Barber: In lower-scoring postseason, Virginia offense still comes up big (2024)

CHARLOTTESVILLE – The day before the Charlottesville NCAA baseball regional started, UVa assistant coach Kevin McMullan joked he didn’t want to be asked about the team’s high-scoring offense.

“I don’t want to jinx us,” McMullan said. “You know how postseason play goes. It’s about pitching and defense.”

Through two games, Virginia’s pitchers and hitters have done enough to put the Cavaliers at 2-0, in the winner’s bracket and the driver’s seat to reach their third super regional in the last four seasons.

Saturday night, it took a bottom of the ninth rally and a Bobby Whalen walk-off RBI to down Mississippi State 5-4 in front of a packed house at Disharoon Park.

“We all trust each other," said Harrison Didawick. "Whenever we’re in a clutch moment, we just all believe in each other.”

It’s a different style of baseball in the postseason, and the start to this regional has made that strikingly obvious. The Cavaliers’ past 12 games before the NCAAs saw an averaged combined score of 14.9 runs.

Saturday night, a day after a 4-2 opening win over Pennsylvania, UVa pulled out an even tighter game.

“I’ve learned over the years that, when it gets to be postseason baseball and the NCAA tournament, you can throw out the window whatever you’ve done all year,” Virginia coach Brian O’Connor said. “It’s a new time of the year. It just means a little bit extra.”

O’Connor doesn’t have the strongest roster he’s had in his 21 years at Virginia. His pitching staff hasn’t been nearly as dominant as units in recent seasons, and the group doesn’t have the kind of depth that teams need this time of year to advance in the NCAA tournament.

UVa has flaws. And O’Connor is enjoying that.

“I have loved the challenge of trying to figure it out,” O’Connor said. “That’s our job.”

To be clear, plenty of programs across the nation would salivate over the prospect of having the kind of talent Virginia has, especially in its starting lineup, a potent group that has already set a program record for home runs this year.

And O’Connor and pitching coach Drew Dickinson have made the most of a pitching staff that lost expected weekend starters Jack O’Connor and Bradley Hodges to season ending injuries, opened the year with Elon transfer Joe Savino on the shelf, and hasn’t gotten much from former football quarterback Jay Woolfolk.

The Cavaliers’ 4-2 win over Penn in the regional opener Friday was the lowest scoring game they had played in since a 4-0 win at Boston College in late April.

“It’s a good steppingstone for us, seeing how the pitching staff showed up and pitched really well in a big moment for us,” shortstop Griff O’Ferrall (St. Christopher’s) said after that game. “I wouldn’t say it’s a relief. It’s more of a fist-pump that the pitching staff came through for us.”

Saturday, in the winner’s bracket game against Mississippi State, it was Evan Blanco’s turn. He worked into the seventh inning, exiting to a standing ovation after allowing four runs, three of them earned, on eight hits with seven strikeouts and no walks.

Then, freshman right-hander Matt Augustin came out of the bullpen for one of his best outings of the season, holding Mississippi State down for 2 2/3 innings of work.

“In the beginning of the game we started off kind of slow," said Eric Becker. "Our pitching, Evan and Matt, they were able to keep us in that game. With our lineup, I think we can [play] with anyone.”

Virginia got to that game because Savino, healthy and rounding into the form UVa expected when it added him, and VCU transfer Chase Hungate combined to pitch it to an opening game win over Penn on Friday, picking up the victory while keeping that thin pitching staff fresh.

A year earlier, Savino watched former Elon teammate Brian Edginton throw a complete game for Virginia in the Super Regionals, a moment that helped prompt him to follow Edge’s path to Charlottesville.

“This is why these kind of guys come here,” O’Connor said. “They want that moment in their life and they want to be challenged at the highest level.”

Clearly, after winning 41 games to get into the NCAAs for the 18th time in O’Connor’s 21 years, Virginia has enough pieces to play at a high level, maybe even a College World Series level.

And, with a resume that includes eight Super Regionals, six trips to Omaha and the 2015 national championship, O’Connor feels more than prepared to make the lineup calls and in-game coaching moves that UVa will need.

“My job is to look forward to making those decisions,” O’Connor said. “I don’t shy away from it at all. It’s one of the reason I love coaching college baseball, to be in that moment and show the strength to make a difficult decision when it has to be made.”

To O’Connor, postseason baseball is simple. Find players who have the talent and constitution to make winning plays, put them in the position to do that, and let the chips fall where they may.

Saturday night, they fell in the win column.