U.Va. freshman ready to face LSU
JAY JENKINS MEDIA GENERAL NEWS SERVICE
Published: June 13, 2009

OMAHA, Neb. -- What Danny Hultzen wanted, Danny Hultzen got.

A freshman All-American, the rookie longed for the baseball in Virginia's opening game in the College World Series.

The long-held dream will come to fruition tonight against third-seeded Louisiana State (51-16) at 7 p.m. inside Rosenblatt Stadium.

"I want to be there on the mound in the first game," said Hultzen, who is 9-1 with an ERA of 2.09. "It is going to be awesome. It is going to be a lot of fun. I am ready."

The nation will find out if that's the case when Virginia (48-13-1) looks to continue its stellar postseason play, a stretch that has included an ACC tournament title and series-clinching wins at the Irvine Regional and Oxford (Ole Miss) Super Regional.

"We have played great baseball to this point in the postseason. It has been a magical ride," Virginia coach Brian O'Connor said. "But this is when the little things must be done properly, and we have done that during the postseason.

"To make a run here in Omaha we will need to continue that. I just know that our players are hungry and eager to get things started here at the College World Series."

O'Connor, from nearby Council Bluffs, Iowa, has enjoyed the return to the CWS and to Rosenblatt Stadium, a place where he played with Omaha-based Creighton University and coached as an associate head coach at Notre Dame.

Some of that luster vanished Friday, at least temporarily, as heavy rain fell at Rosenblatt Stadium just minutes before Virginia was to have a practice session. It came minutes after LSU finished its practice session.

"That was really unfortunate," O'Connor said. "I wanted our players to take the field, but it was not in the cards today. We were able to hit in the batting cages, but there is something special about having the guys on the field at Rosenblatt."

LSU will counter today with sophomore Anthony Ranaudo (10-3, 2.95 ERA), who ranks third in the country with 147 strikeouts. In a super regional win over Rice, the right-hander fanned nine batters.

LSU enters the double-elimination portion of the CWS with a 10-game winning streak and the highest win total in the country.

"It's always good to have a winning streak but that could end [today]," LSU's Blake Dean said. "It's not all that important. Obviously, you know that you're playing well, you're rolling and you've got the momentum, but I don't think it's too big of a factor."

 

Cavaliers stick to successful schedule
Virginia arrived one day early, hoping to get used to the CWS atmosphere.
By Steve Pivovar
Special to The Roanoke Times

OMAHA, Neb. -- Virginia's baseball team makes its College World Series debut tonight against Louisiana State hoping to avoid the fate of many other first-time qualifiers.

They come, they see, they get conquered.

Six teams -- Louisville, Nebraska, San Jose State, Southwest Missouri State, Tulane and UC Irvine -- have made CWS debuts since 1999, when the NCAA expanded its tournament field to 64 teams. All of them lost their first game, and none finished better than 2-2. The last first-time qualifier to win its opening game was Georgia Tech in 1994.

"We know this is going to be different," Virginia outfielder Dan Grovatt said. "This is the biggest stage that any of us has ever played on, and in some ways, none of us knows what to expect.

"I think that's why [UVa coach Brian O'Connor] has tried to remind us that it's still baseball. He's tried to tell us that we'll be OK if we stay true to what got us here."

O'Connor speaks from experience. He played in the 1991 CWS with Creighton, the Omaha school that was the ultimate home team. The Bluejays won their CWS debut by beating Clemson, and wound up going 2-2 in the tournament.

O'Connor tried to start preparing his team for the hype and hubbub of Omaha shortly after it locked up its ticket for Omaha by defeating host Mississippi in last weekend's super regional.

"What I've tried to tell the team is just to embrace and enjoy this experience," O'Connor said. "If you try to act like this is not a big deal, I think that will come back to bite you because it is a big deal.

"We just have to be excited about this, embrace it and just go out there and go for it."

The Cavaliers were the first team to make it to Omaha, arriving in the city early Wednesday evening. Their first stop was Rosenblatt Stadium, home of the CWS since 1950. They saw the statue, walked on the grass, took in the sights.

O'Connor allowed his players do some exploring that night, allowing them to go off and eat on their own.

"He gave us a chance to be tourists for a day," Grovatt said. "That was nice. But when we got up Thursday, it was time to push the reset button and start thinking about baseball. This is, after all, a business trip for us."

The success Virginia experienced by arriving a day early at both its regional and Super Regional site figured into O'Connor's decision to bring his club in a day early.

"It's kind of been our routine the past couple of weeks to get in a day early," O'Connor said. "I wanted to do that here just so they could get their feet on the ground and maybe avoid that feeling of being rushed.

"Here at the College World Series, it's a blur for them as players. You have the practice, you have meetings to go to, you have the autograph session, you have the team dinner at night and the opening ceremonies. It just blows by."

The Cavaliers are trying to embrace their coach's advice.

"He's done a good job of keeping us loose,'' center fielder Jarrett Parker said, "and getting us ready to play."

Virginia did not get a chance to work out at Rosenblatt Stadium on Friday due to rain. The Cavaliers were supposed to get their hour. The players hit in the indoor cages, but were unable to get on the field.

UVa couldn't have drawn a tougher opening-round assignment. The Cavs face No. 1-ranked LSU, which will send All-American Anthony Ranaudo to the mound. Ranaudo is 10-3 with 147 strikeouts in 10923 innings. Opponents are hitting .198 against the 6-foot-7 right-hander.

That's a tall order but the Cavaliers have already beaten San Diego State's Stephen Strasburg, whom many observers are calling the greatest college pitcher of all-time.

They knocked off then-No. 1 UC Irvine, not once but twice on its home field. They survived the pressure-cooker Super Regional at Oxford, Miss., losing the opening game on a walk-off homer but rallying to win the next two.

"We've definitely come together," Parker said. "Our pitchers have stepped up for us and we've been getting clutch hits. I don't think we're surprised by what we've done. This is what we've been shooting for since we stepped on campus."

All that now remains is the chance to turn a dream into reality.

"When you're a kid growing up and watching this on TV, you think how neat it would be to play there but you're thinking that you'll never get the chance," Grovatt said. "We get that chance, and we're going to try to make the most of it."
 

