Cavs eye Omaha return
By Jay Jenkins
Published: June 20, 2009

There was a buzz around the hallways of Rosenblatt Stadium.

Coaches and members of the national media spoke in similar fashions, raving about how young Virginia’s baseball team would be in 2010.

One scribe even predicted that the Cavaliers, on the heels of the program’s first-ever trip to the College World Series, would open the season in preseason polls as high as the top spot.

Virginia coach Brian O’Connor is not interested in such notoriety, instead focusing on the position battles that will unfold in months as fall practice opens.

While the Cavaliers likely will need to replace only one starter — starting pitcher Andrew Carraway — the incoming recruiting class should rank among the best in the O’Connor era. Four players from that class were selected in the first-year player draft, but none went in the first five rounds.

Brandon Kline, a 6-foot-3, 185-pound right-hander, was the first UVa recruit to be chosen, going in the sixth round to the Boston Red Sox. The Red Sox also took 5-foot-10, 180-pound shortstop Reed Gragnani from in the 27th round, while the New York Yankees selected 5-foot-9, 168-pound shortstop Stephen Bruno one round earlier.

The Cavaliers’ fourth draftee, third baseman Rob Amaro, was a 40th-round pick by the Phillies, where his brother, Ruben Amaro Jr., is general manager.

“It is exciting to think about 95 percent of our club will be back next year,” O’Connor said. “We have one heck of a recruiting class coming in that I think will add to what we have right now.

“I think the competition in our program will be the best that it has ever been.”

With much talent in the fold, however, much is expected.

“There will be expectations on this team next year that this program has never had before,” the skipper said. “As a program, these players need to accept that and understand the responsibility that comes with that and not stop working and remember what got us to this point. I think we are in a great position.”

In theory, having won its first regional, super regional and experienced a trip to Omaha should help.

“I do think the hardest thing is getting here the first time,” O’Connor said. “It doesn’t make it any easier later on, but you understand the little things that it takes to get to Omaha.

“Now it is not a distant dream. It is a reality and that’s the difference.”

How good can Virginia be next year?

“It is scary to think about that,” said Carraway, one of four seniors leaving the program. “You have pitching depth and some guys that have not played much during the postseason that are getting better all the time.”

For now, O’Connor must balance his roster. That has become even more important based on NCAA limitations to roster size.

Balancing that will not be easy, as some players may be fighting for their baseball lives in fall workouts.

This summer also matters, as players will be scattered across the country in wood-bat leagues.

“These players will go away and play this summer and get bigger and stronger,” O’Connor said, “and, hopefully, we have an even better ballclub next year.”

All signs point to that.
 

Future looks bright for Virginia baseball
By Curt McKeever
Correspondent
June 21, 2009
 
OMAHA, Neb. - Though preoccupied by all sorts of what-if thoughts late Wednesday night after Virginia's historic 2009 baseball season came to a stunning end at the College World Series, Dan Grovatt allowed himself one solace.

"This hurts. It really does, and that just makes you want to come back more and kind of settle up," the Cavaliers' sophomore said after a heartbreaking 4-3, 12-inning loss to Arkansas halted U.Va.'s quest to win the event in its first attempt.

Grovatt stopped short of pulling a Kevin Gunderson, the relief pitcher from Oregon State who after his team was eliminated from the 2005 Series prophetically predicted "the Beavers will be back next year, I can promise you that."

But the tone of Grovatt's voice made it clear that that's exactly what he'll be expecting the Cavs to do in 2010.

Considering the run they just made with only two seniors on the 25-man postseason roster, you'd be hard-pressed to find anyone who'd argue with that notion. In fact, it wouldn't be a stretch to think Virginia could be near or at the top of the preseason polls.

"We're not going to be unranked coming into next year. We'll have our entire team back, so the experience that we've had here will definitely help us," said Grovatt, whose team was not ranked at the start of the 2009 season. "There's going to be a lot of pressure next year. Most people counted us out this year. Next year, expectations are going to be enormous, and it's going to be a different road. Absolutely, this experience is going to make this group next year extremely focused."

