Cavs crumble
Gamecocks score 6 runs off Doolittle
By Jay Jenkins / Daily Progress staff writer
June 4, 2006

Fireworks shot off during the bottom of the eighth inning just miles from Virginia’s Davenport Field.

Had the results in the game been different, Brian O’Connor would have probably enjoyed the moment. But Virginia’s coach had already seen enough explosives - the kind that come off the bat and land on the other side of the fence.

South Carolina designated hitter Phil Disher blasted a grand slam to left field in the third inning off Virginia ace Sean Doolittle, capping a five-run inning that sparked the Gamecocks to an 8-2 victory in front of a record crowd of 3,196.

South Carolina (39-22) stays perfect in the four-team, double-elimination regional, while Virginia falls into the losers’ bracket.

The Cavaliers (47-14) must now win three straight games, including two today, if they hope to advance to the first super regional in program history. UVa opens with Evansville at 1 p.m. in an elimination game. If the team wins, the Cavs will face South Carolina at 6 p.m.

“There hasn’t been a club in this country that has hit Sean [Doolittle] like they did,” O’Connor said. “His numbers prove that.”

Doolittle, a sophomore southpaw, also gave up another run in the fifth inning and took just his second loss of the season against 11 wins.

“Doolittle is one of the best pitchers in the country,” South Carolina coach Ray Tanner said. “I told our coaches to hide the stat sheets. His numbers are incredible. He looks unbeatable.”

Disher proved that untrue.

After two singles and two walks, one intentional, set the stage for Disher, the sophomore drilled a fastball from Doolittle over the trees that surround the spacious stadium.

“It was a fastball,” Disher said. “I was just trying to hit the ball somewhere.”

The homer gave South Carolina starter Harris Honeycutt more than enough run support to work with. The sophomore right-hander went six innings, allowing just one unearned run to the Cavaliers in the fifth inning.

“I was just excited to get Harris some runs,” Disher said, “because he was pitching a great ballgame. It gave us some momentum.”

Honeycutt (6-0) allowed five hits and walked three, but benefited from the play of his catcher, Ian Paxton. The senior threw out three Cavaliers at second trying to steal.

“We knew we were going to have to try to contain their running game,” Tanner said. “Harris was able to pitch better with runners on that he did leading off the inning. He has sort of been notorious for that throughout the season.”

Doolittle said he would love the chance to come back and pitch in a game Monday night. That will only happen if UVa wins with Jacob Thomson on the mound in the opener and Pat McAnaney in the nightcap.

“We’ve got a fight on our hands [today],” O’Connor said. “We need to wake up in the morning and come ready to play.

“We just need to take them one at a time.”

 

Gamecocks' power sinks Cavaliers
Disher's slam is key; Virginia needs three wins to take regional
BY JEFF WHITE
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER Jun 4, 2006

CHARLOTTESVILLE -- The supersized dimensions of the University of Virginia's ballpark fazed South Carolina's Phil Disher not a bit last night.

So what if the power alleys at Davenport Field measure 377 feet? Disher's first career grand slam traveled about 400 feet, easily clearing the wall in left-center field.

"He hit the ball into the night," U.Va. coach Brian O'Connor said.

The sophomore designated hitter's blast off Cavaliers ace Sean Doolittle gave the Gamecocks a 5-0 lead in the third inning. South Carolina, seeded No. 2 in this four-team NCAA regional, rolled to an 8-2 victory that sent most of the sellout crowd of 3,196 -- the largest ever to witness a game at Davenport -- home disappointed.

The Gamecocks have hit 79 home runs this season -- 54 more than the Cavaliers.

"The scoreboard tells the story of the game," O'Connor said. "We each had eight hits, and they had eight runs, and we had two. That's what the home run will do for you."

And now, after losing for only the fourth time in 36 home games this season, top-seeded Virginia faces a daunting task. To win this double-elimination affair, the 12th-ranked Cavaliers must win three straight games, starting this afternoon.

"The most important thing is, we're still playing," Virginia first baseman Tom Hagan said.