Hughes: Cavs focused on wins
By Doug Doughty
981-3129

As he reflects on Virginia's baseball team and its improbable run to the College World Series, Pete Hughes keeps coming back to one aspect of the Cavaliers' organization.

UVa has a 25-player dress list that includes two seniors and four juniors.

"I think what helps them is they've got really solid pitching -- every arm that comes at you is quality -- and they've got a bunch of young guys who aren't in draft years," said Hughes, the head baseball coach at Virginia Tech for the past three seasons.

"They aren't worried about everything under the sun, other than winning baseball games."

UVa coach Brian O'Connor expressed some of those sentiments in an interview session prior to the Oxford, Miss., Super Regional.

In his six seasons at Virginia, the Cavaliers have failed to win 40 games only once, when they went 39-23 in 2008 with a team that had seven Major League Baseball draft picks.

Four of them were juniors, including second baseman David Adams and pitcher Jacob Thompson, both of whom had better years as sophomores than they did as juniors.

In baseball, a player can be drafted out of high school but not again until he has attended a four-year school for at least three seasons.

"I've coached both scenarios," said Hughes, who came to Tech from Boston College. "It's not always the kids' fault. They're thinking about advisors, who are peppering them, or about what general manager or cross-checker is in the stands.

"They're thinking about where they're being slotted or what kind of signing bonus they're going to get, and the next thing you know, the game is over and they never thought about winning the baseball game.

"I think it helps [Virginia] to have a bunch of guys who are just playing the sport to win games."

Three Virginia juniors were drafted this week, included left-handed pitcher Matt Packer by Cleveland in the 32nd round and shortstop Tyler Cannon by Pittsburgh in the 41st round.

It is unclear whether the two were unhappy with their draft status, although Packer did decline an interview request from The Roanoke Times

The UVa junior who went earliest in the draft was left-handed pitcher Jeff Lorick, taken by the Atlanta Braves in the 20th round. Lorick, whose 5.61 earned-run average was the highest on the staff for pitchers with more than one appearance, has not traveled with the Cavaliers since rosters were trimmed to 25 in the postseason.

Senior pitchers Andrew Carraway and Robert Poutier also were selected on the draft's first day, but none of the underclassmen has entered the postseason with a decision weighing over his head.

Hughes counts O'Connor as one of his coaching friends and doesn't mind admitting, "I root for those guys."

And, why not?

With every step that Virginia takes in the postseason, it increases the Hokies' credibility.

On the final weekend of the regular season, the Hokies (32-21) took the first two games of a three-game series with visiting Virginia.

In the third game, Tech scored three runs in the first inning off promising UVa sophomore Robert Morey and led 4-2 before the Cavaliers scored four runs in the top of the seventh to win 6-4.

Virginia (48-13-1) lost more games to Tech that weekend than it has lost in the ACC tournament, Irvine (Calif.) Regional and Oxford Super Regional combined.

"It tells us our program where we're at," Hughes said. "We can beat anybody on the country two out of three. That's how close we are. It makes you feel good and aggravates you at the same time.

"I'm happy to build on beating two Super Regional teams -- Clemson and Virginia -- in a series, and looking forward to getting almost our whole team back and getting one step closer to doing the same stuff that Virginia is doing right now."
 

U.Va. coach O'Connor takes his winning team home
By Rich Radford
The Virginian-Pilot
© June 13, 2009
CHARLOTTESVILLE

Brian O'Connor Week is about to begin.

Yes, this supposedly is the week of the College World Series, but you can't deny that the storyline for this year's event revolves around the hometown kid who made good.

As O'Connor leads his Virginia baseball team against top-ranked LSU tonight, his dossier will be reviewed time and again by TV's talking heads:

•Born in Omaha.
•Grew up in Council Bluffs, Iowa, just across the river and a 10-minute drive from storied Rosenblatt Stadium.
•Played at Creighton University in Omaha on the only Bluejays team to ever make it to the College World Series (1991).
• Returned to Rosenblatt Stadium as an assistant coach at Notre Dame in 2002.
•Heck, when a local artist was commissioned to create a statue at the entrance to the park, he used a picture of O'Connor for one of the four players shown in joyous revelry.
•From age 4, O'Connor went with his dad and brothers regularly to games at Rosenblatt. His parents and his wife Cindy's parents still live in Council Bluffs.
There's something natural about O'Connor's return to his hometown this week with a Virginia team that fits its coach's personality and philosophy on many levels. He builds teams around pitching, defense and... trust. Give me everything you've got, O'Connor told his troops early on, and I'll help make you the best player, and best person, possible.

When U.Va. makes a road trip, for example, he doesn't do bed checks.

"I suggest a curfew," he said. "They are men. Part of the process is they need to make their own decisions."

That trust doesn't go unappreciated.

"I wouldn't want to play for anyone else, " sophomore rightfielder Dan Grovatt said.

"He's always treated us as young men who are going to do other things," senior pitcher Andrew Carraway said. "We are going to compete in college baseball for a few years, then most of us are going to do something else and raise families. He knows that....

"He treats us like the men we are going to have to become soon."

O'Connor's coaching career has been circuitous. After a brief minor-league pitching stint, he first went north to a place where football rules - Notre Dame - then east to Virginia, where the baseball program was two years removed from life support.

Eight years ago, Virginia was wrestled with how to fund non-revenue sports, and it was suggested baseball become a non-scholarship sport. Four consecutive losing records didn't help build much of a case for saving the program. Nor did it help that the only fans at games were parents, girlfriends and a few die-hards.

Supporters of Virginia baseball knew de-emphasizing the sport for a team competing in the powerful ACC could have killed its future in Charlottesville. And they rallied.

Author John Grisham, who lives is Charlottesville and whose son Ty played at Virginia in 2002-03, long has been suspected of being the key figure behind a multi-million dollar donation that led to the building of 3,600-seat Davenport Field.

Rather than cutback, Virginia began funding the NCAA maximum of 11.7 scholarships. The sport wasn't just saved; it was thrust into a new era of success.

O'Connor's hiring in 2003 to replace Dennis Womack was a key.

