Virginia finished off an incredible run Wednesday night with a 4-2 win over Vanderbilt in the College World Series finals. Here's a collection of my thoughts from the Wahoos' national championship and the season:
- This discussion should probably start here: A quote from my Twitter account (@hooamp) from May 9 that I am not proud of, but illustrates this team's amazing turnaround: "The UVa baseball season just needs to end already. Pack up and come back next year and hope we get back to good baseball." Virginia was coming off a weekend where it lost back-to-back games against N.C. State on walk-off RBIs and had lost to Old Dominion for a second time this season. At home against Duke -- the worst team in the ACC -- Virginia won Friday and then was up 7-3 Saturday going into the ninth inning and lost 9-7. That's where the frustration came from and that is when I sent out that tweet. Virginia bounced back and won Sunday, but the feeling was still it would take a series win, and maybe a sweep, at North Carolina the next weekend for UVa to get to the NCAA tournament. The team also needed certain things to happen just to qualify for the ACC tournament. UVa did exactly what it needed to, sweeping UNC in impressive fashion, grabbed the No. 7 seed for the ACC tournament, and then defeated No. 10 seed Georgia Tech in the play-in game to advance to pool play. Just when it seemed like things were really getting going, the poor play had not completely ended. Virginia lost all three of those games, 9-5 to Miami, 8-2 to Notre Dame, and 10-2 to N.C. State. A team that went on to win the national title a month later had just went 0-3 by a combined score of 27-9 in its conference tournament.
- Virginia, 34-22 at the time, still made the NCAA tournament despite the poor finish and was shipped out to the Lake Elsinore, Calif., Regional as a No. 3 seed along with No. 4 San Diego State, No. 2 USC, and No. 1 UC-Santa Barbara. Obviously, Virginia was the road team against all California teams. Virginia beat USC and SDSU and had to face USC again, falling behind 9-5. But in the eighth inning, UVa tied it up with three runs in the eighth and eventually won, 14-10, in the 11th.
- It was on to the super regionals, which Virginia got to host since overall No. 1 seed UCLA had been beaten by an old Virginia nemesis, Maryland, which was now coming to Charlottesville for a best-of-three series. Revenge had to be on the Terrapins' minds since the Cavs had beaten them in this exact location and round a year ago. The super regional was arguably the most exciting part of the whole NCAA tournament.
The Davenport Field crowd was fired up, embracing this rapidly improving and clutch team. The Cavs proved to be even more clutch against Maryland, falling behind in back-to-back games before coming back to win, 5-3, and 5-4.
- Virginia's improbable success led to the College World Series in Omaha for a fourth time in seven years. The 'Hoos drew Arkansas in its first game, winning 5-3 after being behind for a portion of the contest. That ended up being a theme of this team. Out of 10 NCAA tournament victories, Virginia was behind in seven of them. That is kind of crazy to think about.
- Brandon Waddell started to build his legend in the next game against Florida (by the end of the tourney, he was known as "Big Game Brandon"), pitching a gem in a 1-0 win over the Gators, who were averaging 11 runs in the tournament. Josh Sborz came in in the eighth inning with Gators on third and first bases with the 'Hoos leading 1-0 and no outs. Somehow, he held the 1-0 lead. The inning was memorable also for a hit up the middle that nearly took off Sborz's head, but actually ended up being a blessing in disguise. The shot came back so fast that he was able to hold the runner at third base and still had plenty of time to throw out the man headed to second.
- In the next game against Florida, Nathan Kirby pitched for the first time since April. He cruised through two innings but then got hit around a bit in the third and was taken out of the game. Virginia lost 10-5 and momentum as clearly on the Gators' side, who got that famed offense going.
- Brian O'Connor rolled out Waddell again for the elimination game against Florida and he went five admirable innings but allowed four runs. It was 4-4 until Kenny Towns came through with the winning sacrifice fly in the seventh. Virginia held on from there with Sborz on the mound.
- Now for a timeout and side note: I was at the beach Sunday through Wednesday, unable to write previews or reactions to any of the games. But I did have cable and did get to watch the amazing series against Vanderbilt which, of course, I was very happy about. I kept checking with my wife's dad, who was already down there Saturday, to see if the house he rented at the Outer Banks had TV and you know, cable.
- Virginia got to the rematch with Vanderbilt, which was coming in as the favorite this year, unlike last year when the Commodores took the first and third games of the finals to capture the championship. The roles were reversed in 2014. Connor Jones pitched well on the mound for the Cavs in the first game, but the offense did not do enough and Vandy won, 5-1. At this point, I was thinking Virginia had had a good run but things weren't looking that good. Winning two in a row against the Commodores looked like a tall, nearly impossible task.
