Around the Horn: A Wild, Winless Weekend
April 5, 2005
 Last week started well enough for the Virginia baseball team. The Cavaliers won a 2-1 pitchers' duel against VMI for their 11th straight victory, but things took a definite turn for the worse when the 'Hoos traveled to Chapel Hill.
The weekend series with #11 North Carolina began with a 14-inning, five-hour marathon Friday and concluded with another extra-inning affair Sunday. Thirty-four innings, 10 hours and 13 minutes of game action later, the Cavaliers had three painful losses and a 4-6 ACC record (19-9 overall), despite a huge series by Ryan Zimmerman.
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Around the Horn: Rain, Rain, Go Away
March 29, 2005
 Last week was almost a complete washout for the Cavaliers. Dismal, rainy weather forced the cancellation of Virginia's scheduled game with the Richmond Spiders last Wednesday. Then a subpar drainage system at English Field on the campus of Virginia Tech prevented the Cavaliers and Hokies from playing all but one of a three-game weekend ACC series.
Still, UVa won its lone game Sunday to extend its winning streak to 10. The Wahoos are now 18-6 overall and 4-3 in the ACC.
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Youth Serving Power, Pitching for Cavs
March 24, 2005
 Brian O'Connor came to Virginia with a strong reputation as a recruiter, and his first batch of signees is already making its mark for the Cavaliers.
Among the freshmen who have contributed heavily to UVa's 17-6 start and nine-game winning streak are Sean Doolittle, Brandon Guyer and Robert Poutier. That trio has given the Cavs much of the power and pitching they so desperately needed this season.
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Around the Horn: Nine Straight Wins (and Counting?)
March 22, 2005
After pounding out 18 extra-base hits in five games the previous week, the Cavaliers continued to show some pop in four contests last week. Virginia added an additional 10 extra-base hits to its season total, connecting on six doubles, a triple and three home runs in the vast chasm that is Davenport Field.
By adding power to already-solid pitching and defense, the 'Hoos have found a winning formula. With nine straight wins, including a weekend sweep of Maryland, UVa improved its record to 17-6 overall and 3-3 in the ACC.
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Around the Horn: 19 Games, 7 Shutouts
March 16, 2005
 After struggling to keep runners off base against Wake Forest, the Virginia pitching staff returned to form over the past week. In five games against Longwood, James Madison and Marist - admittedly, not Murderer's Row - the Cavaliers gave up just three earned runs (seven total) and 32 hits while fanning 39. Virginia also picked up its fifth, sixth and seventh shutouts of the year, breaking the old single-season school record of six, set back in 1996.
Remarkably, UVa's starting pitchers didn't allow a single earned run in 36.2 innings as the Wahoos won all five games to improve to 13-6 overall (0-3 ACC).
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'Hoos Suffering From Power Outage
March 9, 2005
In 2004, Virginia completed one of the most magical seasons in its baseball history. And with the return of a strong pitching staff (3.63 ERA last year) and a slick-fielding defensive unit (.973 - second in the ACC), many expected another magical year in 2005.
But there was plenty of uncertainty to open the season, especially on offense. That uncertainty has turned into borderline panic as the Cavaliers have experienced some troubling early-season numbers.
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Around the Horn: Pitching, Defense Doom 'Hoos
March 8, 2005
Entering the weekend series against Wake Forest, the Virginia pitching staff owned the ACC's second-best ERA (2.32) and appeared to be carrying the load while waiting for the offense to come to life.
Well, the Cavalier bats showed up, producing 22 runs and 32 hits against the Demon Deacons, but starters Matt Avery, Mike Ballard and Jeff Kamrath gave up 22 earned runs in 8.2 innings and Wake Forest batted a blistering .510 to sweep the three-game series.
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Around the Horn: Pitching Carrying Cavs
March 1, 2005
 The Virginia baseball team won three of four games last week thanks again to superb pitching and defense. The Cavaliers produced two shutouts and allowed just six runs in the four games, including a memorable starting debut by freshman Robert Poutier.
"I'm very impressed with our pitching and defense," said UVa coach Brian O'Connor. "We have a 2.32 staff ERA after 11 ball games and we're fielding .981 as a team, which is really unheard of."
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2005 Preview: Can Cavaliers Become a Baseball Power?
