Giant killers: UVa tops Clemson
Cavs knock off a top-2 team for the second time in a week
By Jay Jenkins / Daily Progress staff writer
March 18, 2006

Having been an assistant coach at Notre Dame for nine years, Brian O'Connor knows a thing or two about the color green and importance of luck.
So it was only natural on St. Patrick's Day that the coach of the Virginia baseball team had good fortune on his side at Davenport Field with a starting pitcher that is "50-percent Irish."

With no outs, a runner on first and the game tied in the bottom of the ninth, the Cavaliers rolled the dice, sending Tim Henry on a straight steal that ultimately gave Virginia a dramatic 2-1 win over No. 2 Clemson. The win marked the seventh in the last nine meetings for UVa (17-4, 2-2 ACC) over the Tigers (11-4, 0-1 ACC).

Henry, who reached base on a walk in the ninth, not only stole second but also advanced to third after Clemson catcher Adrian Casanova's throw skipped into shallow center field.

One batter later, junior Brandon Marsh sent a 1-2 inside curve ball into left field for a game-winning sacrifice fly, which started a massive Cavalier celebration on the field and for a majority of the season-high announced crowd of 1,304.

"This was a great win for our program," O'Connor said. "We found a way to win a game. I preach to our team all the time about being tough in the late innings, and we were tonight against Clemson."

Casey Lambert (1-1) recorded the win on the mound for the Cavaliers after pitching a perfect top half of the ninth, but starting pitcher Sean Doolittle was the star.

The sophomore southpaw went eight innings, allowing just four hits and the Tigers' lone run, while striking out a career-high nine batters. It was the first Friday night start in Doolittle's career.

"Sean Doolittle absolutely set the tone for that game with his performance on the mound on just four days rest," O'Connor said. "He set the tone for the weekend and fortunately, Casey came in there in the ninth and we found a way to win at the end."

Doolittle, who said he is "50-percent Irish," needed very little luck, throwing 115 pitches, 74 of which were strikes.

The only blemish on Doolittle's pitching line came in the first inning.

After walking leadoff batter Herman Demmink and allowing a one-out bunt single to Taylor Harbin, Doolittle gave up a lazy fly ball to center off the bat of Tyler Colvin. UVa center fielder Tim Henry got a late jump on the ball after he lost it in the sun and his diving attempt was unsuccessful.

Doolittle retired the next two batters in the inning and allowed just two more hits in the ensuing seven innings.

"It was only one run," Doolittle said. "I knew that if I could hold them at one run that our offense would come around and luckily we did."

UVa scored its first run off Clemson starter Josh Cribb in the fifth inning.

After shortstop Greg Miclat delivered a one-out double down the left-field line, the rookie scored easily on a two-out double into the gap in left-center.

"That gives you a little bit more margin for error, being the home team," O'Connor said of tying the game at 1. "It is such an advantage playing at home."

After Henry walked in the ninth and advanced to third, Doolittle approached Marsh in the on-deck circle.

"I said, 'You're going to get a pitch to hit right here. Just barrel it up,'" Doolittle said.

Marsh took the message to heart and after falling behind 1-2 in the count, he sent the pitch from Clemson reliever Daniel Moskos into left field and over the head of a drawn-in Tyler Colvin. After racing back 15 feet to make the catch, Colvin had no chance to throw out Henry, who scored without a throw.

"I just wanted to put the ball in the outfield," said Marsh, of his first game-winning swing at UVa. "And 'Doc' just told me to relax. He had done such a good job on the mound you really had to take what he said to heart."

The win, which comes just five days after UVa beat top-ranked Georgia Tech on the road, was a big lift to the team according to Doolittle.

"This is huge," Doolittle said. "To be able to get a win against the No. 1 team in the country on Sunday and then come back on Friday and get a win against No. 2, it does wonders for the confidence of this team."

Virginia and Clemson play today at 1 p.m. The Cavaliers will send freshman Jacob Thompson (4-0, 2.01 ERA) to the mound. The Tigers will counter with Jason Berken (2-1, 2.70 ERA).

