If revenge is a dish best served cold, the near-freezing temperatures predicted for this afternoon should motivate the Cavalier baseball team. It is the perfect weather to avenge a tough loss to William & Mary last year, as Virginia welcomes the Tribe to chilly Davenport Field.
Although some of the more experienced Cavaliers likely are looking forward to today’s game after last year’s stumble, Virginia coach Brian O’Connor said he believes his team will not come out too tense or excited.
“I don’t know if they look at it that way,” he said. “I don’t know if the players remember that William & Mary even beat us last year; you play 56 games. There’s a lot of games, but I know that they’ll be up for it. We’re [going to] practice [Monday], and play Tuesday and take our off-day on Wednesday.”
One member of the Cavaliers (4-0, 0-0) who is probably not concerned with last season’s 6-5 loss to the Tribe (3-1,0-0) is starting pitcher Will Roberts. As a freshman from Richmond, Roberts is making his first career start for the Cavaliers. He has been impressive in his rookie season: In his one appearance out of the bullpen, Roberts faced eight batters and only allowed one hit while striking out three. But Roberts’ success has been the norm for the Virginia staff so far this year. As a team, the Cavaliers have posted a 0.25 ERA. Opposing hitters are hitting just .156 against Virginia’s staff, and O’Connor said he was very impressed with his team after the first series of the season.
“The pitching was outstanding,” he said. “We threw strikes [and] limited the walks throughout the weekend.”
The Virginia hitters also have started their season with a bang. In their first four games, the Cavaliers hit .358 and slugged six home runs. Junior catcher Franco Valdes and freshman third-baseman Steven Proscia have led the charge, each having swat two homers thus far.
As evidenced by the team’s nine doubles and four sacrifice flies, however, the Cavaliers have not needed to rely on the long ball to win games.
“Our approach remains the same. We’re still trying to sac guys in, sac bunt ‘em, steal bags, but every once in a while it’s nice to see a good, well-hit ball,” Valdes said.
Virginia will have to be careful today, as William & Mary bats also have been hot this season, hitting a combined .381 during the first four games. Leading the way for the Tribe is senior outfielder Rob Nickle with a .471 batting average and 14 total bases in 17 at bats. As well as the Cavaliers have started their season at the dish, the Tribe has been comparably effective this year, scoring 46 runs to the Cavaliers’ 36.
“They’re always a very offensive ball club,” O’Connor said. “They put up a lot of runs last year and they’ve always got big physical kids. They had success in the program last year and they’re very well coached. We’re [going to] have to come out and continue to do our things and play good baseball.”
Though the boys of summer must bundle up a little extra today in light of the cold conditions, the Cavaliers hope to keep their bats hot and extend their season-opening winning streak to five games this afternoon.
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