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In-Klined toward Virginia

I am as sure that the Virginia baseball team is set for the long haul as I am that Virginia has a better football team than William & Mary.

Hm ... Maybe that didn't come out quite right. Perhaps I should rephrase in the way The Daily Progress did in its news and notes from the Virginia vs. William & Mary football game: "Thank goodness for the Virginia baseball team."

The baseball team made its first fall practice open to the media Monday afternoon, and I decided to take a stroll by Davenport Field to catch up with the players. In particular, I chatted with freshman pitcher Branden Kline, the sixth-round pick of the Boston Red Sox in the 2009 MLB Draft who elected to put off pro ball to come to Virginia.

It's no secret that the Cavaliers have a very good club this year. But the message I got from Kline, among others, confirmed my belief that goes beyond the upcoming season. Since the years leading up to Virginia coach Brian O'Connor's arrival six years ago - when the athletics department considered shutting down the program - the turnaround of Virginia baseball is now complete.

There are a few keys that make a powerhouse program what it is, and what I've come to realize is that Virginia has satisfied them all. It's what USC coach Pete Carroll called "the too good to be true" speech; USC football gives no reason for recruits to say no. So, now, does Virginia baseball.

Here are the goals that every athletics program has and how Virginia has come to reach them.

Winning Tradition\nThe Cavaliers have made the NCAA Tournament every season that O'Connor has been there, so it's not as if success is a new concept. And, last season's postseason run to Omaha could very well have come years earlier; three times, Virginia was the No. 1 seed in its bracket in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament, but all three times the Cavs never made it to round two. In 2007, Virginia had the misfortune of having Oregon State in its four-team Regional, and the Beavers scraped by Virginia on back-to-back days en route to winning the national championship.

It would be taking it too far to say that Virginia was due for a run to Omaha, but the Cavs have certainly been poised for such a run for a few years. Virginia simply never got quite hot enough when the moment came. In other words, the 2009 team wasn't necessarily any better than the 2007 squad. Last year's team was simply better at the time when it mattered most and got the breaks it needed. Right or wrong, a trip to the College World Series was the last piece Virginia needed to establish itself as an elite program.

"People that really don't know college baseball, you have to get to Omaha to validate your college baseball program, and that's sad," O'Connor said. "There are so many great, great college baseball programs that never make it to Omaha. Our program - our team - is no different than it was my first five years here. It just happened to be that the club last year came together at the end of the year and advanced onto Omaha."

Now, Virginia has that piece. And for a high school player like Kline who had the option to go pro all the way until this past summer, a trip to the College World Series helped make his decision for him.

"I had always wanted to come here," Kline said, "but then, going to the College World Series last year - showing that they can play some baseball - that helped out a lot too."

Been There, Done That\nComing out of high school, Kline was a hot commodity. He spoke with every organization but the Philadelphia Phillies, he said, and the lowest those organizations said they would take him is in the top five rounds. Some teams, he said, told him he could be a supplementary first-round or second-round pick.

Wait, that sounds familiar ... Oh, yes. Danny Hultzen, now a sophomore, was in a very similar situation coming into his freshman year in 2008. He was projected as a second-round pick in the 2008 draft, but he told scouts that he was absolutely going to Virginia. Still, Hultzen was drafted by the Diamondbacks in the 10th round. And guess what? Hultzen went to Virginia.

Knowing what he does now about Virginia baseball, I asked Hultzen, if he was faced with the same scenario, would he make the same decision?

"Absolutely," he said.

You can bet that Kline leaned on that precedent, as well.

"After seeing what Danny went through the year before, I was actually able to try to see some of the things that he went off of," Kline said. "I was able to contact him and just see how he handled certain situations - what scouts were saying to him, how he took it and how he handled it."

Now, Kline can pass along the same message.

Atmosphere\nChemistry matters, and Virginia has it. I've said it before in this newspaper and I'll say it again: I have never seen a team come together like Virginia baseball did last season. From the preseason through its season-ending loss in Omaha, O'Connor said he had never been a part of such a close-knit bunch.

That was a big reason why a team that started six underclassman position players made it to Omaha. And, it was the biggest reason why Kline decided to come to Virginia.

"While I was here, there was a lot of guys from last year's team here just lifting, not playing summer ball," Kline said. "Just seeing the kind of atmosphere that I would surround myself while being here, I just couldn't get it [anywhere else]."

But that's not the only aspect of atmosphere - there's the fan base, too. And based on the hoopla that surrounded Virginia when it went to Omaha - and the current state of the revenue-generating sports - the baseball team may very well be in the position to be a fan-favorite sport.

"You walk around and you see some more Virginia baseball shirts than there were last year," Hultzen said.

Solid "Oak"\nO'Connor adds to the list of reasons to come here. He's a players' coach - when players refer to him, it's not "coach O'Connor" as often as it is his nickname, "Oak". He plays catch with players in practice. He's got a fire about him in games - you can always count on him to argue

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