U.Va. (47-14) takes on third-seeded Evansville (41-21) in an elimination game today at 1 p.m. The winner will advance to a 6 p.m. date with South Carolina (39-22), which can capture the regional with a victory.

Should the Gamecocks stumble tonight, a final game would be held tomorrow night to decide the regional.

Doolittle, the ACC player of the year, entered last night's game with an 11-1 record and a 1.87 earned-run average. Through two innings, the sophomore left-hander dazzled. Doolittle retired USC's first six batters, four on strikeouts.

In the third, though, Doolittle abruptly began to struggle. With a runner on first and one out, he walked USC's No. 9 hitter, Reese Havens, a lapse that would prove costly.

"That's somebody we've got to get out in that situation," O'Connor said.

Doolittle retired the next batter, but Chris Brown followed with an RBI single that made it 1-0. O'Connor played the percentages, choosing to intentionally walk the Gamecocks' next batter, Justin Smoak, who has hit 16 home runs this season.

Up stepped Disher to the plate. He's played little this season, but the 6-2 210-pounder drilled Doolittle's first pitch -- a fastball -- for his third homer of the season.

"It was supposed to be in," Doolittle said. "I left it out over the plate, and he was obviously ready for it."

 

Lacrosse healthy in Virginia
David Teel
June 3 2006

Lacrosse will not be the sport of this, or any, decade. It is not headed for prime time opposite "24." It is not about to join football, racing and Texas hold 'em in our collective conscience.

Not to demean a game that attracted Jim Thorpe and Jim Brown as moonlighters. Far from it.

Lacrosse is fast, aesthetic and fairly easy to pick up, and contrary to recent media reports, the sport is not contested solely by spoiled, white miscreants. Attendance records fall at most every collegiate championship, and youth leagues sprout from the Peninsula to Portland.

Statewide growth was evident this academic year as the Virginia High School League began sponsoring state tournaments in boys and girls lacrosse - the finals are today. For those of us well aware of the commonwealth's rich college lacrosse heritage, high school competition is a welcome addition, even if it's yet to include the Peninsula or Bay Rivers districts.

No, we don't rate with Baltimore, Long Island or even Jersey as hotbeds. But state college lacrosse has long been first-rate, from small schools such as Roanoke College and Washington & Lee to the big guns at the University of Virginia.

Monday the Virginia men won their second NCAA title in four years, third under coach Dom Starsia and fourth overall. The Cavaliers' women's program has won three national championships, most recently in 2004.

Virginia's victory Monday, before a record 47,062 at Philadelphia's NFL stadium, was historic. Dominating an event steeped in taut finishes - the previous five national championship games were decided by six goals combined - the Cavaliers dusted Massachusetts 15-7, the most lopsided title contest since 1998.

Led by attackman Matt Ward, the national player of the year and a Northern Virginia product, Virginia won its four tournament games by an average of 7.8 goals, the highest postseason victory margin since Syracuse's 10.0 in 1990 - the NCAA stripped the Orange of that title for using an ineligible player. The Cavaliers finished 17-0, and only a 7-6 victory against Princeton was decided by fewer than four goals.

Sadly, much of Virginia's fast-breaking, score-in-bunches excellence got lost amid rape allegations against three men's lacrosse players at Duke.

When the national press corps parachuted into North Carolina to provide shallow, hourly updates on the Internet and cable, they portrayed the sport as privileged and elitist.

Not so. Yes, lacrosse is predominantly white and played in many private high schools, Hampton Roads Academy, Walsingham Academy and Nansemond-Suffolk Academy included.

But take it from the product of a suburban Baltimore public school, and one who returns to his roots often: Lacrosse cuts across socio-economic lines as much as football and basketball.

Starsia, for example. A cop's son, he grew up on Long Island, starred in football and didn't so much as see a lacrosse stick until enrolling at Brown, where he became an all-Ivy League defenseman and graduated into coaching.

Hooked on lacrosse since, Starsia fears an impending "crisis" as increased numbers of boys high school players funnel into the static number of college programs. For example, while seven Division I colleges in the state offer women's varsity lacrosse, only Virginia plays men's.

Adding men's lacrosse is problematic for athletic departments already struggling to balance the books and comply with federal law mandating equal opportunities for men and women.

