With the score 3-0 in favor of Liberty going into the bottom of the seventh inning last night, Virginia coach Brian O'Connor decided it was time for a team meeting.
The previous two Wednesday nights, Virginia (26-9, 8-7 ACC) lost to Towson and George Washington, who hold a combined record of 32-30. After watching his infield make careless mistakes in the first two innings behind sophomore starting pitcher Jeff Lorick that led to the early deficit to Liberty, O'Connor decided to let his team know it was time for these Wednesday nights clunkers to end.
O'Connor "had seen enough," Lorick said. "Sometimes it's a little bit tougher to get up for the midweek games just because of tough long weekends, schoolwork and things like that, and we have to reapply and refocus and get the job done."
In the next three innings, Virginia did just that. The team scored seven runs in the next three innings, while Lorick shut out Liberty in the same span. At the game's end, that's how the score stood: Virginia 7, Liberty 3.
In that precarious top of the second for Virginia, the Cavaliers were fortunate to allow only two runs. With no outs in the inning and the score already 1-0, two Liberty Flames stood on first and second. Liberty senior Aaron Phillips, however, popped a bunt attempt straight to Lorick for the first out. Lorick again didn't help himself by beaming junior Kenneth Negron to load the bases, and junior Errol Hollinger followed with a sacrifice fly to score another run. Lorick saved himself from having to throw an out on the next batter, though, as he caught Negron in a rundown off a pickoff attempt to end the inning, but Virginia found itself in an all-too-familiar hole.
"You're kind of starting to think, what's the bad juju that we've got going on to not get the job done on Wednesdays?" Lorick said. "It's all mental."
Then came the meeting in the dugout and the subsequent response.
"I reminded them after the top of the second inning what our agreement in the outfield was [Tuesday] night after the game [against Longwood], was that we'd come and play the game the right way and not play it like we had played the last two Wednesday nights," O'Connor said. "You've got to always remember as a coach at this level that you're coaching 18- to 22-year-old young men."
Virginia's Wednesday struggles extended even beyond the last two that ended in losses. None of the pitchers, senior Robert Poutier, freshman Tyler Wilson or senior Jake Rule, made it past the fourth inning, and O'Connor had his bullpen up and ready tonight after Lorick had given up three runs by the middle of the second.
These Wednesday struggles come as no coincidence with the newly imposed universal start date this season of Feb. 22 by the NCAA, later than Virginia's opening night last year of Feb. 9. With the new compact schedule, five games per week -- three on weekends and two more on Tuesday and Wednesday -- has become the norm for 2008, as opposed to the exception last season. Virginia plays two midweek games per week during seven weeks this season, as opposed to just four weeks last year.
Though the regular players enjoy the new look to the season -- "We all love baseball, and we all want to play it as much as we can," Lorick said -- the compact schedule has unquestionably taken a toll on Virginia's young pitching staff. Though the Cavaliers have an established rotation of three weekend starters in junior Jacob Thompson, senior Pat McAnaney, junior Andrew Carraway and an emerging star in freshman Jake Cowan at the No. 4 slot on Tuesdays, the Cavaliers have yet to find a consistent No. 5 for that Wednesday slot. Virginia has played four Wednesday night games thus far and has a 2-2 record while featuring a different starter on each occasion.
The new look also makes O'Connor's planning more difficult, as he has to decide who to pitch in the middle of the week and who to save for the bullpen on weekends. With weekend conference series receiving the top priority, the coaching staff is forced to hold back on some of the better bullpen pitchers, knowing the team likely will need them for the more important ACC contests.
"We don't try to save any [pitchers] back for the middle of the week [on weekends], but we do play it smart out of the bullpen in the middle of the week," O'Connor said. "For instance, yesterday we were going to pitch [sophomore] Matt Packer if we needed to, and we did, and tonight it was [sophomore] Neal Davis' turn -- Matt Packer was in no way going to toe the rubber at all tonight, because we need him potentially on Friday."
Despite the Wednesday troubles, however, O'Connor sees the extra game each week as an opportunity for his pitching staff, particularly as he looks ahead to the postseason.
"There's a lot of people that are down on the new schedule change, but there's a big part of it that I really like, that I think is good for our team," O'Connor said, noting that it forces Virginia "to create pitching depth, which is so important at the end of the year"
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