Last Saturday, the Virginia baseball team found itself in a similar situation to where it was last year around this time. After running off an extended winning streak each of the last two seasons -- 10 games this year compared with 13 last season -- the Cavaliers traveled to their first ACC series in North Carolina. March 9, 2007, the Cavaliers traveled to Wake Forest filled with confidence from dominant wins in non-conference play, but faltered in their first ACC series, losing two of three games.
This season, it was a different opponent, same result. Opening conference play at N.C. State this time around, the Cavaliers again dropped two of three. After winning in a 5-3 extra-inning comeback thriller in the first game of a Saturday doubleheader, Virginia combined for just seven more hits for the remainder of the series as it dropped the latter game Saturday 0-2? and lost in Sunday's finale 2-4.
"We just didn't find a way to win a game," Virginia coach Brian O'Connor said. "That's going to happen in this league, especially on the road."
In the history of the battles between these two teams, Virginia has not seemed to figure out the N.C. State -- the Cavaliers are now 58-106-1 against the Wolfpack and have compiled a 6-13 record under O'Connor. In the Cavaliers' two losses, the Wolfpack pitching staff dominated the Cavalier lineup, as N.C. State allowed a combined seven hits and three walks while striking out 17 in games two and three, which included an eight-inning, career-best nine-strikeout shutout performance from the Wolfpack's game two starter, junior Clayton Shunick.
"Collectively as a group, we were just soft with the bats," junior David Adams said. "We weren't ready to play, we weren't competitive enough to win and we didn't deserve to win those ball-games."
These two close losses came on the heels of an extra-inning comeback by Virginia in the series opener. After giving up two runs in the first inning, Virginia rallied to take a 3-2 lead in the seventh before the Wolfpack tied the game in the ninth to send the game into extra innings. In the 10th, following a single by Adams, freshman Phil Gosselin launched the first home run of his career to regain the lead, and senior Michael Schwimer pitched a scoreless 10th inning to preserve the win.
"That was a great win for our team," O'Connor said. "We hadn't had a game like that all year, so it was important for them to understand that, no matter what happens, you can have a chance to win a game."
Though the time of year and the outcome of the Cavaliers' opening conference series were both similar to last year's ACC opener, the timing of the opening series in the context of the season was very different. With the new nationwide Feb. 22 starting date imposed by the NCAA this year, Virginia had only 10 games to prepare for ACC competition as opposed to 16 last season. O'Connor admitted that the shortened time period between the beginning of the season and ACC play has been challenging for his young roster.
"When you have a lot of new players on the team as we do, it takes some time to figure out which guys can perform in which roles," O'Connor said. "That time period now has been shortened."
As students came back to Grounds after Spring Break Sunday, the Cavaliers returned home as well to continue their newly compacted schedule as they face the second of 11 weeks with two weekday home games sandwiched between weekend series. Today at 4 p.m., Virginia takes on a Radford team? that got off to a quick start, winning six of its first seven games -- the best start in school history -- before dropping three of its last four games. Tomorrow, a 6-5 Navy squad comes to Charlottesville for another 4 p.m. contest.
Radford "has a new coach, and they appear statistically to be a very aggressive offensive team," O'Connor said. "They put pressure on you by stealing bases -- they've got a number of guys with stolen bases -- and from their statistics they look like they've got some guys that can swing the bat."
Starting for Virginia tonight will be sophomore pitcher Matt Packer, who had a six-inning, one-hit performance against Old Dominion in his only start this year?. O'Connor has not yet made a decision for the starting pitcher tomorrow, noting that he is going to look at "what pitchers we use on Tuesday to decide what we're going to do on Wednesday"
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