"My expectations were pretty high when I came here," O'Connor said. "I thought it was a gold mine, quite frankly, one of the few sleeping giants left in the country."

He was just 32 when he took the job, but he had been working ahead of the curve for a while. At 23, he was hired as Notre Dame's pitching coach by Phil Mainieri, now the head coach at LSU.

In South Bend, despite weather that's hardly conducive to baseball, the pair won big. Big enough to make it to the College World Series in 2002.

A little over a year later, O'Connor had his own team. And the moment O'Connor slipped on a Virginia jersey, the fit was natural, the success immediate.

Virginia was 29-25 in Womack's last year as coach. Under O'Connor, the Cavaliers went 44-15 in his first year and have averaged 44 wins a season since.

"You can't win 45 one year and 25 the next," OConnor said. "You have to establish consistency and sustain it. My first year here, we won a lot and grabbed that fan base right away."

As Virginia was putting the final touches on Sunday's Super Regional victory over Mississippi, Mainieri was watching. When U.Va. won, Mainieri raised his hands, celebrating with his former assistant coach from afar.

Then he realized, "Oh no, we have to play these guys."

"I've been telling everybody for six years he's one of the best coaches in the country," Mainieri said. "This validates it."

The two still speak by phone "three or four times a week," O'Connor said. And they vowed to never play against one another until the NCAA forced them to.

Notre Dame and Virginia aren't so different academically, so O'Connor already had been recruiting to a high standard. And all along, he had a philosophy about how baseball should be played, a map that defines this U.Va. team.

"I love athletic position players who are not one-dimensional," O'Connor said. "You might be able to hit 15 to 20 homers in a season, but if you can't play left field, we're not going to have a good day every day and give ourselves a chance to win.

"I vow to my players that I'm only going to bring players into our program that will bring joy to the clubhouse. You have to enjoy your teammates, because you have to go to battle with them."

Developing the talent he has and maximizing it has been a core component. He has embraced Virginia's youthful lineup this season and made it a strength. With such a young lineup, there was little to no attitude within the clubhouse. Nobody was playing to improve draft stock. It was all about the present, the team.

It was that way from the beginning of the school year when the coaches gave out camouflage workout shirts and hats that carried the word "Omaha" and the number "1,186"- the number of miles from Charlottesville to the site of the CWS.

Covering the ground to get there would take a little from everyone, not a lot from a few.

With little veteran leadership - a typical Virginia lineup has two juniors, three sophomores and three freshmen at the field positions - O'Connor put away his sometimes fiery demeanor and put on a stoic facade.

He was dealing with players who were very good, but didn't quite know it. Players such as Danny Hultzen.

Virginia's lefthanded pitcher/first baseman put together an ACC Freshman-of-the-Year season, yet he didn't think he was capable of such feats when O'Connor recruited him. The coach asked him if he thought he could hit at college pitching. His answer: "No."

Yet, he'll take an eight-game hitting streak to Omaha and is batting .333, fourth among the everyday players on a squad that's hit .327 on the season. Everybody looks at Hultzen's 9-1 record and 2.09 ERA. He seems more proud of what he has done at the plate.

With Hultzen and others, O'Connor has massaged this squad to get where it wanted to be.

And yet...

"This didn't happen fast enough for me," said O'Connor, who thought he had a better shot with the 2007 team that lost in a Super Regional to eventual national champ Oregon State. "I really believed deep down this day would come."

As the Cavaliers finished off Ole Miss in front of 10,000 depressed Rebels fans, O'Connor stood in the dugout, his left hand in front of his face, his thumb rubbing the end pads of each finger. He didn't flinch. And when the last out was made and his players dog-piled on the mound, O'Connor took a few strides down the dugout and calmly shook hands with a athletic director Craig Littlepage, who was beaming.

"I figured early on that I needed to maintain a calm and confident approach for the players to remain calm and confident in tight situations," O'Connor said.

Carraway said even his girlfriend noticed.

"She said, 'How is it Coach O'Connor could sit there with that calm look on his face when everybody else around him was freaking out?' " Carraway said. "She'd seen the other side of him a couple of times."

When returning from the Regionals and Super Regionals, the Cavaliers were welcomed by bed-sheet banners on the backside beams at Davenport Field.

After the trip to the Irvine Regional, where they beat the country's top pitcher, Stephen Strasburg, and the nation's top team, Cal-Irvine, the banner read, "Anyone, anytime, anywhere."

After the Super Regionals, it was, "Omaha. Now, finish!"

They were made by Cavaliers supporter Howard Hoege, a Charlottesville attorney and West Point graduate who attended law school at Virginia.

Hoege and O'Connor have become close and often meet for coffee at a Panera Bread. Hoege said they "talk about leadership and team and approach and development and desires and goals."

Listen to O'Connor and you sense he's embracing the message of the most recent banner.

"We're not satisfied with just going to Omaha," O'Connor said.
 

Cavs loose, ready
By Curt McKeever
Special to the Daily Press
June 13, 2009
OMAHA, Neb

. — You should have seen the nervous looks on these wet-behind-the-ears Virginia Cavaliers who were getting a taste of Rosenblatt Stadium on Friday, the day before their College World Series debut.

OK, so they were wet because of a steady rain that washed out their only chance to practice in Rosenblatt.

And as for them being edgy? Well, if you've watched Brian O'Connor's bunch play this season, you know they don't get too worked up.

So let's get these stories about O'Connor growing up just across the Missouri River in Council Bluffs, Iowa, and the one about his bronzed likeness being part of the "Road to Omaha" statue at the park's entrance, out of the way and play ball.

The serious kind of ball — not the kind a group of pitchers were involved in outside the dugout while most of their teammates sat, hoping for a break in the weather.

"This is what we've done all year," senior catcher Will Campbell said as he surveyed the relaxed scene. "You can watch us in Irvine or Oxford; the pitchers will be playing 'two-ball' while batters are taking BP. That's probably one of the main reasons that we've had so much success, is that we've stayed loose."

For Campbell — who starred at Grafton High and essentially has been U.Va.'s bullpen catcher the past three seasons — this isn't his first trip to Rosenblatt. Twelve years ago, when he was a fourth-grader living in Leavenworth, Kan., he came to the Series with some Auburn-loving family members.

