than .300 in the heart of the order—that often includes four freshmen, but also as voices in the clubhouse where, according to head coach Brian O’Connor, “what they say off the field and how they carry themselves and their character is tremendous.”
“Every baseball player goes through that,” Tappen said of Saucke’s recent struggles. “But to be able to learn from it and kind of be able to teach other people about it, and how to approach it when it does, when similar situations arise in other people’s scenarios, it’s super important as a leader. And it’s kind of part of the role that I’ve jumped into this year.”
Like Tappen, Saucke arrived at UVa as an infielder but was pressed into service in the outfield as a freshman. Tappen, who was converted to the outfield after Cam Simmons injured his shoulder prior to the 2018 season, started every game in right field that spring, hitting .262 with 13 doubles, four home runs and 36 RBI. Saucke, who began his career with a 21-game hitting streak, was hitting .408 with five homers and 28 RBI in 26 games following a 3-for-4 day in the finale of the Hoos’ three-game series against Georgia Tech three weeks ago.
That average dipped below the .400 line with a 1-for-9 series the following weekend at Miami, where the Wahoos were swept. His struggles deepened at Pitt, where Saucke went hitless in his two starts. The series opener turned on a six-run sixth inning that included Saucke misplaying a fly ball off his glove near the warning track in right field; all three Pitt baserunners scored on the error. He was out of the lineup the next day and the Cavaliers’ designated hitter that Sunday.
Saucke was again the designated hitter last Tuesday at VCU, but struck out looking on three pitches in his lone at-bat before fellow freshman Ethan Anderson was inserted into the DH spot the next time through the order. Saucke remained on the bench until pinch-hitting on Saturday against the Tar Heels.
“When you’re a first-year, a freshman, and you’re playing at this level that many games in a short period of time, it’s tough,” O’Connor said. “So you’ve got to constantly recalibrate and make adjustments. Sitting down for a few games and just working and watching the game sometimes slows it down for you and it allows you to catch your breath, and hopefully he’s gonna be great down this stretch run.”
Saucke felt like his struggles stemmed from not seeing the ball as well coming out of the pitcher’s hand. That pinch-hit appearance on Saturday came during UVa’s rally to win in the 10th inning, when he made good contact on a ball to center field for a sacrifice fly. He drove in the first of seven runs for the Wahoos in the frame, capped by Ortiz’s walk-off grand slam.
That plate appearance gave Saucke some confidence going into his return to the lineup on Sunday. With two hits and a walk, the freshman reached base in three of his four plate appearances in the series finale.
“I took my time,” Saucke said, admitting later that he’s still adjusting to the grind of a college baseball season. “I did what I needed to do to work hard and I’m back to where I was. It’s all part of the process.”
Saucke also leaned on the fifth-year guys hitting in front of him in the UVa lineup for advice. He’d been paired up with Ortiz as his veteran mentor upon arrival at Virginia last fall, while Saucke and Tappen “talk baseball … all the time,” according to the freshman. He credited the presence of veterans for stabilizing not just himself but the entire clubhouse amid a two-week swoon in which the Wahoos won just two of nine games.
“They just told me to stick to what I always do,” Saucke said. “Stick to the plan, stick to what I know and go back to the fundamentals. That’s always what it’s about.”
Tappen acknowledged that playing in the ACC is “a whole different monster” from playing in high school, especially when walking in as a first-year. When freshmen struggle, it’s often the first time they’ve faced such adversity on a baseball field. He credited Saucke for the mental toughness to stay true to the process.
Again, Tappen’s experiences in his time at UVa gave him some perspective during UVa’s bumpy two-week stretch. His first two college seasons, in 2018 and 2019, marked the only two times in O’Connor’s first 18 full seasons that the NCAA tournament was played without the Wahoos. His early-season struggles last spring coincided with the Hoos’ 4-12 start in ACC. Tappen turned things around at the plate (he homered twice in the ACC tournament then hit three more in 10 NCAA tournament games) while eventually helping UVa get back not just to the postseason, but the College World Series.
This spring, Tappen is capping his college career with his best season in Charlottesville. After Sunday’s 2-for-5 day, he’s slashing .350/.418/.631 with 10 home runs and 55 RBI in 41 games. They’re all career bests, or would be over a full season. He went 7-for-14 with three extra-base hits, including a late homer on Friday, five runs scored and five RBI in the sweep of the Tar Heels.
Sunday’s game was also No. 201 for Tappen in a UVa uniform. Only 10 players in program history have played in more. The biggest lesson Tappen has taken from his five years of highs and lows is now the same message he’s delivering to Saucke and other less-seasoned teammates.
“It’s just keeping everyone’s energy up. Keeping everyone positive,” Tappen explained. “Because the worst thing you can do in a stretch like that, that we had in those seven or eight games, is to compound it with pressing. Because when you press, then everything, it just feels like everything’s just collapsing on you.”
“It’s a game. You’re supposed to keep the fun of it,” he added. “It’s something that’s so super important, and just kind of the backbone of getting out of streaks like that.”
Take it from Tappen, the fifth-year outfielder who has seemingly seen it all.
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