- In the second game, Adam Haseley took the mound. Who? Oh, just a true freshman who normally plays center field and hadn't pitched since May 24. He went five innings, his longest outing this season, and allowed no runs on four hits. Sborz -- who else? -- came in and finished the rest, going four innings while pitching an incredible 77 pitches. Meanwhile, on offense, Virginia was getting help from No. 8 and No. 9 hole hitters: freshman Ernie Clement and senior walk-on Thomas Woodruff, Both went 3 for 4 and Clement had an RBI while Woodruff, who had 12 starts in his career prior to this second finals game, had two. After an iron-man like performance, Sborz was going to be unavailable in the third game but he was named the CWS Most Outstanding Player. In Omaha, he did not allow a single run in 19 innings.
- Then came the decisive game. Waddell pitched again, this time on three days' rest. The contest did not get off to a good start with Vanderbilt going up 2-0 after the first inning. Even worse, in the top of the frame, Virginia had runners on first and second with no out, and didn't get anything across. But Waddell eventually settled down. Apparently, the plan was for him to pitch three innings, according to Karl Kuhn, UVa's pitching coach. He went seven. Freshman Pavin Smith tied the game at 2 in the fourth with a home run and then put UVa ahead with an RBI single in the fifth. In the seventh, Towns -- now nicknamed Mr. June for his great performance throughout the playoffs -- added another run with a single. The stage was then set for Nathan Kirby to close out the game on the mound in the final two innings. He crumbled against Vanderbilt in the first game of the finals a year ago and now, in storybook fashion, he was able to save the final game against the Commodores. Admittedly, I was very nervous when he came into the game, given his shaky start against Florida. But whether that start helped him shake off the rust or he truly was back to being great, it didn't matter, because he pitched very well in those final two innings. He struck out five and allowed a single.
- All in all, just a crazy, fun, unpredictable run is all you can say. Last year seemed like the year to win it. This one hardly ever did. Even once we got in, I figured winning the regional would be a success. The way this team came together and refused to quit was just phenomenal. I will gladly acknowledge that I wrote this team off back in early May, and it showed me up big time, much ti my delight and the delight of the Wahoo faithful.
- Virginia won three national championships this academic year: men's soccer, men's tennis, and baseball. In a post from late May about the tennis team, I talked about how UVa has won two titles two other times: 2009 men's soccer and 2010 rowing and 1992 men's soccer and 1993 women's lacrosse. Three titles in one year has never happened, though, If anyone knows how to find out how many schools have won three in a year, or knows that answer, write a comment or send me an email. I can't imagine the list is long.
- This discussion should probably start here: A quote from my Twitter account (@hooamp) from May 9 that I am not proud of, but illustrates this team's amazing turnaround: "The UVa baseball season just needs to end already. Pack up and come back next year and hope we get back to good baseball." Virginia was coming off a weekend where it lost back-to-back games against N.C. State on walk-off RBIs and had lost to Old Dominion for a second time this season. At home against Duke -- the worst team in the ACC -- Virginia won Friday and then was up 7-3 Saturday going into the ninth inning and lost 9-7. That's where the frustration came from and that is when I sent out that tweet. Virginia bounced back and won Sunday, but the feeling was still it would take a series win, and maybe a sweep, at North Carolina the next weekend for UVa to get to the NCAA tournament. The team also needed certain things to happen just to qualify for the ACC tournament. UVa did exactly what it needed to, sweeping UNC in impressive fashion, grabbed the No. 7 seed for the ACC tournament, and then defeated No. 10 seed Georgia Tech in the play-in game to advance to pool play. Just when it seemed like things were really getting going, the poor play had not completely ended. Virginia lost all three of those games, 9-5 to Miami, 8-2 to Notre Dame, and 10-2 to N.C. State. A team that went on to win the national title a month later had just went 0-3 by a combined score of 27-9 in its conference tournament.
- Virginia, 34-22 at the time, still made the NCAA tournament despite the poor finish and was shipped out to the Lake Elsinore, Calif., Regional as a No. 3 seed along with No. 4 San Diego State, No. 2 USC, and No. 1 UC-Santa Barbara. Obviously, Virginia was the road team against all California teams. Virginia beat USC and SDSU and had to face USC again, falling behind 9-5. But in the eighth inning, UVa tied it up with three runs in the eighth and eventually won, 14-10, in the 11th.
- It was on to the super regionals, which Virginia got to host since overall No. 1 seed UCLA had been beaten by an old Virginia nemesis, Maryland, which was now coming to Charlottesville for a best-of-three series. Revenge had to be on the Terrapins' minds since the Cavs had beaten them in this exact location and round a year ago. The super regional was arguably the most exciting part of the whole NCAA tournament.
