By Jay Jenkins

Published: May 9, 2008

While the postseason is two weeks away, Virginia coach Brian O’Connor expects the environment and the opponent this weekend to relay a strong message to his players.
With capacity crowds expected as No. 2 North Carolina invades Davenport Field, the team’s skipper informed his team of what lies ahead.
Unlikely to serve as a host in an NCAA Regional barring a miraculous finish, Virginia’s postseason fate - and its seeding - is hanging in the balance.
“I told the team that we won 33 ballgames up to this point and 13 games in the league, but believe it or not, everything we have done up to this point doesn’t matter,” O’Connor said. “The only thing that matters is the confidence we have gained from it. It all comes down to these seven ballgames and our position in the league and where our position is from a national perspective.
“The great thing is that I don’t think we have played our best baseball yet this year, and we are working hard to make it our best at the end.”
The No. 24 Cavaliers
(33-15, 13-11 ACC) will look to snap a three-game losing streak in league play tonight at 6 p.m. in the series opener. Accomplishing that against the Tar Heels (40-8, 18-5) will not be easy, as they sport the nation’s best earned run average and rank third in the ACC in batting.
North Carolina, one of only four teams with more wins than Virginia over the past three years, split four contests with the Cavaliers last year en route to a runner-up finish in the College World Series.
“We have a lot of respect for their program,” O’Connor said. “They have good players and have accomplished a lot in the past few years. We have had great ballgames with them recently and I am sure this weekend we will see three great games again.”
While the Cavaliers have remained superb on the mound against ACC foes, the team’s sputtering offense has crippled the team in seven one-run losses.
“Like Coach says all the time, it comes down to clutch plays, clutch pitches and clutch hits,” said shortstop Greg Miclat. “It never feels good to be so close and there are no moral victories. Losing to them by one run is not OK just because a team is so good.
“That is unacceptable in our program. We want to be on top.”
In an attempt to jumpstart production, O’Connor shuffled the lineup in the past two games, which was aided by the healthy return of rookie Phil Gosselin (hamate bone).
“We will probably look at doing some new things again this weekend to try to put the best combination together that we can and to give us the best chance to score offensively,” O’Connor said. “Phil Gosselin changes things. Phil was in our lineup every day until he got hurt a month ago. He came back last Tuesday and had a three-hit game.
“He was in the lineup for a reason and hopefully that will add something to us.”
Gosselin is batting .306 with two homers and 15 RBI in just 24 starts.