The previous two times the Virginia Baseball team has been swept by a team from the Tar Heel State, the Cavaliers followed the losses with eight-run victories.
They will try to continue that trend today when they play their first mid-week game on the road against the Richmond Spiders at 3:00.
"It's going to be a little bit different, but I think [playing a mid-week game on the road] will be good for this team," Virginia utility player Sean Doolittle said.
The Spiders are currently 9-16 on the season and have a .500 record at home -- but that does not mean that they haven't been competitive all season. They lost to No. 8 Nebraska by just one run, and have lost four other games by two runs or less. This is also a program that has experienced success in the 21st century. The Spiders won the Atlantic-10 regular season championship in 2002 and 2003, the A-10 tournament title in 2002 and advanced all the way to the NCAA super regionals in 2002.
Offense was not a problem for the Cavaliers despite being swept at North Carolina State this past weekend.
"I've been very pleased with our offense all year," O'Connor said. "Up until this point this has been our best offensive ballclub that we've had since we've been coaches here. We've got so many threats in the lineup. We've got a number of guys that can steal bases. We'll continue to get better as an offensive ballclub as we move along too."
Pitching, though, was a major problem over the weekend. Starters Sean Doolittle, Jacob Thompson and Mike Ballard went only a combined 12 innings and allowed 16 hits and 15 runs. But these performances were not indications about how the trio has pitched so far.
"We've done a great job on the mound all year," O'Connor said. "There are going to be times where guys are going to struggle a little bit. What guys need to do when they don't have their best stuff is find a way to keep us in the ballgame and give us a chance to win. We didn't get enough of that [last] weekend."
Defense is also a concern for the Cavaliers, who committed six errors on the weekend. Sunday's outcome might have been different if it wasn't for errors in the first and second innings causing three unearned runs to be scored.
"We've got to get back to playing good strong defense," O'Connor said. "We've played pretty good defense up until that point. We just need to come back and really concentrate on our pitching and defense starting [today] against Richmond."
Pat McAnaney will get the start for the Cavaliers today. Even though he has not pitched much recently, O'Connor believes the sophomore is up to the task of guiding the Cavaliers back into the winners circle.
"We pitched him very limited last week because we thought there might be a chance that we would use him for the weekend and we didn't have to," O'Connor said. "I know he'll be ready to go [today]"
Even as Virginia looks to rebound from the weekend sweep, they are in a much better position to bounce back than they were last year after a 5-10 ACC start.
"I don't think it's a total sense of urgency," Doolittle said. "I just know that we're going to go about our business with a little bit more intensity this week."
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