The front nine may not have gone the way the Virginia baseball team had envisioned. But the hot dog at the turn still tastes a little better after the way the Wahoos played that final hole.

UVa finished the first half of this year’s 16-game ACC schedule by taking two of three from then-No. 6 Georgia Tech this past weekend in Atlanta. It was the first ACC series win of the season for the Cavaliers, improving their record to 6-12 in the league (13-14 overall).

“It’s been a long time coming to win our first series of the year, and it couldn’t have come at a more important time, as we head into the back half of the ACC season,” head coach Brian O’Connor said as he recapped the weekend for reporters on Monday morning.

UVa almost rallied from a six-run hole in Thursday’s opener with five runs in the final two frames, stranding the tying run at third base in a 6-5 loss. That late momentum carried into an 8-2 win on Friday that O’Connor called “the most complete game they played all year.” The Hoos duplicated that effort in Saturday’s series-clinching 11-4 victory.

By putting up 24 runs on 31 hits across the three-game weekend, the Cavaliers easily eclipsed their previous ACC series highs on the season. UVa entered the weekend last in the league in both on-base percentage (.317) and slugging percentage (.322); against the Yellow Jackets, they finished with a .391 OBP and slugged .443.

On the mound, the Wahoos limited a Georgia Tech offense that had been averaging 7.5 runs per game to 12 total. In UVa’s two wins, starters Andrew Abbott and Mike Vasil each pitched into the seventh inning. They gave up four total runs, with 18 strikeouts and just two walks, across 13.2 innings. Seven relievers combined for a 2.61 ERA in 10.1 innings out of the bullpen across the weekend.

“That’s what it looks like to win series in this league, and that’s how you’ve got to play,” O’Connor said on Monday.

With that performance, the Wahoos boosted their RPI 21 spots, from No. 93 to No. 72, in the latest ranking released Monday morning by the NCAA. UVa also climbed out of the basement in the Coastal Division standings, moving a game in front of 5-10 Duke and two spots up in the overall conference standings, to 11th place.

The first series win came at a critical time, a point where UVa couldn’t afford to concede any more ground in those conference standings. But the Hoos still need to go 2-1 in each of their remaining six ACC weekends to end the regular season at .500 in the league.

For a Virginia team that opened the season with the intention of earning the program’s first NCAA regional berth since 2017, there is significant work still to be done.

“You can’t hide from it,” O’Connor said. “And what I mean by that is, hey, we are 6-12 in the league right now. That’s the fact. And if you want to play in the NCAA tournament, the reality is you’d better win 16 to 18 games in this league. We’re at the halfway point, we’ve got six more weekends. We’d better win series. If you don’t win series, you’re sitting at home in June.”

On paper, the second half of the ACC schedule appears less daunting than the front end. Five of UVa’s first six conference opponents appeared among the top 25 teams in the new D1Baseball.com national rankings, released on Monday. Those six teams—No. 13 Notre Dame, No. 15 Georgia Tech, No. 17 Florida State, No. 18 Miami, and No. 24 Pitt, plus unranked North Carolina—have combined for a .577 winning percentage (.577) in ACC play.

Only two of UVa’s six remaining conference opponents, No. 7 Louisville and No. 23 Virginia Tech, were ranked by D1Baseball on Monday. Those six opponents have combined for a .473 winning percentage (43-48) in the conference. But the Cavaliers start the second half of the ACC schedule with this weekend’s visit to Clemson. Before a loss to NC State on Sunday dropped them to 8-7 in the ACC, the surging Tigers had rattled off six straight conference wins.

Before traveling to Clemson, UVa will play non-conference midweek game at home for the first time in three weeks, against William & Mary. Zach Messinger (2-0, 5.68 ERA in 19 relief innings this season) will make his first start of the year. It’s a chance to get the junior right-hander some work, after he didn’t pitch out of the bullpen at Georgia Tech last weekend.

Tuesday’s game is also an opportunity for the Hoos to run a winning streak to three straight for the first time this season. O’Connor would welcome that additional momentum before the Wahoos tee up for the back nine of their conference schedule.

“Certainly the mood on the team was better coming out of this weekend, on the trip home,” he said. “When you know what you need to do and you work at it, and then it starts to show the rewards of performance in the game and ultimately winning, from that stems self and team confidence.”

With last weekend’s series ending on Saturday, UVa has an extra day to potentially reset the weekend pitching rotation prior to Friday’s opener at Clemson. O’Connor indicated on Monday that a change could be on the horizon.

Senior right-hander Griff McGarry (0-4, 6.85 ERA) only lasted two innings in Thursday’s start in Atlanta, taking the loss after giving up four runs on five hits and five walks. He had also been lifted from the opener of the previous weekend’s series against Miami after just two innings.

That extra day would allow UVa to bump Abbott back to the top of the weekend rotation and slide Vasil up a spot, while keeping both on regular rest after they pitched on Friday at Saturday in Atlanta. With McGarry struggling, the Cavaliers could slide the right-hander back to Sunday’s final game at Clemson, or use a different pitcher in that spot.

O’Connor indicated on Monday that those discussions will happen this week and no decision had been made on how McGarry will be used.

“We’ll continue to work with him,” O’Connor said. “We’ll continue to evaluate what are some adjustments that we need to make in our pitching staff and our rotation and things like that, in order to give ourselves the best chance this weekend.”

Thursday’s game marked the sixth time in seven starts this year that McGarry lasted less than five innings. With 38 strikeouts and 27 walks in 22.1 innings, he has been forced to throw a lot of pitches in those outings, and his control issues have worsened in recent weeks. Of the 521 pitches McGarry has thrown this year, only 53.6 percent have been for strikes; that percentage has dipped to 48.1 percent over his two most recent starts.

“We’ve spent a lot of time with Griff, talking to him about adjustments and changes and things like that. It just hasn’t, it hasn’t worked,” O’Connor said. “It’s not for a lack of his work and his want-to. He just lives on the fringes a lot, and puts himself in some really tough situations.”

McGarry has been unable to unlock the potential that prompted the Texas Rangers to draft him out of high school in 2017. McGarry began both the 2019 and 2020 seasons as the Cavaliers’ opening day starter, and has made 24 career starts in a UVa uniform. But with 116 walks in 113.2 career innings - a rate of 9.18 walks per nine innings - something has never completely clicked for the fourth-year pitcher.

“It’s tough. The kid wants to do well. He works his tail off,” O’Connor said. “He’s just not making the pitches.”

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