If the ACC Baseball Coaches Preseason Poll’s pick for Virginia finishing fourth in the ACC Coastal division is any indication, few baseball minds are giving Virginia any serious thought as an ACC contender this season.
Regardless of this year’s final result, however, Virginia coach Brian O’Connor can take solace in the fact that for the first time since the squad’s 2006 campaign, he has a team that will not lose too many key contributors at season’s end.
In Virginia’s starting eight in the field outside of the pitcher’s mound, only junior third baseman Tyler Cannon could go pro next season. From the pitching staff, senior Andrew Carraway will graduate, and juniors Neal Davis and Matt Packer could go to the MLB.
Outside of these losses, though, the Cavaliers have plenty to look forward to from their young lineup.
“The exciting thing about this team is that I think 95 percent of this team will be back for 2010,” O’Connor said. “There’s no reason why we shouldn’t be able to compete this year, but that is exciting.”
O’Connor said there will be many games when he starts three freshmen: Danny Hultzen at first base, power hitter Steven Proscia at shortstop and John Hicks at catcher. The experienced players, including Cannon at third, will fill out the infield. Hultzen, reminiscent of 2007 graduate Sean Doolittle, will double as a weekend starter, likely in the Saturday slot, sandwiched between Carraway’s Fridays and Davis’ Sundays. Power-hitting Phil Gosselin at second and defensive stalwart junior Franco Valdes, competing with Hicks to play behind the plate, also will add their experience to the mix.
In the outfield, the Cavs have four sophomores who will compete for time, all of whom were used early and often last season. The returning team batting average leader Dan Grovatt will see action in right, and Jarrett Parker — who put on 20 pounds of muscle in the off-season while maintaining his speed, O’Connor said — will start in center.
In left, the lefty David Coleman and righty John Barr will both get plenty of innings; Coleman will get the majority of the time for the first month as Barr recovers from off-season shoulder surgery, Coleman said.
In the bullpen, O’Connor said Packer — who has alternated between starting and relieving during his career — will begin the season as the team’s closer to replace 2008 graduate Michael Schwimer. In middle relief, however, youth will once again take over; Virginia has a cluster of players with a year of experience in redshirt freshman Sean Lucas and sophomores Tyler Wilson, Robert Morey and Kevin Arico. None of these players put up impressive numbers last season — Morey is the most experienced of the quartet, giving up 27 hits and 22 runs in 27.2 innings of action last season — but O’Connor said they have fared well in preseason practice.
“I think the four of them who are now second-years are going to be really, really important to our team,” O’Connor said. “Those starters — if they go five, six, seven innings — somebody’s gotta bridge the gap to Matt Packer.”
While many will look at Virginia’s roster and question its youth, the underclassmen carried most of the load last season, when the team went to the NCAA Tournament for a program-record sixth straight year. Four of the top six hitters were freshmen last season; Barr, Grovatt, Coleman and Gosselin all hit more than .300. Packer’s 1.14 ERA was good enough to win the Division I ERA title as a sophomore, and Davis was close behind at 1.58.
“I don’t think [the underclassmen] are [going to] back down from anything,” O’Connor said. “I think they have a lot of confidence.”
For Parker, criticism of Virginia’s youth only adds fuel to the fire.
“That’s us they’re talking about,” Parker said, sticking a finger to his chest. “It fires me up.”
For O’Connor and his players, it is clear that the squad is not looking ahead to next season as its time to shine; the players firmly believe that they can win right now. Win or lose this year, however, next season — when the underclassmen have both experience and fire — could be when Virginia is as good as it has ever been during O’Connor’s era.
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