EXTRA BASES: Clemson's four-hit effort on Friday matched its season-low output. The Tigers managed just four hits in a loss to Mercer on Feb 26. ? Cribb pitched 5.2 innings for Clemson, allowing five hits and one earned run. The senior was yanked after throwing 84 pitches. Why was he yanked? We may never know. Clemson coach Jack Leggett declined to talk to reporters after the game. ? The nine strikeouts by Doolittle were the most recorded by a Virginia pitcher since Andrew Dobies struck out 10 against Liberty in 2004. ? With the win, Virginia moved into a three-way tie with Georgia Tech (2-2 ACC) and North Carolina (2-2) for second place in the Coastal Division of the ACC. Miami (4-0) is in sole possession of first place.

 

O'Connor credits others for success
Virginia skipper attributes 101 career wins to loyal assistants, players
By Jay Jenkins / Daily Progress staff writer
March 17, 2006

For many, it was only fitting that Virginia baseball coach Brian O'Connor registered his 100th career win at Georgia Tech's Russ Chandler Stadium.
Of course O'Connor would have preferred to reach the century mark sooner and at Virginia's Davenport Field, but the irony of the locale is almost too good to be true.

It was at the Yellow Jackets' stadium two years ago that the 34-year-old skipper and his Virginia baseball program stormed onto the national scene with a three-game series sweep.

"You couldn't have planned it, but we talk about the baseball gods all the time and about how things come around and go around," UVa pitching coach Karl Kuhn said. "As young as coach O'Connor is, to put together 100 wins in two years and change, it is an unbelievable sign of how he can run a program and how he can manage a team.

"It was also nice to have it done against such a formidable opponent in the ACC and on the road. I think all those things make it just more poignant for us as a staff."

It was also fitting that the team's closer, Casey Lambert, sought out the game ball after the final out was recorded on Sunday. After the team made its way to the bus, Lambert presented the ball to O'Connor.

It was Lambert who had his "coming-out party" in 2004 at Georgia Tech, saving two games and winning the other during the sweep.

"It was a true testament to what kind of player Casey is," Kuhn said, "and what he thinks about when he is in competition to think about coach O'Connor while he is out there trying to win a game."

While the milestone has come and gone - O'Connor improved 101-39 on Wednesday by beating Dayton and hosts powerhouse Clemson in a three-game series starting tonight at 5 p.m. - the feat does offer a glimpse into the achievements of a program that has been to the NCAA Tournament in each of O'Connor's seasons.

O'Connor, like any "team-first" coach, shifts the credit to others, namely the school's administration, the players and his two assistant coaches (Kevin McMullan and Kuhn) who have been with him since he left Notre Dame in the summer of 2003.

"It is all about having great players who want to play the game the right way and surrounding yourself with great coaches that really take advantage of working with young players and getting them to play the right way," O'Connor said. "It's all in who you surround yourself with. It deems your success and we have been fortunate to have really good players.

"You can't get great assistant coaches and great players and build a baseball community without support. Our administration has led the way in our success. You have to have that commitment, especially in the Atlantic Coast Conference, and we are fortunate that our administration has been committed."

Despite being modest, others around the program know the true impact of the head coach.

"He points the finger out as us, but in the end he is responsible," Kuhn said. "He has done an unbelievable job."

With second-ranked Clemson (11-3) coming to town this weekend, O'Connor has a chance to make history again. The Tigers are the highest-ranked team to play at Davenport Field since 2002.

Recent history is on Virginia's side.

Since O'Connor arrived, the Cavaliers have won six of the eight games in the series, a staggering number considering UVa had not won back-to-back games over Clemson since 1974.

"Clemson has one of the most-storied programs in this country and we feel good about having competed against them up to this point," O'Connor said. "I hope that our community comes out and supports our program this weekend. It is a great opportunity to see two great ACC programs going head-to-head in a three-game series. You don't have this opportunity very often in this community."
 

Rebuilding this year, rebuilding next year
Is Hansbrough, McRoberts talk serious?
Doug Doughty

For all the talk about a rebuilding ACC, full of talented young players after an epic year in 2002-2005, consider this:

Nine of the top 14 vote-getters for the three all-conference teams were seniors.