But "I don't see any limitations to the growth of the game at the youth and high school level," Starsia said Friday as he battled traffic en route to a high school game in Delaware.

"It's fun to watch. Guys running around whacking each other with sticks: People can understand that."

In the ACC's 53 years, only five coaches have guided men's programs to three or more national titles: Virginia soccer's Bruce Arena leads with four followed by Starsia, Duke basketball's Mike Krzyzewski, Wake Forest golf's Jesse Haddock and North Carolina lacrosse's Willie Scroggs at three.

Good company. And a good sport that's worth a look, regardless of what transpired at that infamous party in Durham, N.C.

"We are not angels in any regard, and we are not preaching to anybody," Starsia told reporters after the championship game. "But I like to think that we try to do it the right way, that we get nice kids. They stumble along the way as they grow up, but in general we have respectful kids, considerate young men.

"And this year in particular . . . the people who got to know our team, I think, can appreciate those qualities about us.

"And so I think you can hold this up as a little bit of an ideal and say, 'This is what the sport is capable of,' and feel pretty good about the end of the season."

 

Aggressiveness, grand slam do in Cavs
Three Virginia baserunners are thrown out on stolen-base attempts in the first two innings.
By Doug Doughty
981-3129

CHARLOTTESVILLE -- One grand slam was more than enough excitement for the Virginia fans who packed Davenport Field for the NCAA tournament Saturday night.

The crowd had barely stopped buzzing about Evansville's game-ending grand slam against Lehigh when South Carolina's Phil Disher rocked Virginia ace Sean Doolittle for a third-inning slam.

The buzzing turned to silence after Disher's blast and second-seeded South Carolina dispatched top-seeded UVa 8-2 before a record Davenport Field crowd of 3,196.

Virginia (47-14) faces elimination when it meets Evansville (41-21) at 1 p.m. today. The winner of that game will face South Carolina (39-22) at 6 p.m.

"The most important thing is that we're still playing," said UVa first baseman Tom Hagan, a senior from Roanoke.

South Carolina would have to lose tonight for there to be a seventh game Monday at 6 p.m. between the remaining once-beaten teams.

Previously successful with an aggressive style of play, Virginia was burned by that strategy Saturday, when three Cavalier runners were thrown out on stolen-base attempts in the first two innings.

"Tonight, we were a little overaggressive," UVa coach Brian O'Connor said.

UVa had three hits, two bases-on-balls and a hit-batsmen in the first four innings but didn't score until the fifth when John Farrell came home on a Tim Henry single. As it was, the Cavaliers stranded two runners for the second inning in a row.

In the fourth, UVa freshman David Adams hit a ball that was headed over the left-field fence before the Gamecocks' Cheyne Hurst stuck out his glove and grabbed it.

"I thought it was either going to be a homer or a double when he hit it," South Carolina coach Ray Tanner. "Fortunately, Hurst was playing him deep."

South Carolina starter Harris Honeycutt labored at times and threw 125 pitches in six innings but improved to 6-0.

Virginia had deviated from its regular-season rotation, going with senior Mike Ballard in its opening game with Lehigh. Doolittle (11-2) previously had been the Game 1 starter in UVa's three-game weekend series and at the ACC Tournament.

When Doolittle walked the first two batters in the fifth inning and then gave up a soft, run-scoring single to Justin Smoak, the Cavaliers made a move to reliever Michael Schwimer. It matched Doolittle's shortest outing of the season as a starter.

Doolittle, who had not lost a game since March 31, threw 81 pitches and said he feels he could pitch in relief if the Cavaliers are still alive Monday.

Doolittle began the game with consecutive 1-2-3 innings, striking out four batters in the process. After a lead-off single and a sacrifice in the third, Doolittle walked No. 9-hitter Reese Havens on a 3-2 count.

"A key moment in the game," O'Connor said. "He's [Havens] a good prospect, but he's the No. 9 hitter. That's one you're supposed to get."

Later in the inning, Doolittle had a 2-0 count on No. 3-hitter Justin Smoak before the Cavaliers elected to walk Smoak, a freshman who entered the game with 16 home runs. Then, Disher, who had only two homers all season, crushed Doolittle's first offering nearly 400 feet to left.