- Virginia's improbable success led to the College World Series in Omaha for a fourth time in seven years. The 'Hoos drew Arkansas in its first game, winning 5-3 after being behind for a portion of the contest. That ended up being a theme of this team. Out of 10 NCAA tournament victories, Virginia was behind in seven of them. That is kind of crazy to think about.
- Brandon Waddell started to build his legend in the next game against Florida (by the end of the tourney, he was known as "Big Game Brandon"), pitching a gem in a 1-0 win over the Gators, who were averaging 11 runs in the tournament. Josh Sborz came in in the eighth inning with Gators on third and first bases with the 'Hoos leading 1-0 and no outs. Somehow, he held the 1-0 lead. The inning was memorable also for a hit up the middle that nearly took off Sborz's head, but actually ended up being a blessing in disguise. The shot came back so fast that he was able to hold the runner at third base and still had plenty of time to throw out the man headed to second.
- In the next game against Florida, Nathan Kirby pitched for the first time since April. He cruised through two innings but then got hit around a bit in the third and was taken out of the game. Virginia lost 10-5 and momentum as clearly on the Gators' side, who got that famed offense going.
- Brian O'Connor rolled out Waddell again for the elimination game against Florida and he went five admirable innings but allowed four runs. It was 4-4 until Kenny Towns came through with the winning sacrifice fly in the seventh. Virginia held on from there with Sborz on the mound.
- Now for a timeout and side note: I was at the beach Sunday through Wednesday, unable to write previews or reactions to any of the games. But I did have cable and did get to watch the amazing series against Vanderbilt which, of course, I was very happy about. I kept checking with my wife's dad, who was already down there Saturday, to see if the house he rented at the Outer Banks had TV and you know, cable.
- Virginia got to the rematch with Vanderbilt, which was coming in as the favorite this year, unlike last year when the Commodores took the first and third games of the finals to capture the championship. The roles were reversed in 2014. Connor Jones pitched well on the mound for the Cavs in the first game, but the offense did not do enough and Vandy won, 5-1. At this point, I was thinking Virginia had had a good run but things weren't looking that good. Winning two in a row against the Commodores looked like a tall, nearly impossible task.
- In the second game, Adam Haseley took the mound. Who? Oh, just a true freshman who normally plays center field and hadn't pitched since May 24. He went five innings, his longest outing this season, and allowed no runs on four hits. Sborz -- who else? -- came in and finished the rest, going four innings while pitching an incredible 77 pitches. Meanwhile, on offense, Virginia was getting help from No. 8 and No. 9 hole hitters: freshman Ernie Clement and senior walk-on Thomas Woodruff, Both went 3 for 4 and Clement had an RBI while Woodruff, who had 12 starts in his career prior to this second finals game, had two. After an iron-man like performance, Sborz was going to be unavailable in the third game but he was named the CWS Most Outstanding Player. In Omaha, he did not allow a single run in 19 innings.
- Then came the decisive game. Waddell pitched again, this time on three days' rest. The contest did not get off to a good start with Vanderbilt going up 2-0 after the first inning. Even worse, in the top of the frame, Virginia had runners on first and second with no out, and didn't get anything across. But Waddell eventually settled down. Apparently, the plan was for him to pitch three innings, according to Karl Kuhn, UVa's pitching coach. He went seven. Freshman Pavin Smith tied the game at 2 in the fourth with a home run and then put UVa ahead with an RBI single in the fifth. In the seventh, Towns -- now nicknamed Mr. June for his great performance throughout the playoffs -- added another run with a single. The stage was then set for Nathan Kirby to close out the game on the mound in the final two innings. He crumbled against Vanderbilt in the first game of the finals a year ago and now, in storybook fashion, he was able to save the final game against the Commodores. Admittedly, I was very nervous when he came into the game, given his shaky start against Florida. But whether that start helped him shake off the rust or he truly was back to being great, it didn't matter, because he pitched very well in those final two innings. He struck out five and allowed a single.
- All in all, just a crazy, fun, unpredictable run is all you can say. Last year seemed like the year to win it. This one hardly ever did. Even once we got in, I figured winning the regional would be a success. The way this team came together and refused to quit was just phenomenal. I will gladly acknowledge that I wrote this team off back in early May, and it showed me up big time, much ti my delight and the delight of the Wahoo faithful.
- Virginia won three national championships this academic year: men's soccer, men's tennis, and baseball. In a post from late May about the tennis team, I talked about how UVa has won two titles two other times: 2009 men's soccer and 2010 rowing and 1992 men's soccer and 1993 women's lacrosse. Three titles in one year has never happened, though, If anyone knows how to find out how many schools have won three in a year, or knows that answer, write a comment or send me an email. I can't imagine the list is long.
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