Virginia faces must-win situation against Cal State Fullerton
By Jay Jenkins
Published: June 15, 2009

OMAHA, Neb. – There was reason to point fingers.

On the sport’s grandest stage, the College World Series, Virginia was victimized by a handful of questionable rulings that helped alter a 9-5 loss to third-seeded Louisiana State.

From a botched fair ball that was ruled foul to a shady ruling on a bunt that send a bat-producing ping, the Cavaliers seemed to be on the short end of the stick.

Virginia coach Brian O’Connor protested both rulings and a would-be stolen base that was ruled as an out to no avail.

If the national coach of the year was miffed about the calls in his first trip to Rosenblatt Stadium as the skipper at Virginia, O’Connor was not tipping his hand.

When asked about the first incorrect call, a ball hit by Dan Grovatt that television replays showed landed clearly in fair territory, O’Connor danced around the topic.

“Those guys have challenging jobs, just like we all do,” O’Connor said. “I don’t know whether it was right or wrong but beyond that, frankly, I am not going to comment on it.

“Those guys are the best. They are the eight best in this country that come to work this tournament, and whether it was right or wrong they are not perfect, I am not perfect.”

The head-scratching calls against Virginia, which plays Cal State Fullerton today at 2 p.m. in an elimination game, seemed to kill momentum throughout the contest.

It was a complete backbreaker, however, O’Connor said. He pointed at a pair of homers that the Tigers hit to create the final separation.

“Unfortunately, there were a couple of breaks that did not go our way but nothing like that affected this ballgame,” he said. “It comes down to what we do. We didn’t make the pitches when we needed to make them. We just didn’t get quite enough clutch hits.”

Offensively, Virginia slapped out 14 hits, including two solo homers, but left 14 runners on base as it finished with just two hits and three walks with runners in scoring position. In all, the Cavaliers hit .125 (2 for 16) with runners standing at second or third.

“That’s a lot to leave on,” O’Connor said. “I felt in a lot of those situations that we had guys step up and hit the ball hard but LSU made two diving catches in the outfield and we couldn’t get that big hit to break it open.”

Virginia also suffered newfound pitching woes as three hurlers (Danny Hultzen, Matt Packer and Tyler Wilson) each allowed three earned runs. The Cavaliers earned run average in the NCAA tournament jumped from 1.45 to 2.53 following the Tigers’ offensive explosion.

Hultzen, Virginia’s ace on the mound, was chased after three innings, marking the shortest start of the rookie’s season. The struggles for the southpaw routinely came in two-strike situations, which ran Hultzen’s pitch count up rapidly.

“That kind of adds up as the game goes on,” Hultzen said. “Some of the good pitches that I made they barreled up and got base hits off of. They are a very talented team.”

As gloomy as the result felt for Virginia, O’Connor remained confident that his team would bounce back against Fullerton, the No. 2 national seed.

It was just a week ago that Virginia dropped the series opener at Ole Miss only to bounce back with two victories, punching the program’s first ticket to the College World Series.

“I can assure you [today] against Fullerton that our team will be ready to play and hopefully we will get another shot at LSU,” O’Connor said. “This team has shown a resiliency all year long. That toughness and that composure that they have had to bounce back that has gotten us to this point.

“This group has a tremendous amount of pride and I can assure you that they will be ready to play.”

O’Connor confirmed that RHP Robert Morey would start on the mound for the Cavaliers. The sophomore enters the game with a 3.11 earned run average and a 3-0 record.
 

Valdes ready for one more year with Cavs
By Jay Jenkins
Published: June 15, 2009

OMAHA, Neb. – By design, the cell phone was always arms length away.

Had a representative from a Major League Baseball team longed to talk to Franco Valdes prior to this week’s draft, Virginia’s junior catcher wanted to be available.

Valdes waited. And he waited some more. Nothing developed.

In fact, outside of a generic questionnaire from the Arizona Diamondbacks, Valdes was ignored completely by scouts from MLB.

It capped off a roller coaster 12-month period that tested Valdes in unimaginable ways.

Most are unaware that the Florida native with Cuban roots was suspended in the fall by coach Brian O’Connor after arriving late for practice.

“I was 10 minutes late,” Valdes explained. “It was enough for Oak.”

Valdes, who hit a homer in Virginia’s 9-5 loss to LSU in the opening day of the College World Series, had to regain the trust of his teammates.

“Some of them did not know what to think,” Valdes said. “I am a ‘whatever happens, happens’ kind of guy. I got suspended in the fall for a reason and that made me get my butt on the horse and continue to do other things.”

All the while, teammates wondered if Valdes would be back in 2010. An excellent defender, he was drafted in the 14th round out of high school by the Detroit Tigers.

“I came into this year saying, ‘if I do this well, I might get this much, and if I don’t, I have another year of school.’ But I don’t care about it that much,” Valdes said. “I love baseball and it is not that I don’t want to play pro baseball but it will come whenever it comes.”

Thoughts of Valdes landing a signing bonus worthy of leaving Virginia with a year of eligibility picked up steam during the ACC tournament and the Irvine Regional, which he landed MVP honors in.