"The idea was to try and get a ground ball and get out of the inning," Doolittle said. "I didn't close the deal with two outs."

The grand slams by Disher and Evansville's Robbie Minor, who had not homered in nearly 600 college-at bats, were the first in 36 games this season at Davenport Field, where UVa is 32-4.

"I bet I've gotten 50 questions from reporters about what a big ballpark we have," O'Connor said. "Then, you see grand slams in back-to-back games."

The grand slams were the first at Davenport Field since May 21, 2005, when Doolittle performed the feat.

 

Blackburn's Virginia teams cranked up their offense
JENNINGS CULLEY
TIMES-DISPATCH COLUMNIST Jun 4, 2006

Forty years ago when he was football coach at the University of Virginia, George Blackburn was a good-natured soul, always tinkering with his team's game plan.

Almost every Saturday, it seemed, he'd spring a new formation, a trick play or two that would knock an opponent back on its heels. And when asked later about the new twist, Blackburn would smile and say: "Oh, I just dug into the barrel and pulled out an ol' apple."

It showed his quiet modesty, a trait that colored him differently than others.

It also reflected the fertile offensive mind he possessed.

George Blackburn, who died last month in Dublin, Ohio, at 93, had a Ph.D. in offensive football. He studied at the feet of Sid Gillman, the offensive genius who left footprints all over college and professional football. The lessons always kept "Blackie," as friends called him, in good stead.

He was pass-minded at a time when most coaches still swore to conservative football. He used screens, flares and down-and-out passes, many of the Gillman concepts that were the foundation for today's popular West Coast offense.

In his six seasons at U.Va. (1965-70), the Cavaliers twice led the Atlantic Coast Conference in total offense, rushing and scoring, and once led the league in passing. Three other times, the Cavs were second in those offensive numbers.

"He had the best offensive mind of any coach I played for," said Gene Arnette, quarterback on the 1968 team that was the school's only winner in a 26-year span. "When he walked into the room, he exuded football knowledge.

"On Sunday night, when we looked at film of the upcoming opponent, there was really nothing they could throw at us that he hadn't seen before. Immediately, he'd go to the weak spots and strong spots and put together a game plan beautifully."

But to many, Blackburn remains the most unappreciated coach in Cavaliers history.

The Cavs were still trying to recover from that infamous 28-game losing streak when he took over in 1965, having had good runs at Miami of Ohio and Cincinnati.

Two of his early teams were 5-5, but it was the'68 squad that stirred Wahoo fervor by going 7-3.

It was a team that could beat you inside, outside and in the air. Arnette passed for 1,463 yards and 17 touchdowns that year. Frank Quayle ran for 1,213 yards and had 30 catches for 426 yards. They capped the season by beating Tulane 63-47 in an offensive free-for-all.

Quayle was named ACC player of the year and Blackburn coach of the year.

That winter, Blackburn was highly sought by others. He turned down an offer from the University of Pittsburgh and rejected a job as offensive assistant with the Atlanta Falcons.

But two years later, after a 5-6 season, Blackburn was swept out during a change in athletic administration (Gene Corrigan replacing Steve Sebo). The ouster came just days after Virginia Tech had fired Jerry Claiborne and Virginia Military Institute had canned Vito Ragazzo.

It was the darkest week in state football history.

To this day, many feel the Blackburn firing was a setback in the Cavaliers' climb to football stability. The Cavs went through three coaches and nine years before winning five games again.

Blackburn fought long odds in keeping the U.Va. program afloat. His recruiting budget was far below that of other ACC schools. Academic restrictions were far more stringent.

But he had the team turning the corner, and he had recruited a freshman class with the school's first African-American players (Kent Merritt, Harrison Davis, Stanley Land and John Rainey).

It was a class stacked with the one thing the Cavs had lacked -- speed.

But Blackburn never got to coach them. He moved on to become a scout and talent evaluator for the Saints, Oilers and Patriots of the National Football League.

Years later, Virginia changed its admissison standards and opened the way for George Welsh to produce teams of national stature.