Virginia got to its first College World Series largely behind a pitching staff that compiled the nation's third-best ERA, and almost all of the key figures in that group will return.

Second-team NCBWA All-American Danny Hultzen (9-1, 2.17 ERA) and Robert Morey (3-0, 3.33) stand to be the anchors in the starting rotation. Reliable reliever Tyler Wilson (9-3, 2.97 in 31 appearances) and Kevin Arico, who made a smooth transition to the closer role while finishing with 11 saves and a 2.70 ERA in 31 outings, both return. So should Matt Packer, a 32nd-round pick in the Major League Baseball draft who appeared in 32 games.

That group was instrumental in Virginia going 41-4 in games in which it held its opponent to four runs or fewer. And next year, the Cavs' offense should provide even more support than the 2009 bunch that hit .327.

Assuming shortstop Tyler Cannon returns (he was a 41st-round pick in the draft), U.Va. will have every component of its offense back in 2010.

That list includes nine regulars who hit at least .292. Utility man Grovatt led that bunch with a .356 batting average, while center fielder Jarrett Parker (another second-team NCBWA All-American) was right behind him at .355 and a team-high 16 home runs. Cannon finished at .355, and third baseman Steve Proscia hit .333 with 10 homers while banging out a Virginia freshman-record 86 hits.

Hultzen, first-team All-ACC second baseman Rich Gosselin and John Hicks also finished above .300. The Cavs also got a late-season spark from freshman Keith Werman, who went 6-for-10 at the College World Series and 10-for-24 in the NCAA tournament to finish the season at .400.

"Our program's in a great position. I think it's been in a great position for a few years," sixth-year coach Brian O'Connor said. "It's exciting to think that about 95 percent of our club will be back next year. We have one heck of a recruiting class coming in that I think will add to what we have right now. I think the competition in our program will be the best that it's ever been.

"There will be expectations on this team next year that this program has never had before, and so these players need to accept that and understand the responsibility that comes with that, and not stop working and remember what got us to this point."

O'Connor will tell you that resiliency was the difference between Virginia finding a way to Omaha like it did this season, and coming up short in an NCAA regional like his previous five teams did.

"I don't know if there's anything better that you can have said about yourself than somebody that doesn't just lay down," O'Connor said. "They come back fighting, and that's what I'm most proud of this team.

"They just showed a toughness and a level of character and pride that I haven't been a part of. It was a special, special group."

While the sting of Wednesday's season-ending defeat to Arkansas undoubtedly will linger into summer, Proscia is sure the Cavs will return next year ready to produce even more magic.

"Not a lot of people felt we'd be in this position, but we were a young team looking to prove something and I think we did that," he said. "We've got a lot of guys coming back next year, so hopefully we'll make a trip back."

Listen closely and you'll hear a tinge of confidence.

"We're bitter about it right now," Grovatt said of coming up short of the national championship, "Now we have a reason to come back."

 

Bethel's Evans earns male athlete of the year honors
By Dave Johnson
247-4649
June 21, 2009
 
HAMPTON - Along the way, Jontel Evans constantly heard the unsolicited advice.

You should give up football. Put all your focus into basketball. That's your meal ticket to college and, the Good Lord willing, the next level.

Or …

You should give up basketball. Put all your focus into football. That's your meal ticket to college and, the Good Lord willing, the next level.

Either way, Evans had a set answer: I'm not ready yet.

Evans, a two-sport star who just graduated from Bethel High, knew that decision would come soon enough. And it has — he signed a basketball scholarship with the University of Virginia, putting football (unless he pulls a Greg Paulus at some point) in his rearview mirror.

Yet for his high school days, Evans was determined to hang on to both as long as possible.

"There was a point when I thought about giving up one of them," said Evans, the Daily Press Male Athlete of the Year. "But my mom and dad told me, you don't know which one you're going to play (in college), so just keep playing both of them.

"I heard that all through my high school career. 'Oh, you should just give up one and focus on the other.' My parents wouldn't let me do that. They had me playing both sports because it kept me busy."

And the thing is, he's always been good at both.