He remembers sitting down the left-field line near the Auburn bullpen and getting the look of disgust from an uncle after he had the gall somewhere around the third or fourth inning to ask the Tigers' starter, future major-leaguer Tim Hudson, whether he thought his no-hitter would hold up.

"I was in awe (then), and I'm in awe now," Campbell said after pointing to outfield seats and a new giant video screen behind left field.

Just don't misinterpret that to mean he or the Cavaliers are star-struck.

After all, they're one of the three teams that made it here without the luxury of playing at home during the postseason.

"That's kind of been our entire season, to relax and go out there and play," said freshman pitcher Danny Hultzen, who will start against LSU tonight. "The added pressure of the College World Series — everybody's feeling that a little bit. But in the end, you just go out and play baseball. You can't worry about all the extra stuff."

Actually, O'Connor has taken that into account.

It's why he had the bus that picked up his team at the airport Wednesday drive straight to Rosenblatt to, as Hultzen put it, "kind of get acclimated."

O'Connor also might have tried to lighten the load when he showed the Cavaliers where he used to play at Creighton University, then put them through a workout on that field built on top of a concrete parking lot.

"The outfielders were having a blast," Campbell said. "They'd be right there (in position to grab baseballs that had dropped in front of them) and then they'd bounce straight up over their head."

It's what in the Cavs' heads that O'Connor is mostly focused on.

And so, yes, he'll acknowledge that his father let the sculptor of the "Road To Omaha" statue borrow a photo of him in a Creighton uniform that wound up being the inspiration to one of the four celebrating players.

O'Connor's not sure if the one farthest right looks like him, but he really doesn't care. The story is one more he can use to keep his players from thinking too much about the enormity of the stage they're on.

Then again, it's not like he's trying to fool anybody, either.

Check out what Campbell recalls from a meeting O'Connor held before the Cavaliers left for Omaha.

"He asked us what we're going to do and we said win a national championship," said Campbell, who is not on the postseason roster but, as a senior reward, has been included on all three trips. "He said, 'Good. Is this going to be different than any other road trip?' And all of us said, no, it's going to be the same.

"He said, 'No, you guys are idiots. That's completely false. This is going to be completely different than anything you've ever done or seen. It's going to be one of the highlights of your life. Don't act cool about it. Take it all in. Do whatever's necessary to have a blast. And he knows. He's coming back home; we're going to play against his buddies from LSU. It's going to be great."

 

Lots of layers to UVa-LSU
By Jerry Ratcliffe
Published: June 13, 2009

Scattershooting around the sports world over your morning coffee ...

Should be fun this evening to watch Virginia and LSU battle it out in the College World Series, especially considering the coaching matchup between the Cavaliers’ Brian O’Connor and his mentor Paul Mainieri, who has led the Tigers to the nation’s No. 1 ranking.

Their relationship was well-documented in Friday’s column, but Mainieri had a further prediction about Wahoo baseball that shouldn’t be ignored.

“I would be surprised if Virginia isn’t ranked No. 1 in the country in the preseason poll next year because Brian has such a young team,” the LSU coach said. “That’s pretty significant stuff.”

Considering how far UVa has come in six seasons is significant as well. However, are there any limitations on where the program can go in the future?

“I know Brian feels like his administration there is very supportive, but I’m certain there’s more than they can do,” Mainieri said. “If they keep giving this guy the tools, they can have one of the best programs in the country for years to come. I hope everybody understands the treasure they have there in Charlottesville in Brian O’Connor.”

UVa has something more than $3 million raised to make improvements to Davenport Field, but will need even more to expand the stadium, which would make the program more attractive for hosting regionals and Super Regionals in the future.

A modest proposal

Speaking of Davenport, I would be curious to know what readers think about the idea of adding a name onto the facility in honor of the late James O. West.

How about Davenport-West Stadium or something like that?

Having attended West’s funeral a couple of weekends ago, it was a great touch for those who came to pay their final respects to James O, by singing “Take Me Out to the Ball Game.”

Ex-Hoos in the Gulf

Charlottesville’s Pete Gillen, who coached Virginia’s basketball program from 1998 to early 2005, left this past Monday for the Persian Gulf for the USO’s Operation Hoop Talk, where he and other coaches and sports personalities will visit troops and talk basketball in Kuwait and Afghanistan.

Gillen won’t be alone and will have something in common with at least half the traveling party in that four of the coaches all worked at UVa during their careers.

Joining Gillen will be former UVa player and coach Jeff Jones, now the head coach at American, Dave Odom, who retired from coaching a couple of seasons ago, and Dennis Wolff, former head coach at Boston University, who was on Jones’ staff at Virginia.

The group also visited hospitals in the Virginia and D.C. areas before they left on the trip.

Gillen, who has more one-liners than Jackie Mason — frankly, I think Gillen is much funnier — will keep the troops laughing.

Baseball schedule

O’Connor is tired of hearing about Virginia’s weak nonconference schedule.

In fact, the ire in his voice is easily detected when the subject comes up, especially in reference to the NCAA tournament selection committee’s comments about UVa’s play outside the ACC.

O’Connor, obviously irritated, said this about his schedule the other day:

“Our schedule is challenging that we have in our [ACC] league,” he said. “Nonconference, well, I make that decision. So much has been made of it and the frustrating thing to me is how that affected us being sent to Irvine and being a No. 2 seed. But what I want to know is if the nonconference schedule is a factor in the RPI, then why did we have the sixth-best RPI in the country going into the NCAA Tournament.”

O’Connor explained that it is difficult to play a tougher nonconference schedule because of Virginia’s academic demands.

“There are very few schools that have the requirements on their players that this institution does,” O’Connor said. “I can’t miss more than four or five class dates to play our schedule.

“We’re going to miss three Fridays automatically in order to play three of our weekend series in the league. There’s limitations on what you can do because they have to be here for school,” he explained.

Thusly, Virginia can’t travel to play, say, a South Carolina, on a Tuesday and Wednesday because of the academic challenges.

However, he did announce that UVa will open the season with a three-game series at East Carolina in 2010 and ECU will return the favor in 2011 on the second weekend of the season.

