Messinger: Notre Dame was a wake up call for Virginia

By Jerry Ratcliffe

When the ACC Tournament schedule was announced last weekend, Virginia’s players were excited when they saw the opponents they would face in pool play.

Notre Dame, which won the ACC regular season title, immediately gained the Cavaliers’ attention. The Irish dominated UVA earlier in the season at Disharoon Park, sweeping the three-game series and scoring 30 runs in the process.

As far as Virginia is concerned, that was then, this is now. Brian O’Connor has mentioned a couple of times that this isn’t the same team the Irish swept, and there is evidence to back that up.

Heading into Friday’s game against the Irish (11 a.m. in Charlotte, N.C.), UVA has won six of its last seven games and nine of its last 12. Friday’s winner advances to the ACC semifinals on Saturday.

“I can’t wait,” said freshman Kyle Teel, who blasted his eighth home run of the season on Tuesday to propel UVA past Virginia Tech. “When the schedule came out we were excited, so we’re really excited to play Notre Dame on Friday.”

Junior right-handed pitcher Zach Messinger, who delivered a strong performance to open the tournament for the Cavaliers, said that if UVA learned anything about Notre Dame in those three games in March, it was just how powerful the Irish can be offensively.

“I think we learned they’re a good hitting team,” Messinger chuckled. “Go back and look at those boxscores and that kind of tells the story.”

The Irish won by counts of 10-5, 12-4 and 8-3.

“I think we’ve kind of found our edge since those games,” Messinger said. “That was a wake up call. As much as it was brutal getting swept at home that weekend, we needed it. Now, if you look at us, how we’ve played this back end, back two-thirds of our conference, it’s all leading up to this.”

Notre Dame is 30-10 on the season, 25-10 in ACC play and the No. 1 seed in the tournament. Virginia is 18-18 in the league and 28-22 overall.

“They’re the best team in the ACC for a reason,” Messinger said. “They hit the ball really well, their pitching has been consistent all year and they play good defense. We’re going to have to be on top of everything come Friday morning, but I think we’re ready.”

Virginia’s ace, senior left-hander Andrew Abbott (7-5, 2.83 ERA) will start for the Cavaliers against Notre Dame’s lefty John Michael Bertrand. Abbott is third in the NCAA and leads the ACC in strikeouts with 127. The first-team All-ACC hurler has struck out 10 or more batters in four of his last five starts, including 16 in a combined no-hitter against Wake Forest on May 14.

Abbott is hoping to become UVA’s first eight-game winner since 2017 when Alec Bettinger went 8-0.

The Cavaliers are hopeful that Abbott can deliver a strong performance against the Irish, and if need be, turn things over to closer Blake Bales, who has allowed six of his 23 inherited runners to score. Bales, who has drawn comparisons to fictional baseball character Kenny Powers, hasn’t allowed a run in his last five appearances (over 6.2 innings of relief).

While UVA edged Virginia Tech, 3-2 in the opening of pool play, Notre Dame eliminated the Hokies on Wednesday win an 8-0 win.