In the fall, Evans was a total-package running back who could run between the tackles or get to the edge. In three seasons on Bethel's varsity, Evans rushed for 3,687 yards and scored 55 touchdowns. He averaged 137 rushing yards per game, nearly 7 per carry.

As a senior, despite missing four games with a broken bone in his hand, Evans had 1,165 total yards and 21 touchdowns. One of his most impressive performances came when he only ran for 25 yards. But he had 232 all-purpose yards, 90 coming on a kickoff return for a touchdown and 51 more on a punt return that set up a score.

"Oh, man," Bruins football coach Jeff Nelson said. "Coaching him, sometimes you just looked out there and said, 'Wow.' The things he could do when he got the ball."

In the winter, he was an aggressive, ball-hawking point guard who could beat just about anybody down the floor. In three seasons as a starter, he averaged 13 points per game. He was the floor leader of the Bruins' state runners-up run in 2008.

Evans is a better distributor than scorer. But over a six-game stretch last February, he averaged 22.5 ppg. That included a career-best 33 against Kecoughtan.

"He's a fierce competitor," Phoebus coach James Daniel said. "With Jontel, you can tell that his work ethic goes beyond what his coach gives him to do."

Could he have been better at one sport had he given up the other? Possibly. But Evans makes another argument: Maybe playing both sports made him better at each. Still, he knew he would have to decide someday.

"I looked at Ronald Curry's situation, and that didn't go as well as he wanted," said Evans, referring to the former Hampton two-sport whiz who played football and basketball at North Carolina.

"It's hard enough to do it in high school, and I know it would be harder to do it in college."

The gridiron is over, though Evans' friends joke about U.Va. football coach Al Groh knocking on his door at all hours of the night. Or maybe Evans will take the same path as Paulus, the former Duke point guard who is playing football for Syracuse in the fall.

But more likely, this is it. After all these years of doubling up, Jontel Evans has picked his sport.

"It's going to feel weird not playing football," he said.

"I'll miss going out there every Friday night. But I'm ready to focus on basketball. I'm starting a new chapter of my life."
 

Ex-UVa player’s plea to be resolved in Dec.
By Tasha Kates
Published: June 20, 2009

The case of a former University of Virginia football player accused of buying a stolen music mixing board is expected to be resolved by the end of the year.

Former cornerback Mike Brown was in Charlottesville Circuit Court on Friday on a charge of buying or receiving property that was stolen. Although Brown answered “guilty” when the clerk read the charge off to him in court, Judge Edward L. Hogshire did not make a finding on his guilt or innocence.

Brown, 22, is expected to return to court Dec. 7, at which time defense attorney Lawrence Woodward said he would present more information about Brown before the judge makes a finding.

“We will try to indicate to the court that this was a mistake that a young man made, and it should not hurt him in future endeavors,” Woodward said.

In February 2008, Brown was arrested on charges of grand larceny, possession of stolen property with the intent to sell it and altering serial numbers. Fellow university student Brendan Downey told police that a mixer and other electronic equipment had been taken from his car while it was parked in the Central Grounds Parking Garage.

Deputy Commonwealth’s Attorney Claude Worrell said Friday in court that Downey had borrowed the mixer board from someone else and didn’t realize that it was missing right away. A few days after the theft, Downey told police that he looked on eBay and found the same mixer on sale by a Charlottesville seller with ties to UVa.

Worrell said in court that the posting was traced back to Brown’s roommate’s computer, but the roommate told police he was unaware of the sale. Authorities recovered the mixer during a search of Brown’s room. Brown told authorities that he had bought it from someone on Cherry Avenue.

“He knew he didn’t pay fair market value for it,” Worrell said in court.

Worrell said in court that Brown was charged with the stolen property charge and not grand larceny because it was possible that Brown bought it from someone else despite telling police he bought it on a day when Downey still had the mixer.

Brown was a cornerback on UVa’s football team until August, when the university issued a news release that Brown was “no longer a member of the football team.” Since then, Woodward said Brown has graduated from UVa and is now in graduate school.

Before coming to court Friday, Brown pleaded guilty in Charlottesville General District Court to a driving under the influence charge. According to court records, he was given a 30-day suspended jail sentence and a $250 fine for the first offense.