Virginia takes on rival Hokies in opener of ACC Tournament pool play today

By Jerry Ratcliffe

Virginia has been one of the ACC’s hottest team since early April and hopes to continue that momentum in Tuesday’s opening of pool play in the conference championships.

The Cavaliers were left for dead after getting off to a 4-12 record in ACC play. Coach Brian O’Connor told his team what it had to do if it wanted June to be a reality and apparently his players got the message. Since that opening loss in the Georgia Tech series, UVA is 14-6, with two of those losses coming against 7th-ranked Louisville.

With the remarkable turnaround, the Wahoos earned the No. 8 seed in the ACC tournament and will face Virginia Tech in Tuesday’s opening of pool play in Charlotte. The game is set for a 3 p.m. start. UVA and Tech are in the same pool as league regular season champ Notre Dame (Friday, 11 a.m.).

Virginia won two of three against the 12th-seeded Hokies in Blacksburg during the Cavaliers’ hot streak, but dropped all three games against Notre Dame in Charlottesville. The Irish scored 30 runs against UVA over those three games.

“I think what this team accomplished over the last six weeks of the ACC schedule was really special,” said UVA coach Brian O’Connor. “I can tell you that in my coaching time, it was the type of a turnaround that I haven’t been a part of.

“They had to basically flip the script. Where we are now at 18-18 is an amazing accomplishment in this league. The players were consistent and really did what it took to be successful, so I’m proud of where we’re at.”

Virginia, 27-22 overall, hopes that a good showing in the ACC event will enhance its seeding in the NCAA Tournament. Several projections by baseball publications have UVA as a No. 3 seed in the Oxford, Miss., regional with No. 1 Ole Miss, No. 2 Louisiana Tech, and No. 4 Wright State, or … the No. 3 seed in Greenville, N.C., with No. 1 seed East Carolina, No. 2 South Carolina and No. 4 Campbell.

One projection by DRatings.com, has Virginia as a No. 2 seed in Tucson, along with No. 1 Arizona, No. 3 Alabama, and No. 4 Stony Brook.

Before the Cavaliers can worry about any of that, they need to take care of business in Charlotte, where they will face the 27-23 Hokies, the last place team in the Coastal Division with a 16-20 record. Tech has lost its last five ACC series and was swept three times along the way, and is riding a six-game losing streak coming into Tuesday’s play.

“We’re going to hit a little bit of a reset button,” Tech coach John Szefc said. “It’s just a matter of guys trying to play relaxed and execute their plans and just believe that we’re probably going to have a lot more success now than maybe we’ve had over the last five weekends in this league.”

In pool play, each team plays the other two opponents in its pool. The team with the best record advances to the semifinals on Saturday. It is most important to win the first game in order to have a chance to make it to Saturday.

A huge part of Virginia’s preparation is to decide who will start on the mound. O’Connor has little option, pitch ace Andrew Abbott on short rest, or go with mid-week pitchers and/or relievers. If the Cavaliers can win under those circumstances, things set up nicely for the rest of the weekend with Abbott starting against Notre Dame, and UVA’s other weekend starters set to go if the Cavaliers advance to the semifinals.

O’Connor said he wouldn’t announce his starter until Tuesday, but it is speculated he will call on right-hander Zach Messinger, who has a 2-1 record and a 4.53 ERA. The Hokies are expected to start lefty Peyton Alford, 2-5, 4.98.

The Cavaliers have been accustomed to playing under pressure, so they should be ready for this week’s challenge.

“I think the fact that we’ve kind of had our backs against the wall for the last six weeks, we had to jump up and improve and be ready to go every weekend and every game,” O’Connor said. “I think you can gain something from that, a positive momentum that you can carry into tournament time. We’ve got a great, positive feeling about where we’re at.”

UVA hammered the Hokies in the series opener a few weeks back with an 18-run outbreak off 17 hits. The Cavaliers have won five straight ACC series have have won five of the last seven games against Tech.

“Playing Virginia Tech just a few weeks ago, we had a pretty good weekend and we thought we pitched pretty well,” O’Connor said.

UVA will face the Irish on Friday, and while O’Connor noted that this is not the same group of Cavaliers that was swept by the Irish several weeks ago, he still knows what his team is up against.

“I haven’t looked into this, but I’ll tell you that Notre Dame probably had the most dominant ACC conference season ever,” the Virginia skipper said. “Since the 18 years I’ve been in this league _ maybe before that there were teams that really dominated like Florida State or other teams _ but I haven’t seen anybody win at that percentage, 25-10. That’s an incredible winning percentage in this league. I think they won every series but maybe one.

“They took us to the woodshed for the entire weekend, so there should be some serious motivation right now for our players and coaches.”