UVa is also negotiating a possible 2011 date to play in the Minute Maid Classic that’s played in the Houston Astros’ ballpark.

Touching all bases

Recent PGATOUR.com power rankings included a former Wahoo. Those rankings read like this: No. 1 Tiger Woods, followed by Paul Casey, Kenny Perry, Vijay Singh, Geoff Ogilvy and at No. 6, UVa’s Steve Marino. Not too shabby. ... In case you missed it, another former Cavalier, Marc Iavaroni, was hired as an assistant for the Toronto Raptors. Iavaroni, who has worked for some of the NBA’s brightest minds and is highly regarded in the hoops world, “Will bring passion and a real sense for detail,” to the Raptors said Toronto coach Jay Triano. “Marc is unbelievably detailed with his approach.” Iavaroni will focus on the Raptors’ defense, the club’s downfall last season. ... Several big names will be going into the Fork Union Military Academy Sports Hall of Fame this coming week, including: NFL quarterback Vinny Testaverde, Pro Bowl offensive tackle Roman Oben, NBA veteran Shammond Williams and legendary FUMA football coach R.L. “Red” Pulliam. ... Former UVa football assistant and now N.C. State head coach Tom O’Brien took members of his Wolfpack football team down to Camp Lejeune to spend time with Marines in the Wounded Warrior Battalion. “Our guys think they are special, but I think it’s important that they are around a bunch of people that are really special, that have done so much to keep us free and protect us,” O’Brien said of the visit.
 

Accomplishment sinks in for Virginia players in Omaha
By Jay Jenkins
Published: June 13, 2009

OMAHA, Neb. — Sitting in his downtown hotel room, Andrew Carraway had a moment that was tough to describe.

On the eve of the College World Series, Virginia’s co-captain and elder statesman finally was broadsided by the magnitude of what Virginia’s baseball team had accomplished.

“It hit me, I am sitting in a hotel room in Omaha,” said Carraway, a right-handed pitcher who is 8-1 on the season. “It is awesome. Every single part of Omaha is awesome. It probably is more than I expected.

“Almost every time we get on a bus, we are met by video cameras. You can’t really expect that.”

Autographs have been requested every step of the way, and when Virginia pulls into the team hotel a host of children — most of whom did not know about Virginia baseball a week ago — ask for balls, hats and shirts to be inked.

“That just blows you away,” said Virginia catcher Franco Valdes. “People are so passionate about college baseball. It is like being a rock star for a few days.”

The Cavaliers (48-13-1) were the first team to arrive in Omaha and promptly raced to Rosenblatt Stadium for a tour of the venue.

Players were also present as a Virginia flag was raised outside the stadium, indicating that the program was one of the eight teams in the field at the College World Series.

Carraway, who was drafted in the 12th round Wednesday by the Seattle Mariners, took the chance to do something unique. He picked up the dirt at the stadium.

“It feels different than normal dirt,” he joked.

Something else stood out as well.

“I just stood there and stared at the scoreboard at Rosenblatt,” Carraway said. “My dream about the whole thing was to get on the field and look at the letters on the scoreboard. That was my favorite part, and then you look down at the dirt and say that is dirt from Rosenblatt. It is unreal.”

Back in the fold?

Virginia pitcher Matt Packer has every reason to focus internally.

The left-handed standout led the nation in earned run average as a sophomore and was also drafted on Wednesday in the 32nd round by the Cleveland Indians.

Having arrived at the College World Series, Packer said it would be hard to envision passing on the chance at a return ticket to the sport’s highest stage as a senior in 2010.

“This is something to come back to,” said Packer, who pitched in all three games in the super regional at Ole Miss. “It will take something special to miss out on this.”

Packer was unaware that he was even picked after asking for $200,000 as a starting point in negotiations.

“I wasn’t really watching the draft and I got some text message saying, ‘Congratulations,’ and I was like, ‘For what?’ Right after that, a guy called me from the Indians and said he would talk to me after we were done in Omaha.”

Extra bases

With a right-handed pitcher starting today for LSU, O’Connor could elect to start a number of left-handed batters, including second baseman Keith Werman. That decision has not been made, however. Phil Gosselin will be in the lineup and could assume the position, play left field or be slotted at designated hitter. ... Because LSU was a national seed, Virginia will be the road team tonight.
 

Tigers take winning streak, experience to Omaha
Associated Press
Published: June 13, 2009

BATON ROUGE, La. — A double-digit winning streak and a trip to the College World Series are nothing new for LSU.

Yet experience tells the Tigers (51-16) — whose 10 straight victories have given them the most wins in the nation — that what looks like unstoppable momentum gets tougher to maintain as a team advances deeper in the NCAA tournament.

“It’s always good to have a winning streak but that could end Saturday,” said LSU slugger Blake Dean, referring to LSU’s CWS opener against Virginia. “It’s not all that important. Obviously, you know that you’re playing well, you’re rolling and you’ve got the momentum, but I don’t think it’s too big of a factor.”

As LSU left for Omaha on Thursday, some players weren’t ready to assert that the Tigers’ recent postseason surge was the sign of a team peaking at the right time.

The Tigers’ pitching has been impressive, led by starters Louis Coleman (13-2, 2.76 ERA, 124 strikeouts) and Anthony Ranaudo (10-3, 2.95, 147). Their hitting has come and gone, however, forcing LSU to pull out some nail-biters recently as they seek the program’s sixth national title and first since 2000.

“I don’t think we’ve peaked yet at all,” said Ryan Schimpf, who’s batted .335 with 19 home runs and 63 RBI while taking turns playing left field and first base.

In the middle of the 2008 season, LSU was no lock to make the NCAA tournament. Then came a 20-game winning streak spanning the remainder of the regular season and the Southeastern Conference tournament. The streak increased to 23 as LSU swept the regional round. But California-Irvine halted the streak with an 11-5 victory in the opener of the super regional. Although LSU rallied for two straight wins to advance to Omaha, the Tigers lasted only three more games before their elimination, leaving them 3-3 in their final six contests.

