Cavaliers return to Charlottesville to prepare for baseball Super Regional … – Daily Press

Catching a few rays early Monday in 80-degree California sun at the Santa Monica pier. Visiting Angel Stadium of Anaheim on a night when Mike Trout and Albert Pujols shared a trio of home runs.

Yep, the pressures of postseason college baseball can be just brutal.

Life was good Monday for Virginia (37-22), which enjoyed an off day after clinching a spot in an NCAA tournament super regional in the wee hours of Monday morning with a 14-10 win in 11 innings against Southern California in the Lake Elsinore, Calif., regional.

After a day like that one, it’d be hard to blame U.Va.’s players if coming back across the country to Charlottesville to continue their tournament run wasn’t at the top of the priority list, but a series at Davenport Field against a familiar rival awaits.

About 22 hours after solidifying its reservation in a super regional, U.Va. found out it was returning home to host a super regional for the fifth time in the last six years by virtue of Maryland’s win against tournament top-seed UCLA in the Los Angeles regional.

Starting with Friday’s 4 p.m. game in Charlottesville, U.Va. will play a best-of-three series against Maryland (42-22), which saw its season come to an end last season at Davenport Field when it lost two out of three games in a super regional against the Cavaliers.

Though Brian O’Connor has grown accustomed to seeing his team advance in the postseason in his 12 years as U.Va.’s coach, it never gets old.

“We feel very fortunate — the players do, the coaches do — that we’re in this position again,” said O’Connor, who traveled to Charlottesville on Tuesday with his team. “We know what goes into putting yourself in this position.”

If anything, all that experience has helped U.Va.’s coaching staff steady young players who haven’t had to navigate the highs and lows of the postseason. When U.Va. trailed USC 9-5 after four innings, and 9-6 after seven innings, there was no panic. O’Connor tries his best to follow a formula in the postseason.

“Relax,” O’Connor said. “Let the players play the game.”

“In our first five years, we were pretty uptight. We wanted to win so bad and advance on. I think through time we learned maybe what the best approach is to have with our ballclub coming into this time of year. It certainly has served us well.”

U.Va. turns its attention toward a Maryland team brimming with confidence after its own West Coast conquest, highlighted by freshman pitcher Taylor Bloom’s six-plus innings of work that yielded one hit and one unearned run in Monday’s 2-1 victory against UCLA.

Not only has third-year coach John Szefc led Maryland to back-to-back NCAA tournament appearances for the first time since the 1970 and ’71 seasons, he has the program knocking on the door of its first College World Series appearance.

U.Va.’s chances of dashing Maryland’s hopes for a second straight season would be bolstered if the Cavaliers could get left-hander Nathan Kirby back on the mound. In the days leading up to U.Va.’s trip in Lake Elsinore, there was talk of Kirby returning for the regional, but it was reported just before the start of the regional he wasn’t quite ready to come back from a strained latissimus dorsi muscle that has kept him out since April 17.

Starting pitchers Conner Jones and Brandon Waddell were more than adequate in helping U.Va. win its first two games in Lake Elsinore before the decisive game against USC. Jones and Waddell combined to pitch 15 innings, giving up nine hits and two runs (one earned). Josh Sborz returned to his closer role, pitching in all three games of the regional and going four innings while surrendering just one unearned run.

A month ago, U.Va. was struggling to earn a spot in the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament. It qualified as the No. 7 seed for the conference tournament, where it proceeded to go 1-3. Now, the Cavaliers are two wins away from making their fourth trip to the College World Series, where they lost last season in the final to Vanderbilt.

“It’s been noted how much this club has went through throughout the season,” O’Connor said. “We’ve endured more than any ballclub that I’ve coached in our 12 years here at Virginia. Certainly (winning the Lake Elsinore regional) is very, very special because of what these guys … on the entire ballclub have accomplished.”

Wood can be reached by phone at 757-247-4642.

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