When Virginia took two of three at North Carolina again within the first March sequence, the season’s ceiling seemed to be a visit to Omaha, Neb. for the School World Sequence.
Quick ahead to Might, and the Tar Heels are ranked No. 2 within the nation — their solely sequence loss this 12 months was to the Cavaliers — however Virginia is unranked. Someplace alongside the way in which, a pricey April droop tanked Virginia out of regional internet hosting consideration and squarely into No. 3-seed territory, or at finest a low No. 2 seed.
Now, the Cavaliers require a strong ACC Match run to spice up their probabilities of heading to a extra favorable regional cohort. If Virginia loses in its first sport, the Cavaliers might fall dangerously near the flawed aspect of the NCAA Match bracket bubble.
The Cavaliers earned a one-game bye because the No. 8 seed within the ACC Match. Their postseason begins by taking over No. 16-seeded Duke at 9 a.m. Wednesday. The Blue Devils are coming off of an upset over No. 9 seed NC State the day earlier than. Ought to Virginia win that sport, they face top-seeded Georgia Tech Thursday at 3 p.m.
If the stress wasn’t on earlier than, it’s now dialed as much as 11. Coach Chris Pollard doesn’t wish to stress his group, although. As a substitute, Virginia seeks to remain current, specializing in the duty at hand — getting out of that April droop.
“We simply stored speaking throughout that form of stretch, that month of April, the place we actually struggled,” Pollard stated postgame Might 12 after defeating Richmond. “Simply stored speaking about the truth that [we] bought to play our technique to the opposite aspect of it.”
From March 27 to Saturday, the Cavaliers have gone 8-13 in ACC play. Pollard didn’t panic, although. As a substitute, he emphasised a concentrate on fundamentals, and the core values of his program. It actually helped that Virginia bought an ACC break from April 27 to Might 7. Throughout that break for exams, the Cavaliers had some uncommon in-season day off to concentrate on apply as a substitute of convention video games.
Pollard defined that the apply time was precious — hitters had been pulling the ball too typically, accidents had popped up and errors had been too widespread defensively.
“I believed we used the examination break very well by way of the work we put in, the preparation, how some guys made changes,” Pollard stated.
These changes resulted in a budding two-game streak of scoring 10-plus runs — though that streak was short-lived as Virginia misplaced its remaining two common season video games at Louisville. For the primary time since 2019, the Cavaliers completed with a dropping document in ACC play. Nevertheless, Pollard has caught to his similar mindset all through the season — no matter whether or not the group is flourishing or barely surviving the toils of convention play.
“[We] wish to compete like loopy,” Pollard stated. “We simply want to remain in a one pitch mentality. Cannot go up there and attempt to win sport three on Wednesday [practice], proper?”
Pollard is aware of the hazards of pondering forward. Final season, when he was the top coach at Duke, the Blue Devils swept the Athens Regional in upset style — and their projected tremendous regional opponent misplaced. That fortunate state of affairs granted Duke a house tremendous regional in opposition to nearly-unheard-of Murray State. A visit to the School World Sequence appeared inevitable.
The Blue Devils misplaced sport three at residence.
The Cinderella-esque Racers danced on to Omaha, and Duke was left heartbroken. In school baseball, something can occur. Pollard and his group of Blue Devils-turned-Cavaliers that adopted him to Virginia are conscious about that. The star of that cohort, junior outfielder AJ Gracia, echoed Pollard’s idea of staying current.
“We’re not gonna strategy the video games any in a different way,” Gracia stated Might 12. “I imply, we attempt to strategy the sport the identical each single day. There [are] no huge video games. No video games are much less vital than others. We’re simply going to proceed to work on what we do.”
If each sport is a giant sport, then none of them are daunting. Gracia’s calm, laser-focused mindset — commonplace within the skilled ranks — is contagious.
“We have to do an amazing job of staying the place our toes are,” Pollard stated. “We have to do an amazing job of being within the second, competing one pitch at a time … You have to win the day you are on.”
The Cavaliers have Sunday via Tuesday to get again within the apply lab. After that brief break, although, comes the ACC Match. That match options some huge video games, whether or not or not Virginia chooses to acknowledge that reality.
The ACC Match supplies a possibility to considerably increase NCAA Match seeding. Internet hosting a regional is totally out of the realm of chance for the Cavaliers, however regaining an honest No. 2 seed might nonetheless be inside attain.
“Stacking days,” Gracia stated. “[We are] simply attempting to stack one p.c, get one p.c higher every day. I feel you do this a lot of [stacking] days in a row, we’re gonna like the place we’re at once more this season.”