“Last year we might have peaked too early,” Schimpf said. “But we still have our best baseball yet to come. We can hit a lot better. Pitching has really kept us in a ton of games and that’s been the key for us. If we can go to Omaha and get them some more run support, that will be terrific.”

LSU’s last loss came on May 20 in the opener of the SEC tournament, when the Tigers managed only six hits against Vanderbilt and fell 4-1. LSU then won five straight to win the conference tournament and won their first five games of the NCAA tournament, eliminating Rice in the minimum two games of last weekend’s super regional.

When the Tigers hit well, they look unbeatable. Some of their more impressive results included a 16-0 demolition of Georgia in the SEC tournament and a 10-3 win over Minnesota to close out the regional round.

Yet, in their NCAA opener, the Tigers trailed underdog Southern 2-1 until, with two outs in the seventh, they exploded for seven runs in a 10-2 win. Later in the regional, the Tigers needed 10 innings to beat Baylor 3-2, with Ranaudo (today’s CWS starter against Virginia) striking out 14 in nine innings to give LSU a chance to pull it out.

LSU head coach Paul Mainieri says his club should be proud of its streak, but suspects a bigger factor in Omaha will be experience. LSU and North Carolina are the only teams returning to the eight-team CWS for a second straight season.

Mainieri has coached two teams — Notre Dame in 2002 and LSU last year — that were full of CWS rookies, and asserted, “Nothing you can do can totally prepare them for it. I’m convinced of it.”

“You walk into that stadium and your eyes get as big as softballs, your jaw drops ... there’s 25,000 people and you know it’s on national television,” Mainieri continued. “I felt both years that it took about a game-and-a-half to really get your feet on the ground.”
 

UVa.‘s Tyler Cannon Credits Father For Success
By Tim Hayes
Sports Writer / Bristol Herald Courier
Published: June 13, 2009

Tyler Cannon will live a dream today when he starts at shortstop for the University of Virginia in the College World Series.

Larry Cannon, the man who nurtured that dream and groomed his son into one of the Atlantic Coast Conference’s top players, will be looking on from the stands at Omaha’s Rosenblatt Stadium with a sense of pride.

It’s the latest baseball bond the two men have shared.

“As a father, it just makes you really proud,” Larry Cannon said.

The game has always been a common link for this father and son. When Tyler was a tyke, he would tag along with his dad to high school baseball practices, and soak in all the information and knowledge his dad passed along to his players.

The younger Cannon later developed into a star player at Pigeon Forge (Tenn.) High School, with his dad serving as his head coach.

“He’s the main reason I am here today,” Tyler Cannon said earlier this week. “I give him all the credit in the world for the player I am and the person I am. Growing up, he taught me about everything I know. He taught me the fundamentals, how to respect the game and to be humble.”

Larry Cannon just completed his third season as the head coach at John Battle High School. While the season keeps him busy, he still keeps a close watch on his son and the Cavaliers.

He frequents Virginia’s Web Site often and tries to make it to as many games in Charlottesville as he can. Since Battle’s season ended with a loss to Lee High in the Clinch Mountain District tournament, Cannon has seen his son play in the ACC tournament and the Irvine, Calif., and Oxford, Miss., regionals.

“I’ve enjoyed watching these guys this year,” Larry Cannon said. “They just play as a team, they all get along and I’m happy for them to get this far. Of course, it would also be nice to go to the College World Series and get interviewed by [ESPN reporter] Erin Andrews.”

While the father has kept a close eye on the Cavs, the son keeps tabs on the Trojans.

“I ask him how his team is doing when we talk on the phone,” Tyler Cannon said. “I know they kind of struggled this year and they were young. But he’s a great coach and he knows the game. Everybody loved playing for him in high school and I loved playing for him.”

Cannon has loved his experience at UVa. and has been a key contributor to the Cavaliers’ postseason run. He’s compiled a .339 batting average with one home run and 37 RBIs. He’s also stolen 17 bases.

“It’s been a great experience here,” Cannon said. “I knew this was the place I wanted to come when I came here for a camp my junior year of high school. I just fell in love with the coaches, the campus and the academics are top-notch. There was no other place I really considered.”

Life got even better for Cannon on Thursday when he was drafted by the Pittsburgh Pirates in the 41st round of the Major League Baseball Amateur Draft. He intends to return to UVa., and his immediate focus is on the College World Series.

“It’s been a heck of a month,” Cannon said. “Hopefully, we can keep it going, starting Saturday with LSU. This has just been a heck of a run.”

It wasn’t too long ago that Larry Cannon and his son would sit in their home in the Smoky Mountains and intently watch the College World Series on televison. Now, the two get to
experience it first-hand.

“He’s pretty pumped,” Tyler Cannon said. “I remember we would watch the College World Series together when I was young and we just talked about how fun it would be to go to Omaha. Now, our dreams have come true. I can’t really explain it. It’s going to be great.”
 

Teams from Deep South and West Coast have enormous college-baseball advantage
By Zach Berman
THE WASHINGTON POST
Published: June 13, 2009
Updated: 01:00 am
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va.

Entering its first College World Series, Virginia will take the diamond at Omaha's Rosenblatt Stadium today not merely an unknown to college baseball's premier tournament, but also sporting a profile unlike the nation's elite college-baseball teams.

Schools from the Deep South and West Coast often dominate the annual eight-team tournament. This year, Virginia is the northernmost school in a field that includes Louisiana State, Cal-State Fullerton, Arkansas, North Carolina, Arizona State, Texas and Southern Mississippi.

Teams from the northeast or mid-Atlantic region seldom find their way to Omaha in June. No team from the region has reached the College World Series since Maine in 1986. Wichita State, which took home the national title in 1989, is the only team from outside of the South or the West Coast to win the College World Series since Ohio State in 1966.

"They just have so many advantages," Virginia coach Brian O'Connor said. "There's a big advantage in recruiting, in scheduling and also what you could do in the NCAA play."

O'Connor attributes most of the discrepancy to a cause-and-effect that starts with weather. Warmer weather in the south and west allows for more nonconference home games, which helps teams compile early-season wins. More home games generate bigger crowds and greater fan interest, which lead to bigger and better stadiums. The larger ballparks and high win totals help when the NCAA assigns hosts for the super regionals (the second round of the NCAA Tournament), and O'Connor said that in most years, six of the eight teams that host super regionals usually advance to the College World Series. This year, five of the eight second-round hosts made it to Omaha.

