UVA baseball coach Brian O’Connor gathered his team on the outfield grass at Charles Schwab Field after the stunning 6-5 walk-off loss to Florida in Game 1 of the College World Series to remind them: they’re not done yet.
“Certainly, a challenging road in front of us, but we’ll regroup at practice tomorrow and be ready to go on Sunday, and looking forward to that opportunity we have,” O’Connor said.
Virginia has recent experience coming back from an opening-game loss to advance in the double-elimination tournament format. The 2021 ‘Hoos lost their opener in the Columbia Regional to South Carolina, then stitched together four straight wins to win the regional, on their way to a College World Series appearance.
The challenge this time around will be the obvious lack of confidence that O’Connor has in his bullpen, which gave up five runs on five hits, including three rather loud home runs, in the final three innings of Friday night’s loss to Florida.
O’Connor had masked over his lack of confidence in his bullpen by going deeper with his starters in the first two rounds of the 2023 NCAA Tournament. His starters gave him 18.1 innings in the three-game sweep of the Charlottesville Regional, with four of the relief innings coming at the end of the 15-1 blowout win over Army in Game 1.
The starters then ate up 22.2 of the 27 innings in the three-game Super Regionals series with Duke, with O’Connor noticeably going with Brian Edgington for a complete game in the 12-2 clincher on Sunday.
O’Connor still has Edgington and 12-game winner Connelly Early to give him starts this week, and Nick Parker, who was lifted last night after a stellar outing – one run on four hits in six innings of work – should be ready to go for a possible Game 5 on Friday, should Virginia get that far.
The question isn’t the starters; it’s, does Oak have enough arms in the pen?
“It’s going to take a collective effort by our entire group,” O’Connor said. “(Evan) Blanco and (Jack) O’Connor didn’t throw many pitches today, and we have several other guys. But it’s going to start by getting a high-quality start on Sunday, whoever that is, and then piecing it together.”
Jack O’Connor could be a key here. The freshman right-hander started 11 games in 2023, beginning the season as a weekend rotation guy, before Early took his weekend spot in the final regular-season series, the road series at Louisville, in mid-May.
Best-case scenario here, Oak gets wins, and deep outings, out of Early on Sunday and Edgington on Tuesday, and then he can use O’Connor to anchor a quasi-staff day on Thursday, ahead of getting the ball back to Parker for a full start on Friday in what would be a winner-take-all game for a spot in the championship series.
When you look at that, this is a lot more doable on paper than the run through Columbia was after that Game 1 loss.
That’s what the conference on the outfield grass was all about.
This thing ain’t over, basically.
“Not ideal to lose the first one, but who cares, right?” Parker said after last night’s loss. “Going to come out, keep winning ballgames. That’s what we’re going to do.”
“This team has fought all year long, and obviously no one wants to lose the first game, but it is what it is, and we’re going to ride with our guys no matter what,” shortstop Griff O’Ferrall said. “So basically, we’re not going to put blame or be down on ourselves. We’re just going to get back to work.”
Share
Chris Graham
