Brian O'Connor Sounds Off After UVA Baseball's Loss to Richmond

Matt Newton | Mar 20, 2025

Steven Branscombe-Imagn Images

There was some hope that back-to-back double-digit scoring outings would jump start the Cavalier offense and that leaving Cal with its first ACC series win of the season would get this Virginia baseball season back on track.

Then, the Cavaliers let Richmond walk all over them in another disappointing 6-2 loss on Wednesday evening at Disharoon Park.

That defeat, which was Virginia's first midweek home loss since April of 2022 and snapped a 31-game winning streak in such games, dropped the Cavaliers to a dismal 12-7 on the season. After opening the 2025 campaign ranked No. 2 in the country, Virginia now looks like a team that doesn't belong in the top 25 one month into the season.

After the loss to Richmond on Wednesday, UVA head coach Brian O'Connor did nothing to mask his displeasure in the way his team is performing right now.

"Congratulations to Richmond. They came in here and outplayed us in every facet of the game," O'Connor said in a fiery postgame interview. "Part of that is on me. I'm the leader of the program and I am, obviously, not succeeding about getting our players ready to play every day and play tough, competitive baseball up to the Virginia baseball standards."

You can watch the rest of O'Connor's comments in the video below, but here is the remainder of his opening statement:

"So that's on me; that's not on our players. I own that. I take the responsibility for it and we're gonna just, hopefully, work and learn and get better and our competitive spirit and our competitiveness in every phase of the game will get better because I am going to absolutely demand it."

"It's not about winning and losing the ball game. It's about being ready to play from pitch one and we are not doing it. And that's on me. They're 18-24-year-old kids. I'm the grown man that's been here for 20 years and I freaking own it. That effort today is on me. But I can promise you, the effort will be better, okay? Because if it's not, I'll find the guys that will show up every day and play with the right intent that the standards of what this baseball program is built on. That's what I owe everybody."

Coach O'Connor on today's game. #GoHoos pic.twitter.com/yDnvBJvQcq

— Virginia Baseball (@UVABaseball) March 20, 2025

If O'Connor and the Cavaliers are going to right the ship, they'll have no shortage of places to start. Wednesday's game was the ninth time this season that Virginia has scored four or fewer runs. UVA ranks 76th in the country in team batting average (.297), 119th in on-base percentage (.395), and 121st in runs scored (140 in 19 games). On the mound, Virginia's staff has a decent team earned run average at 3.77 (33rd in the country), but the Cavaliers are giving up 4.41 walks per game (106th) and their defense has a .958 fielding percentage with 22 errors (143rd).

Fortunately for Virginia, the man at the helm of the program has a proven track record of pushing the right buttons and making just the right mix of adjustments to have the Cavaliers firing on all cylinders by the time May and June come around. It's a long season, so there's still time, but Virginia needs to starting moving in that direction very soon. If Brian O'Connor's postgame interview is any indicator, that sense of urgency should be apparent in UVA's play on the diamond moving forward.

Virginia will host Duke for a three-game ACC series this weekend at Disharoon Park. Game 1 is set for Friday at 6pm ET with game 2 following on Saturday at 4pm and the series concluding on Sunday at 1pm. All three games will be streamed on ACC Network Extra.

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