The five underclassmen in that group were North Carolina freshman Tyler Hansbrough, Virginia sophomore Sean Singletary, Florida State junior Alexander Johnson, Miami junior Guillermo Diaz and Boston College junior Jared Dudley (in order of their point totals).

Any other list of the ACC’s top young players would include Duke freshman Josh McRoberts, but reporters who cover the Duke and North Carolina programs aren’t sure whether McRoberts and/or Hansbrough will stay in college.

Of the other underclassmen, Diaz is the other player that gets talked about most often as a possibility for the 2006 NBA Draft, although Diaz was quoted in the ACC Sports Journal as saying, “I want to say I helped my teammates get to the NCAA Tournament. A lot of people don’t make it there. I want to have that great experience in my college career.”

Diaz didn’t have that experience this year, when the Hurricanes were relegated to the NIT after losing seven of their last nine games. But, who says they will be headed to the NCAA Tournament next season? They’ll be without Robert Hite, a 16.4 points-per-game scorer, although they do pick up transfer Jack McClinton from Siena.

I would be surprised to see Hansbrough or McRoberts turn pro this year, although Hansbrough will be 21 before the start of next season. At 20, Hansbrough was only slightly younger than ex-Tar Heel star Brad Daugherty was as a senior at Carolina.

Hansbrough was the more productive player this year, although McRoberts has more of an NBA body at 6 foot 10 and a listed 230 pounds. McRoberts has had a growing presence over the last month of the season, but, based on his play Thursday night in a 70-54 victory over Southern, he still has a long way to go.

That game had one of the most mind-boggling stats of the year: Of the Blue Devils' 24 field goals, 22 were scored by seniors J.J. Redick and Shelden Williams. McRoberts had the other two, both before halftime.

It’s unlikely that Duke will be a preseason choice to repeat as champion, although voters may have learned their lesson this year, when they picked draft-ravaged North Carolina sixth after its NCAA championship in 2004-2005. All the Tar Heels did was finish second in the regular season and win at Cameron Indoor Stadium to spoil Redick’s and Williams’ home finale.

North Carolina, which will welcome the No. 1 recruiting class in the country, is a prohibitive preseason favorite for 2006-2007. The Tar Heels are the only team in the ACC with more talent than Florida State, and that’s a maybe. Transfer Toney Douglas from Auburn will more than make up for the Seminoles’ loss of Galloway.

Florida State’s imposing frontcourt of Thornton and Alexander Johnson will be seniors and the Seminoles have a bevy of wing players – Jason Rich, Isaiah Swann, Ralph Mims, etc. – along with such talented young forwards as Uche Echefu. In Leonard Hamilton, Florida State also has a coach whose boneheaded scheduling kept the Seminoles out of the NCAA Tournament despite a 9-7 ACC record.

The case could be made that nobody returns more of its nucleus than Virginia or Virginia Tech, but the same goes for Georgia Tech, which loses only Theodis Tarver. But if a team returns everybody or almost anybody, it matters little if that team wasn’t very good.

Georgia Tech was the only ACC team to finish with a losing record (11-16). Even so, nobody was playing worse at the end of the year than the Cavaliers and Hokies. Tech’s Zabian Dowdell is the No. 7 scorer among prospective ACC returnees but he didn’t have as good a year as backcourt mate Jamon Gordon.

Obviously, the key to Tech’s 2005-2006 season is center Coleman Collins, whose dropff this year can be attributed to the extenuating circumstances of his father’s battle against cancer and subsequent February passing. Collins had become soft by the end of the year and it will be interesting to see if he will come back rejuvenated next season or if his passive play will continue.

Virginia freshman Lauris Mikalauskas, explaining his difficulties in a 79-67 ACC semifinal loss to North Carolina, said that Collins had let him catch the ball the previous night in a quarterfinal meeting between the Cavaliers and Hokies, but that Carolina had denied him all night.

