Finals Break "Coming at a Good Time" for Virginia Baseball

The Cavaliers are getting a much-needed weekend off to rest and reset before they try to get their season back on track in the final two weeks

Matt Riley/Virginia Athletics

Upcoming lies a pivotal stretch for the Virginia baseball team, which is quickly running out of time to regain momentum before postseason play begins. After establishing themselves as one of the best teams in the country through the first half of the season, the Cavaliers have stumbled recently and find themselves struggling just to win an ACC series. 

Behind one of the most potent batting lineups in the country and what appeared to be a much improved pitching staff, UVA raced out to a 30-4 start to the season, winning four of its first five ACC series, including a pair of sweeps against Florida State and Miami. Since then, however, the Cavaliers have lost three-straight ACC series, including a pair of home series losses to Pittsburgh and Duke and a three-game sweep at Notre Dame. 

UVA's previously otherworldly offensive numbers have begun to regress to reality and the Cavalier bats have shown a disturbing lack of production when faced with an early deficit in games. Virginia tends to put up big numbers when taking an early lead in games, but has had trouble repeating that success after falling behind. 

The bigger issue is pitching, as UVA's starters aren't going as deep into games and the bullpen has struggled with consistency. Virginia's arms gave up 26 runs across the three-game series against Duke and the Cavalier pitching staff has surrendered 40 runs in the last five games overall. 

Virginia has lost seven of its last nine ACC games and while the Hoos have managed to preserve their unbeaten 24-0 record against non-conference opponents, they haven't done so in quite as dominant and convincing a fashion as earlier in the season. UVA trailed VCU by three runs midway through the game on Tuesday, before scoring five runs in the sixth and going on to win 11-6. The next day, Virginia jumped out to an 8-0 lead on JMU, but then nearly blew that lead as the Dukes scored eight runs in the final three innings before Jay Woolfolk managed to get out of a jam in the ninth to preserve a slim 9-8 victory. 

"Wins and losses come in different ways. In the first half of the game, it seemed like we were running away from them," said UVA head coach Brian O'Connor after the win over JMU. "Our guys came out of the bullpen and were not sharp. That's to [JMU's] credit, they were opportunistic when we opened the gates for them." 

Still, O'Connor found a silver lining in the close victory, remarking that it's important that the Cavaliers get experience winning close games, even though he'd prefer every game be a blowout. 

"When it comes championship time and you're at the end of the year, there's gonna be a lot of games where you're gonna be in one-run games," said O'Connor. "And even though it wasn't pretty for Jay Woolfolk in the ninth inning, he's shown an ability to make the big pitches when we need it the most." 

It's clear the Cavaliers are in need of a reset and they have a golden opportunity to do just that with a much-needed and well-timed break for final exams, as UVA gets a full week off between the JMU game and its next game against Radford on Wednesday. O'Connor made no effort to understate how important this break can be for Virginia to rest and recover. 

"This finals break is coming at a good time," O'Connor said. "We've played a lot of baseball. We'll get a couple of practices in around their final exams and get the guys ready for Radford next Wednesday and then the final two weekends of conference play." 

O'Connor acknowledged the downside of getting out of one's rhythm and instincts by taking a week off, but he noted that the benefits of rest for both the UVA pitching staff and position players, many of whom have played every game this season, far outweigh the costs of getting rusty. 

"You're always a little bit concerned about stepping away from the game because of instincts and things like that for a week, but I believe that it's come at a good time for some of those pitchers to get their legs back in them and catch their breath a little bit to get ready for this stretch run," said O'Connor. "And also position player-wise, other than second base and left field, we're playing the same guys every day. April is a long month. There's a lot of baseball that's played in April. The same guys are playing every day and so I think it comes at a good time for everybody." 

A similar trend occurred last season, as the Cavaliers had one of the best records in the country through the first couple of months of the season before stumbling to the finish line, losing multiple ACC series down the stretch before going 0-2 at the ACC Tournament. That sluggish end to the season cost UVA the chance to host a regional at the NCAA Tournament and the Cavaliers ultimately lost in the regional round in 2022. 

If Virginia is to avoid suffering a similar fate in 2023, the final seven games of the regular season are critical. Some of the damage has already been done. UVA went from being a surefire national top eight seed - which would put the Cavaliers in position to host both regionals and super regionals during the NCAA Tournament - to nearly dropping out of the top 25 entirely. 

It's going to be difficult for the Hoos to work their way back into possibly hosting an NCAA Tournament regional, but it's not impossible. Virginia (37-11, 13-11 ACC) gets one final tune-up non-conference game against Radford on Wednesday, May 10th at 1pm. The Cavaliers will then host their last ACC home series against Louisville next weekend followed by the final ACC series of the regular season at Georgia Tech the weekend after that. If UVA can pick up a couple of ACC series wins to close the regular season, that could be enough to earn one of the coveted top four seeds at the ACC Tournament. In the event of a tiebreaker in pool play, the higher seeded team advances, giving the top seed in each pod a massive advantage right from the outset of the tournament. 

If Virginia can finish the regular season strong and deliver a good showing at the ACC Tournament, that might be enough to get the Cavaliers back in contention to host a regional at the NCAA Tournament. 

There's still time for Brian O'Connor and company to right the ship and make a run in postseason play, but it's now or never.

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