UVA Baseball coach Brian O’Connor is officially taking the fall for his kids not playing well, but it doesn’t take much to read into what he said after Virginia’s 6-2 loss to Richmond on Wednesday to see what he’s really getting at.
“We weren’t ready to play from the first pitch, and we had soft at-bats in the first four innings, and you can’t play the game that way. You don’t deserve to win when you play that way,” O’Connor said after the loss, which dropped Virginia, preseason #2, to a 12-7 mark on the season.
Richmond (19-2) seized this one early, putting up a four-spot in the second off UVA starter Bradley Hodges (0-1, 2.45 ERA) and reliever Alex Markus, all of the damage coming with two outs.
It was a sloppy inning that included a throwing error on a pickoff attempt by Hodges and two wild pitches by Markus that led to all four of the runs being unearned.
The Spiders made it 5-0 in the third on a Cole Palmeri RBI groundout that came after another defensive miscue, an error by third baseman Luke Hanson on a leadoff grounder off the bat of DJ Pacheco, and added another run in the fifth on a solo homer from Pacheco.
That’s all Richmond would get on offense, with Ryan Osinski putting in three and a third scoreless innings of relief to help keep the door shut.
Virginia’s offense came on a fifth-inning solo homer from Henry Godbout and a seventh-inning Walker Buchanan RBI single.
The Cavaliers left nine on base in their last five turns at-bat. UVA actually brought the tying run to the plate with two outs in the ninth, but Henry Ford grounded out to third with the bases loaded to end it.
“We got beat by the better baseball team today. Right now, they’re the better baseball team. Clearly, in every facet of the game, they’re the better baseball team. And they played a heck of a game. And congratulations to Richmond. You know, they came in here and outplayed us in every facet of the game,” O’Connor said, making the point, then hammering it home.
To his point about not being ready from the first pitch, and the soft at-bats in the first four innings, Richmond starter Gerry Peacock (2-0, 4.85 ERA) was able to get through the first four innings on just 41 pitches.
“It’s not about winning and losing the ball game. It’s about being ready to play from pitch one, and we are not doing that, OK. And that’s on me, OK,” O’Connor said. “They’re 18- to 24-year-old kids, OK. I’m the grown man that’s been here for 20 years, and I freaking own it, OK.
“That effort today is on me, alright, but I can promise you, the effort will be better, OK,” O’Connor said. “Because if it’s not, I’ll find the guys that will show up every day and play with the right intent that the standards of what this baseball program is built on. That’s what I owe everybody.”
They’re going to need to freshen up the paint in the clubhouse at The Dish.
It’s about to blister before practice today, as UVA Baseball gets ready for Duke (13-9) to come to town for a three-game series beginning on Friday.
“Hopefully, it starts to sink in, the concept of being ready to play and never given a pitch away. That’s what our foundation of our program is on,” O’Connor said. “I’ve got to do a better job. Obviously, I failed at it in the fall, in the preseason and throughout this early part of the season, but that’s what I’m going to, I’m going to demand it, and win or lose, that’s what has to be there.”
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Chris Graham