UVa was a two-man team for most of the season, featuring Singletary and J.R. Reynolds, but when the Cavaliers were playing well at mid-season, they were getting contributions from players such as Mikalauskas, Jason Cain, Adrian Joseph and, to a lesser degree, Mamadi Diane.

The Cavaliers’ offensive problems down the stretch raised questions, at least in my mind, about coach Dave Leitao’s scheme and its inability to manufacture easy baskets. If Virginia’s recruits are as talented as touted, it will be Leitao’s challenge to get the most out of them or there will be increased questions about his offense.

Georgia Tech, Virginia and Virginia should be on the rise next year. Teams on a possible decline could be Boston College without first-team All-ACC choice Craig Smith and point guard Louis Hinnant; N.C. State without veterans Ilian Evtimov, Cameron Bennerman and Tony Bethel; and Wake Forest without Eric Williams and Justin Gray.

I’ll go on record as saying that Wake Forest will be better than expected, largely because most observers think the Deacons will be terrible, despite a crop of athletic youngsters. A big question about State is the status of head coach Herb Sendek, who has taken the Wolfpack to a fifth straight NCAA appearance but is no more popular with State fans than he’s ever been.

There was speculation at the ACC Tournament that Sendek might resign. That’s how fed up he is with the constant second-guessing, but where would Sendek get a better job and where would State get a better coach? That’s why the marriage is likely to remain intact.
 

Cavs send Tigers trudging toward the busVirginia scores on sac fly in bottom of the ninth inning to end pitchers’ duelBy JIM FURLONGSpecial to The StateCHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. —The Clemson Tigers made a quick getaway Friday night after losing their ACC baseball opener 2-1 at Virginia.
Clemson coach Jack Leggett, who disappeared inside the team bus shortly after the Cavaliers scored the winning run in the bottom of the ninth inning, was obviously displeased.
Virginia sophomore left-hander Sean Doolittle, who said he is “50 percent Irish,” pitched a masterpiece on a chilly St. Patrick’s Day. Doolittle, after allowing a run on two hits in the first inning, limited the Tigers to two hits in the next seven innings and notched a career-high nine strikeouts.
Casey Lambert, a lefty reliever, pitched a scoreless ninth to gain his first victory this season.
The Cavaliers (17-4, 2-2), who have won seven of their past nine games against the Tigers, ended the suspense in their last at bat.
Center fielder Tim Henry drew a leadoff walk off reliever Daniel Moskos. Henry got a big jump in an effort to steal second base, and catcher Adrian Casanova’s throw was late and sailed into right center for an error. Henry advanced to third with no outs, and Leggett was forced to bring his infielders and outfielders in close.
The next Virginia hitter, Brandon Marsh, lofted a drive to left field. Tyler Colvin raced back to catch it, but his throw to the plate was much too late to get Henry, who slid home with the winning run.
“That was a tough game,” Tigers right fielder Travis Storrer said. “It could have gone either way. We are not hitting that good right now, and we have to pick it up.”
Clemson starter Josh Cribb, who was matched in a duel of undefeated pitchers, allowed one run and struck out eight in 5š innings.
The Tigers (11-4) had some offensive opportunities before an announced crowd of 1,304 at Davenport Field.
Herman Demmink led off the first inning with a walk and later scored when Colvin’s shallow fly ball dropped in center for an RBI.
After that Doolittle, who played for the USA National Baseball Team last summer, proved why he is one of the ACC’s premier players. Using a dominating fastball, he repeatedly kept Clemson’s hitters off stride.
“I anticipated that being a low-run game — this ball park lends itself to low-run games,” Virginia coach Brian O’Connor said. “Without a doubt, this was Sean’s best outing of the year. He had a great fastball and he is deceptive. He has a motion like (Florida Marlins pitcher) Dontrelle Willis, where he turns his back. The ball gets on the hitters quick, and they don’t get The Tigers were unlucky in the fifth inning.
After Casanova smacked a two-out double, Demmink reached on an infield error. With runners on second and third, David Chalk ripped a line drive toward right center, but freshman second baseman David Adams made a leaping back-handed grab to end the inning.