Cavs aim to play way into NCAAs

By Jay Jenkins

Published: May 21, 2008

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Brian O’Connor is not sure if it has ever happened in ACC Tournament history.

O’Connor’s Virginia baseball team, as a reward for earning the No. 6 seed in the league’s postseason event, drew a first-round contest with No. 3 seed North Carolina (45-10, 22-7), which just so happens to be the nation’s top-ranked team.

The two programs are scheduled to play tonight at 8 p.m. at The Baseball Grounds of Jacksonville, the home of the Class AA Jacksonville Suns of the Los Angeles Dodgers’ system.

After a day off Thursday, Virginia (36-19, 15-15) will receive yet another test Friday — the Cavaliers will tangle with second-seeded Florida State (46-9, 24-6). The Seminoles lead the country in batting average and walks and rank third in scoring with an average of 9.9 runs per game.

“This is the No. 1 tournament in the country this year,” O’Connor said. “It shows the strength of our league to be playing the No. 3 seed in game one and be playing the No. 1 team in the country.

“But everybody we are going to play in this tournament is an NCAA-caliber team.”

The Cavaliers also close out pool play Saturday at

8 p.m. with a pressure-packed game against seventh-seeded Wake Forest (24-29, 13-16). Some experts are considering it a must-win for Virginia to earn an at-large bid into the NCAA tournament if it drops its first two in the event.

“There is going to be something with every team in this tournament,” O’Connor said. “It will be a great tournament and like I said all year, you are going to have to play a great baseball game to beat a team in this league.

“You can’t win unless you are firing on all cylinders.”

Based on the Cavaliers’ seed and a tiebreaker system in place with pool play that rewards higher seeds, a loss today would likely cripple Virginia’s hopes of playing in Sunday’s title game.

Last year, Virginia and UNC both finished 2-1 in their pool, but the Tar Heels won the head-to-head tiebreaker and advanced to the title. In a three-way tie, the highest-seeded team secures advancement.

“You don’t know which game is going to be the clinching game on whether you get to the title game or not,” said O’Connor, “so you have to treat them all the same and try to win them one at a time.”

That will not come easy considering the first two pitchers the Cavaliers will face. UNC is slated to start ACC pitcher of the year Alex White (8-3, 3.03 ERA) and Florida State’s probable rotation lists senior Ryan Strauss (8-0, 4.10), who stifled the Cavaliers earlier this season out of the bullpen.

“We saw White two weeks ago, we saw him in the ACC tournament last year and we know he is a great pitcher,” O’Connor said. “He was the pitcher of the year and that is a great accomplishment that shows how talented he is. Strauss was really tough when we faced him, too.

“We are just going to have to come out and battle them and take advantage of our opportunities when we get them.”

O’Connor said Virginia would counter in the following order: RHP Andrew Carraway (3-3, 3.98), RHP Jacob Thompson (5-4, 4.46) and LHP Pat McAnaney (4-4, 3.09).

Carraway, a junior, will be making his first start since allowing two runs over five innings in Virginia’s rain-aided, six-inning win over UNC on May 11. Last weekend, Carraway pitched three innings out of the bullpen.

“Knowing that he has started all year long, maybe he will be fresh for the tournament and throw six, seven innings,” O’Connor said. “That was our plan from last week, when we started Matt Packer in the opening game against Georgia Tech, and we are going to stick with it.”

Despite losing two of three games against the Yellow Jackets, there was a silver lining. Virginia snapped out of its month-long offensive slump by registering 35 hits and scoring 19 runs.

“I thought our offense definitely picked up the last two games,” said rookie outfielder Dan Grovatt, who ranks 18th in the ACC in batting average (.339). “We are starting to get clutch hits and it is a shame that we didn’t win the series, but at least we are putting some hits up and scoring some runs.

“I think that is going to huge for the hitters and even our pitching staff going into the ACC Tournament.”

Grovatt will be one of the many new faces in the program making a postseason debut, something that he admitted that he dreamed of during his prep career.

“It is kind of surreal that a year ago I was watching it on TV and thinking, ‘Someday that will be me,’” Grovatt said. “And now it is going on and it is pretty weird.”

Cutting down to size

During the final days of the regular season, the Cavaliers’ coaching staff pondered over several tough decisions in relation to the team’s 25-man roster for the tournament.

In order to get to the magic number, O’Connor debated the importance of having another pitcher over a position player.

“I went with one more pitcher than we normally travel with during the year just because of the possibility of playing four games versus what you saw during the season when we only have three games,” the skipper said.

Two players left off the tournament’s participation list, reliever Jake Rule and catcher Will Campbell, were invited to join their teammates in Florida. Reserve first baseman Tyler Biddix, a rookie, was also one of the players that traveled at times during the season and did not make the 25-man roster.

The end of a streak?

Barring a showdown for the title Sunday, Virginia and North Carolina State will not play in the ACC Tournament for the first time since 1996.

N.C. State is seeded fourth in the event and was slotted in Division A with top-seeded Miami, No. 5 Georgia Tech and No. 8 Clemson.

“That is a pretty interesting statistic that we have always played them,” O’Connor said. “Who knows, maybe we will before the tournament is over.”

The Cavaliers, one of three teams with a winning record in the ACC Tournament since its move to Jacksonville in 2005, won two of the past three postseason meetings with the Wolfpack.