"You have a 75 percent chance of going to Omaha if you have a super regional," O'Connor said. "We're defying those odds quite a bit this year."

The NCAA attempted to remedy the weather discrepancy in 2008, when it instituted a universal start date for both preseason practices (Feb. 1) and the regular season (teams are not allowed to play before the last week in February). Previously, teams could start practicing and playing earlier in the year, giving a big edge to schools from warmer climates.

In recruiting, elite players from the north are more willing to migrate south than vice versa. Of the 14 out-of-state players on the Cavaliers' roster, nine are from states north of Virginia. The lineup that helped beat Mississippi in the deciding game of the super regional on Sunday included two players from New Jersey, two from Pennsylvania and one from Maryland.

Associate head coach Kevin McMullan, a New Jersey native who previously coached at Indiana (Pa.) and St. John's, said the talent discrepancy between players from the north and south is not as pronounced as the reputation indicates. There is often a big difference early in a player's development, McMullan said, but he praised the fundamentals of mid-Atlantic and northeastern high school players.

Because baseball fields are sometimes not in playing condition during winter months, players from these regions are often stuck in gymnasiums focusing exclusively on drills. There will be bunting practice in one corner, ground balls fielded off a wall in another corner and conditioning up and down a staircase.

"You get some guys who have a little edge, who have something to prove," McMullan said.

O'Connor helped oversee a successful run at Notre Dame, which is located in a significantly colder region and a less prestigious conference while also featuring a comparable academic profile. O'Connor saw Virginia as a school in a fertile recruiting base that competes in the ACC -- perhaps the finest conference in college baseball.

While history suggests otherwise, O'Connor is not surprised that Virginia has reached the College World Series. He's surprised it took six years.

"Quite frankly, I thought we'd be having this press conference by year three or four, just because my expectations were pretty high for what could be accomplished here," O'Connor said. "I knew when I came here six years ago that this institution had the ingredients to have a baseball program that could go to Omaha. For me at the time, when I was 32 years old and took this job, I really believed that this day will come."

 

LSU downplays winning streak heading into second straight College World Series in Omaha
BRETT MARTEL AP Sports Writer
3:36 AM CDT, June 12, 2009

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — A double-digit winning streak and a trip to the College World Series are nothing new for LSU.

Yet experience tells the Tigers (51-16) — whose 10-straight victories have given them the most wins in the nation — that what may look like unstoppable momentum gets tougher to maintain as a team advances deeper in the NCAA tournament.

"It's always good to have a winning streak but that could end Saturday," said LSU slugger Blake Dean, referring to LSU's CWS opener against Virginia. "It's not all that important. Obviously, you know that you're playing well, you're rolling and you've got the momentum, but I don't think it's too big of a factor."

As LSU left for Omaha on Thursday, some players weren't ready to assert that the Tigers' recent postseason surge was the sign of a team peaking at the right time.

The Tigers' pitching has been impressive, led by starters Louis Coleman (13-2, 2.76 ERA, 124 strikeouts) and Anthony Ranaudo (10-3, 2.95, 147). Their hitting has come and gone, however, forcing LSU to pull out some nail-biters recently as they seek the program's sixth national title and first since 2000.

"I don't think we've peaked yet at all," said Ryan Schimpf, who's batted .335 with 19 home runs and 63 RBIs while taking turns playing left field and first base.

In the middle of the 2008 season, LSU was no lock to make the NCAA tournament. Then came a 20-game winning streak spanning the remainder of the regular season and the Southeastern Conference tournament. The streak increased to 23 as LSU swept the regional round. But California-Irvine halted the streak with an 11-5 victory in the opener of the super regional. Although LSU rallied for two straight wins to advance to Omaha, the Tigers lasted only three more games before their elimination, leaving them 3-3 in their final six contests.

"Last year we might have peaked too early," Schimpf said. "But we still have our best baseball yet to come. We can hit a lot better. Pitching has really kept us in a ton of games and that's been the key for us. If we can go to Omaha and get them some more run support, that will be terrific."

LSU's last loss came on May 20 in the opener of the SEC tournament, when the Tigers managed only six hits against Vanderbilt and fell 4-1. LSU then won five straight to win the conference tournament and won their first five games of the NCAA tournament, eliminating Rice in the minimum two games of last weekend's super regional.

When the Tigers hit well, they look unbeatable. Some of their more impressive results included a 16-0 demolition of Georgia in the SEC tournament and a 10-3 win over Minnesota to close out the regional round.

Yet, in their NCAA opener, the Tigers trailed underdog Southern 2-1 until, with two outs in the seventh, they exploded for seven runs in a 10-2 win. Later in the regional, the Tigers needed 10 innings to beat Baylor 3-2, with Ranaudo (Saturday's CWS starter against Virginia) striking out 14 in nine innings to give LSU a chance to pull it out.

LSU head coach Paul Mainieri says his club should be proud of its streak, but suspects a bigger factor in Omaha will be experience. LSU and North Carolina are the only teams returning to the eight-team CWS for a second straight season.

Mainieri has coached two teams — Notre Dame in 2002 and LSU last year — that were full of CWS rookies, and asserted, "Nothing you can do can totally prepare them for it. I'm convinced of it."

"You walk into that stadium and your eyes get as big as softballs, your jaw drops ... there's 25,000 people and you know it's on national television," Mainieri continued. "I felt both years that it took about a game-and-a-half to really get your feet on the ground."
 

Virginia’s Hultzen to take mound vs. LSU
By GARY LANEY
Advocate sportswriter
Published: Jun 13, 2009

OMAHA, Neb. — With as much tradition that surrounds the College World Series at Rosenblatt Stadium and with all of the fanfare that marks the event, it’s something one has to see in person to be able to understand.

For a player, it’s not something easy to prepare for.

“I try my hardest to get them ready, but you really can’t,” LSU coach Paul Mainieri said.