“There were moments when ESPN couldn’t say three words without saying, ‘Franco Valdes,’” he joked. “I thought, ‘Oh, man, stuff might turn around a little bit.’”

That changed during a post-game meal in Oxford, Miss., with senior Andrew Carraway that Valdes prepared himself to go unselected in the draft.

“I remember going to eat dinner with ‘Ace’ at Ole Miss and he got six phone calls from teams,” Valdes said, “and I knew if they wanted me that they would call me now.”

It never happened. Only three draft-eligible juniors (Jeff Lorick, Matt Packer and Tyler Cannon) were selected in the 50-round draft.

“To be honest, I don’t care how the draft works,” Valdes said. “Since high school I have always thought of the draft as political mumbo jumbo that I hate getting involved with. I hate the draft.

“Whatever happens next year, if I get drafted or not, I don’t really care. I play baseball because I love to play baseball, not because I get paid or because my name is in The Daily Progress. I give three flying anythings about what is going on. As long as I am in the lineup I am fine.”

Valdes said it is easy to overcome low moments emotionally with visions of 2010.

“I have one more year in college baseball that I’m going to love,” he said. “I love playing with these guys and we are going to have a great team next year. We are going to have everybody back except Carraway and [Robert] Poutier.

“Sure, it is tough on draft day when you are not picked but I wasn’t going to go in the top three rounds. I am just glad that I have another season with a group that I love being around.”

Sucking it up

Following Virginia’s dogpile at the Oxford Super Regional, Poutier joked that the melee produced a black eye and a broken rib.

There was some truth to that. Poutier, a fifth-year senior, has a cracked rib.

That, however, will not keep him from pitching in the College World Series if summoned by the coaching staff.

In an elite group

With a solo homer on Saturday, Virginia rookie Steven Proscia made program history.

In addition to hitting the first home run at Rosenblatt Stadium by a Cavalier, the New Jersey native belted his 10th homer.

That was the most by a rookie at Virginia since Sean Doolittle registered 12 home runs in 2005.

Cannon also helped re-write the record books with a triple, giving Virginia 28 on the season. That bettered the mark of 27 hit by the Cavaliers in 1993.
 

Virginia faces Titans' staff ace in College World Series
Sophomore right-hander Daniel Renken is 2-0 with a 1.59 ERA in the NCAA tournament.
By Steven Pivovar
Special to The Roanoke Times

OMAHA, Neb. -- Virginia will have to trump an ace today in order to extend its stay at the College World Series.

The Cavaliers face Cal State Fullerton in a 2 p.m. elimination game at Rosenblatt Stadium. As chance has it, Virginia will be facing the Titans' best pitcher, sophomore right-hander Daniel Renken, in the win-or-go-home scenario.

Fullerton coach Dave Serrano elected to go with his No. 2 starter, Noe Ramirez, in the Titans' opening CWS game against Arkansas. The move didn't work out, as Serrano noted after the 10-6 loss, but it does provide an extra layer of comfort heading into the matchup with the Cavaliers.

"I do not regret my decision to start Noe,'' said Serrano, referring to the freshman who is 9-2 with a 3.33 ERA in spite of lasting just 3 23 innings against the Razorbacks. "And it's not like I had some three-year guy that I didn't use.

"Now, we have Renken to throw against Virginia. It's nice knowing you have a guy like him around to save your life.''

Renken has been Mr. Dependable for the Titans, pitching into the eighth inning in 10 of his last 11 starts. In his two NCAA tournament starts, Renken is 2-0 with a 1.59 ERA in 17 innings.

Like Virginia, Fullerton experienced a frustrating opener in which a big pitch or a key hit at the right time could have changed the game. The Cavaliers got 14 hits in their 9-5 loss to LSU on Saturday night but left 14 runners on base.

Against Arkansas, Fullerton had cut a 4-0 deficit in half in the third inning. Ramirez then failed to make it out of the fourth, giving up three of the five runs the Razorbacks scored in the inning.

Serrano and Virginia coach Brian O'Connor shared a similar outlook on what happened to their teams in their opening games. Each team failed to come up with the big hits or make the big pitches that had gotten them to Omaha.

"The game got us,'' Serrano said. "Their guys got the big hits and our guys didn't. The last few weeks, it's been us talking about getting the big hits.''

Said O'Connor: "We left 14 runners on base, and that's a lot to leave on. We just couldn't get that big hit to break it open, and that's something we've been doing.''

The last two hitters in the Virginia lineup, catcher Franco Valdes and second baseman Keith Werman, supplied half of the Cavaliers' 14 hits. Valdes went 3-for-5, homered and drove in two runs, while Werman opened with four straight hits before grounding out.

Werman said he hopes to continue a hot streak that has seem him hit .459 in starting 10 of the Cavaliers' last 16 games.''

"Getting on base gives the guys at the top of the lineup a better chance to make things happen,'' said Werman, a freshman from Vienna, Va.

O'Connor said moving Werman into the starting lineup has paid dividends for his team. Overall, the 5-foot-7, 140-pound Werman is hitting .400 in 65 at-bats this season.

