Despite Sour Ending, Virginia Proud of Achievements Earned in 2023 Season

Although they fell short of winning a second national title, the Cavaliers had a record-breaking and accomplishment-filled 2023 season

Mark Kuhlmann/Virginia Athletics

For six of the eight teams fortunate enough to see the pinnacle of college baseball at the College World Series in Omaha, Nebraska, their seasons will still end earlier than hoped as they are eliminated before reaching the final series. Seven of those eight CWS participants will experience a bitter end to their season - short of a dogpile and hoisting the trophy as national champions. Failure is probable, and with the exception of just one lucky team, it is also inevitable. 

Yet, there is an additional level of heartbreak that comes with losing in a specific fashion. The Virginia Cavaliers experienced the bitterest of defeats - not once, but twice - to spell the end of their brief stay in Omaha. And, regardless of what Brian O'Connor may say, losing by the slightest margin elicits that extra dose of pain. 

"Candidly, I hate losing either way, whether it's by one or five," O'Connor said in his press conference after UVA's season came to an end on Sunday. 

In its opening game on Friday night, Virginia suffered a brutal 6-5 loss to Florida in which the Gators rallied to score three runs in the bottom of the ninth inning. The story of UVA's second game at the College World series was the reverse, as the Cavaliers trailed the entire game by a tight margin, but could never close the gap as TCU held on and handed Virginia a season-ending 4-3 loss on Sunday afternoon. Just two total runs proved to be the difference between the dream 2-0 start that would have given the Cavaliers the inside track on advancing to this weekend's CWS Finals and their harsh reality of an early exit following two frustratingly close defeats. 

But the closest of margins are what define success and failure in the College World Series. 

"It comes down to those little fine details in Omaha," O'Connor said. "Everybody has talent. Everybody earned the right to be here. It just comes down to guys rising up in key moments. That doesn't take away from who our players are. Sometimes you just don't do it because your opponent's very talented as well."

For a group that looked almost unbeatable at times this season - with one of the most explosive offenses in the country combined with what developed into a highly-effective trio of starting pitchers, each of whom were added to UVA's roster out of the transfer portal last year - to go 0-2 at the College World Series is a highly disappointing outcome. 

Nevertheless, the achievements earned over the last few months are not lost on these Cavaliers, who should have no problem looking back on the 2023 Virginia baseball season as a success. 

"It doesn't diminish what this team accomplished," O'Connor said on Sunday. "To have 50 wins and be playing here in Omaha again speaks to what they're made of and their talent and the type of program that we have." 

In the program's 20th season under the direction of Brian O'Connor, Virginia finished the season 50-15 overall, reaching the 50-win threshold for the fifth time in program history and for the first time since 2014. UVA's 44 regular season wins were the second-most in program history and just one shy of matching the record. The Cavaliers won 19 ACC games in the regular season, their most since 2016, earned four ACC series sweeps, and won their first ACC Coastal title since 2011. 

Until the College World Series, UVA hadn't lost a single game to a non-conference opponent. Virginia finished the regular season undefeated in non-conference play for the first time in program history and became the first team in all of college baseball to accomplish that feat since 2015. The Cavaliers were 28-0 against non-conference foes heading into Omaha. 

"Going undefeated in nonconference, it's just another something special about this team," said Virginia center fielder Ethan O'Donnell, another transfer who joined the roster this season after beginning his career at Northwestern. "Everything that being on this team has accomplished throughout the year. It's one of these teams that I'm going to look back, just remember every single guy on this team."

Virginia made its sixth trip to the College World Series, with each of those appearances coming in the last 15 years. UVA is tied with three other schools for second-most CWS appearances over that span. 

The 2023 iteration of the Virginia Cavaliers will go down as one of the most talented and well-balanced teams to play for Brian O'Connor at UVA. Their explosive offense finished the season still leading the NCAA in batting average (.332), doubles (172), and hits (766). UVA is currently seventh in on-base percentage (.426), fourth in total runs (582), and eighth in scoring (9.0 runs per game). The Virginia pitching staff ranked fourth in the country in both team ERA (3.81) and strikeout-to-walk ratio (3.14), and was 11th in WHIP (walks and hits per inning pitched) at 1.31. 

Naturally, the Cavaliers broke all kinds of school records and raked in some serious individual accolades. 

Kyle Teel became just the third player in program history to be named the ACC Player of the Year, joining Joe Koshansky (2004) and Sean Doolittle (2006). Teel finished what is likely his last season in a UVA uniform with 105 hits, 13 home runs, 69 RBI, 25 doubles, and a .407 batting average. His 105 hits and 25 doubles broke the previous program records in those categories, but Teel is not the record holder in either stat as two of his Cavalier teammates did even better this season. Sophomore shortstop Griff O'Ferrall now holds the single-season program record with 108 hits and sophomore first baseman Ethan Anderson has the single-season record with 26 doubles. 

Three of the top four hitting seasons in UVA baseball history came in 2023, with Griff O'Ferrall leading the way with 108, Kyle Teel in second at 105, and Ethan Anderson in fourth with 97 hits. The top of Virginia's single-season doubles leaderboard now reads Ethan Anderson (26), Kyle Teel (25), and Jake Gelof (23). O'Ferrall matched the single-season runs record held by Jarrett Parker (2009) with 76 runs scored, and Gelof, Anderson, and O'Donnell are each next on the leaderboard with 71 runs scored this season. 

Of course, Jake Gelof is now the undisputed home run king at Virginia. The junior third baseman, who is also likely to hear his name called at the MLB Draft next month, crushed the program record for career home runs with 48 (11 more than the previous mark) and broke Brian Buchanan's single-season home run record with 23 homers this season. He shattered his own single-season RBI record with 90 runs driven in this season and finished with a program-record 185 career RBI. 

UVA had four players selected to the All-ACC First Team, most since 2014: Kyle Teel, Griff O'Ferrall, Jake Gelof, and Ethan O'Donnell. Three Cavaliers were Third-Team All-ACC selections: Ethan Anderson, Connelly Early, and Brian Edgington. Early, Teel, and Gelof were already named All-Americans by the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association and there are likely to be other appearances by Virginia players on the All-America teams of other media outlets as they are released. 

For Connelly Early, an Army transfer who had a brilliant year, but took a tough loss in UVA's final game of the season after giving up just two earned runs in five innings of work, the fact that Virginia's two losses at the College World Series came by such close margins only proves how hard it was to beat the Cavaliers this year. 

"I thought that's a testament to how good we've played all season. We had two tough losses here. One run apiece," Early said. "But that doesn't take away from what we did all season. I thought our bats did great and all of our arms did great. We'll come back here next year."

That last sentiment - that the future for the Virginia baseball program is still as bright as ever - was echoed by Brian O'Connor on Sunday. 

"We'll regroup and look to build and be back here as soon as we possibly can," O'Connor said. "We'll see what additions that we need to make this summer based on what the draft brings us. We have a very talented recruiting class coming in. Then we'll look at what our needs are in the portal and supplement from that standpoint, and then get ready to go and do it again next fall with the goal of being right back here in Omaha. 

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