With that in mind, it’s hard to imagine it will be easy today to be Virginia left-hander Danny Hultzen, a 19-year-old freshman who has the task of pitching in Rosenblatt, on prime-time national TV against No. 1-ranked LSU, in his team’s first-ever CWS appearance.

“You can’t really prepare for it,” said Hultzen, whose 9-1 record and 2.09 earned run average made him a first-team freshman All-American this year. “I’ve pitched in a regional and in a super regional, but in the end, there’s no comparison to the atmosphere.”

If there’s anybody who can quickly adjust, it’s a player like Hultzen, who has been no stranger to the baseball spotlight. A native of Bethesda, Md., Hultzen, who starts at first base when he’s not pitching, was a first-team high school all-American by Baseball America who was considered a top draft prospect as a high school senior before dropping to the 10th round of last year’s draft, mostly because of concerns about his commitment to playing college ball.

To be the level of prospect Hultzen was in high school, one has to perform in showcase events and big games with scouts in attendance. Events are nothing new for prospects like Hultzen, whose baby-faced 6-foot-2 frame can bring a fastball in the low 90-mph range.

“They are forced to grow up so much earlier,” said Virginia coach Brian O’Connor of prodigious talents like Hultzen. “Even in high school. Because of the draft, because of summer travel teams, because of the rankings of these players, their maturity is fast-forwarded so much more than it ever was before.

“In Danny Hultzen’s case, this kid has been our Friday night starter all year long. He’s went into places like North Carolina and had to be matched up with Alex White. He went into Georgia Tech and he pitched the first game of the super regional in Oxford. He’s had those experiences.”

His talent has allowed him to have those big-game experiences a lot earlier than most players. Simply put, he has a knack for dominating games with 95 strikeouts in 86 innings and just 27 walks. Batters hit just .242 against him, and his control has led to him throwing just two wild pitches.

“The kid has nerves of steel, and he hasn’t backed down from anything all year long,” his coach said.

In two NCAA tournament starts he’s 1-0 with a 1.42 earned run average in 12 2/3 innings. He combined on a 5-0 shutout of California Irvine in the Irvine Regional, then got a no-decision in a 4-3, 12-inning loss to Ole Miss in a super regional. He’s led a Virginia pitching staff that has been brilliant in the post-season with a 1.45 staff earned run average.

And he’s going up against an LSU team that has struggled at times against top-flight left-handers, although the Tigers have feasted against them as of late.

“That had no bearing on the decision,” O’Connor said. “Danny Holtzen has been our No. 1 guy all year long, starting the opening game in the super regional.”

The pressure he’ll face in Omaha is similar, but different, to what LSU’s Anthony Ranaudo faced last year, when he pitched in the first game of the CWS.

Like Hultzen, Ranaudo was a star high school player coming out of New Jersey. Unlike his counterpart today, Ranaudo was not in the starting rotation after an early-season injury relegated him to bullpen work. He pitched one inning out of the pen in LSU’s 8-4 loss to North Carolina in the Tigers’ first CWS game.

“Everybody’s got to deal with the same stuff,” said Ranaudo, who emerged as a dominant force on the mound this year, going 10-3 with a 2.95 ERA entering today’s game. “You’re in a bigger atmosphere insofar as you are on of the eight best teams in the country. I don’t think (Hultzen) will have any added pressure. He pitched in the ACC, which is a power conference. I think it will be pretty evenly matched.”

Mainieri said he expects the Cavaliers freshman and his Ranaudo to keep it a low-scoring game today. He said five runs should be good enough to win.

“LSU’s got a great hitting team,” Hultzen said. “I’m just going to go out there and attack them and hope for the best.”

 

Cavaliers might just be the story
By GARY LANEY
Advocate sportswriter
Published: Jun 13, 2009

OMAHA, Neb. — Walk into Lum’s Restaurant in suburban Bellevue, Neb. this week and a regular might greet you, in full Midwestern friendliness, with a “Who are you with?”

Say “LSU” and you might get an invitation to park at a home near Rosenblatt Stadium for the College World Series. The Tigers, after all, are long-time local favorites here and enjoy something close to a home-field advantage.

If you stick around Lum’s a little longer, the conversation may change.

“Who is that Cinderella team?” they might ask. “You know, the one with the coach from here. That’s the one everybody is pulling for.”

That team is Virginia, coached by Brian O’Connor, from nearby Council Bluffs, Iowa, which is to Omaha what Port Allen is to Baton Rouge. Cross the bridge over the Missouri River and you are there.

When O’Connor, who played his college ball at local Creighton University, coached Virginia to the super regional championship at Ole Miss to advance here, his team became the instant Omaha favorite.

That spoiled the advantage for LSU, where O’Connor’s old friend and former boss, Paul Mainieri, is the head coach.

“Coach Mainieri and I talked Sunday night and he said ‘Darn it, you guys made the world series and usually everybody is pulling for LSU, but with you guys going back there, I’m sure there are going to be a lot of people pulling for Virginia.’”

And O’Connor is more than just a local coming home, he’s also part of the stadium’s lore. Outside of Rosenblatt is a sculpture of three players hoisting a teammate in victorious celebration. The model for the player on the right is O’Connor.

The artist who designed the sculpture borrowed a photo from O’Connor’s father, a professor at Creighton. The photo was of the younger O’Connor during Creighton’s 1991 run to the CWS.

Omaha has produced many a baseball person, but how many of them can say their likeness stands permanent guard at the front gates of Rosenblatt?

Not a single Virginia player has played in the CWS before this year. So that statue gives the coach some credibility when he starts talking about what they can expect.

He wasn’t thinking about that in 2001, when he toiled at Rosenblatt in June. And little did he know then that his future boss, and current friend, Mainieri, was there to watch.

“Back in 1991, I came here to cheer for (coach) Jim Hendry and his great Creighton team,” Mainieri said. “I sat behind the first base dugout. And as I watched this whole thing, I said ‘This is unbelievable. What a great experience.’ And I vowed never to come again until I brought a team with me.”

He brought a team, Notre Dame, in 2002 with O’Connor as an assistant. He returned last year with LSU.

He’s back again. In the other dugout will be the guy from the statue, a player off the team that inspired Mainieri to make it here, a man who is now forever connected to Rosenblatt and, this week, the local fans.