"He's small in stature but he plays the game like he's 6 foot, 200 pounds,'' O'Connor said. "He finds ways to get his hits and work his way on base. He plays great defense. He's been doing a great job. He's just a scrappy baseball player who knows how to play the game.''

Virginia will counter today with right-hander Robert Morey, who is 3-0 with a 3.11 ERA in 17 appearances this season. Two of his eight starts have come in the NCAA tournament, and he's 1-0 with a 2.42 ERA.

As he did after Virginia's loss to Mississippi, O'Connor talked after the LSU defeat about the resiliency that his 48-14-1 club has shown throughout the season.

"I'm not concerned,'' he said. "This team has bounced back from some tough losses.''
 

Cavs turned on by switch
By Curt McKeever
June 15, 2009
OMAHA, NEB.

Keith Werman arrived at Virginia's Davenport Field for a series finale against Duke on May 10 with no idea he was about to be given the opportunity to become the Cavaliers' wild card.

Nor should he have had any such thought. In his previous 11 games, the freshman infielder had gone 1-for-15 while making just two starts. What's more, U.Va. sophomore second baseman Phil Gosselin was well on his way to earning first-team All-Atlantic Coast Conference honors.

But in a game that would decide the series, Cavaliers coach Brian O'Connor played a hunch and stuck his 5-foot-7, 140-pounder at second, and Werman responded by going 3-for-3 with two walks to fuel a 12-1 rout.

"I was, 'All right, I'm playing. Let's go!' " Werman said of seeing the lineup card that day.

It marked the beginning of a stretch in which he started nine of the Cavs' 14 games that led to their first College World Series appearance. During the span, Werman produced three of his four multi-hit games to that point in the season.

Saturday night in Rosenblatt Stadium, he was up to his tricks again, going 4-for-5 with an RBI and a run in a 9-5 loss to top-ranked and No. 3 national seed LSU.

A bit surreal, wouldn't you say?

"Coming in, everybody wants to be that top player that plays every day. But it's just awesome. There's no words, really, to describe it," Werman said of his late-season run that's included an 8-for-19 performance (.421) in seven NCAA tournament games. "It's just amazing. To be able to contribute the way I have for this team is just unreal."

According to O'Connor, who had Werman's brother Kyle for the final two seasons of a four-year starting career as the Cavs' second baseman, it really shouldn't be that surprising.

O'Connor admits he probably should have given the kid more chances earlier in the season.

After all, he could handle the bat in numerous ways — hitting behind runners, bunting, not striking out. And his defense was good enough that O'Connor wouldn't have to worry about moving Gosselin elsewhere.

But more than that, it was how Werman went about his business with a positive approach.

"The kid wasn't getting many opportunities and I never heard one peep. Most kids would be in your office wanting to know why they're not getting a chance, complaining," O'Connor said. "Keith Werman never said a word. And then as it moved on and on. ... I just felt like we needed a little bit of a spark and something to mix it up a little bit, and that was the move to make.

"We were playing good. We beat Duke two out of three, but every year that I've managed this team, it's been like the same nine, 10 guys that have played. It's the same at the start that it's been at the end, unless we've had some injuries, and at the end it's just kind of we've been good, but just not enough ... so I just made the move — thought it was the best thing for our team."

The move is similar to one that O'Connor's former boss, LSU coach Paul Mainieri, made with his club earlier this season. With the Tigers in a bit of a funk, Mainieri moved his shortstop, DJ LeMahieu, to second base to get freshman Austin Nola into the lineup. Nola has made 29 of his 31 starts in the past 30 games, during which LSU is 27-3.

"Those are the decisions that are the tough decisions, but they're the fun decisions to make," O'Connor said. "Sometimes they're right. Sometimes they're not. But this one's worked out."

Werman has burst on the scene after spending his entire high school career at catcher because no one else on the team could handle those duties. Not only that, but he also entered his senior season having spent the previous four months wearing a plastic upper-body cast that he could take off only to shower — because he'd cracked two vertebrae in his lower back at the end of his junior year.

Werman once showed off his versatility by pitching a seven-inning complete game, throwing 3 1/3 innings left-handed and 3 2/3 with his right. So how did he wind up being recruited by Virginia as an infielder?

He played those positions at some Cavalier camps, and had performed well enough to make O'Connor think he might even be better than his older brother.

"No disrespect to Kyle — Kyle would tell you this, also — Keith is the player right now that Kyle was in his fifth year (at U.Va.)," O'Connor said. "The kid just knows how to play, and he's a gamer."

Werman's showing Saturday left him 26-for-65 (.400) on the season. He's made just three errors in 90 fielding opportunities.

Thus, there's not likely to be any surprises in store for him today when he arrives at Rosenblatt and checks the lineup for an elimination game against No. 2 national seed Cal State Fullerton.

"I was going to let the year play out and see what happens," Werman said when asked about some midseason rumblings that he was considering moving to another school. "Everybody wants to be able to play, but really (I) just (needed to) stick it out, keep working hard and let things happen. Fortunately, it's been going pretty well for me."

And the Cavaliers.

"Ever since Keith's been in there," O'Connor said, "it's really changed our team."