February 25, 2005
The UVa baseball program reached new heights last season in Brian O'Connor's first year as head coach. The Cavaliers set or tied school records for overall victories (44), ACC wins (18), winning percentage (74.6%), consecutive wins (14) and fielding percentage (.973) in what O'Connor called "a big step" for the program.
Now the question is whether the Cavs can take another step forward in 2005, or at least avoid taking a step back. They lost two top pitchers and their only two power hitters from last year's team, but a good nucleus of talent remains. Virginia hopes to maintain the same formula for success that O'Connor brought with him - an aggressive, small-ball offense, a solid pitching staff and superlative team defense.
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Around the Horn: Doing the Little Things
February 22, 2005
The Virginia Cavaliers won 44 games in 2004 because they did the little things well. When the Wahoos got men on base, they usually scored. When they needed to make routine fielding plays, they usually made them. And when they had a lead late, they usually won.
Last Wednesday they didn't do any of those things in a loss to Old Dominion, but they bounced back to do just about everything right in a three-game sweep of Bucknell.
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Around the Horn: Baseball Season Begins
February 16, 2005
The Cavaliers opened the 2005 baseball season last weekend at UNC-Wilmington, where they dropped the opener but won the next two games. The highlight of the weekend was the successful return to the mound of pitchers Jeff Kamrath and Mike Ballard, both of whom missed the entire 2004 campaign following Tommy John elbow surgery.
This weekly feature will keep you updated on the UVa baseball team throughout the season with game recaps, previews and other notes.
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Lasorda Lends Support to Cavalier Baseball
February 7, 2005
Coming off its most successful season in school history, the Virginia baseball program called on Hall of Fame manager Tommy Lasorda to help the team kick off the 2005 season at its second annual “Step Up to the Plate” event. The program was held at Memorial Gym on Friday night and included a ballpark-like dinner of hotdogs, apple pie and baked beans, interview sessions with players and Lasorda, as well as live and silent auctions.
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Ryan Zimmerman: Playing 'The Right Way'
June 25, 2004
 Ryan Zimmerman loves baseball. But if there's one thing he can't stand, it's turning on a major-league game and watching a player loaf his way to first base after hitting a routine grounder or fly ball. It bugs him when players fail to hustle, make careless mistakes or otherwise, in his words, “disrespect the game.”
Why? Because, as Virginia coach Brian O'Connor says, “Ryan plays the game the right way.”
Zimmerman also plays it well enough to have earned a shot at representing his country. The rising junior third baseman is in Durham, N.C., right now at the 2004 USA Baseball National Team Trials. He is one of 36 players, all collegians, vying for 20 spots on the final roster.
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Audio Interview: Brian O'Connor
June 10, 2004
 In his first year as Virginia's baseball coach, Brian O'Connor led the Cavaliers to their most successful season in history. UVa went 44-15 and hosted an NCAA regional for the first time. Here he talks about the season and the future of the program in an exclusive interview with TheSabre.com.
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After Long Wait, Street and Werman Ready for Regional
June 4, 2004
 Except for a stash of curious reporters, a television personality and a few facility workers, Virginia's Davenport Field was relatively quiet after a Cavalier practice on Wednesday.
As Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Saturday Night Special" and Metallica's "For Whom the Bell Tolls" echoed through stadium speakers, a couple of Cavaliers took cool-down laps in the outfield and a pair played long toss in left, just two days before an event the Old Dominion state has yet to experience: an NCAA regional.
 But for this capable crop of Cavs, reading scouting reports, answering the same questions over and over again and practicing in June is a welcome change from the past eight years of Virginia baseball. And for two seasoned seniors, second baseman Kyle Werman and rightfielder Matt Street, four years worth of Cinderella dreams are now a Cavalier reality.
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Cavs Get Taste of Their Own Medicine
May 27, 2004
SALEM – Live by the sword, die by the sword.
Throughout the regular season, the Virginia baseball team thrived in close games, pulling out victories with clutch plays and miraculous comebacks. At the ACC tournament, however, the second-seeded Cavaliers could not produce the same type of magic.
After losing consecutive games to seventh-seeded Duke and sixth-seeded North Carolina State, both by a count of 6-5, the Wahoos found themselves in all too familiar territory, on a bus back to Charlottesville.
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Joe Koshansky: An 'Amazing' Transformation
May 26, 2004
 “Fastball in the low to mid 80s. Average offspeed stuff. Battles but doesn’t necessarily get a lot of people out. At the plate, strikes out a lot. Not a lot of power. Doesn’t hit for a high average.”
That’s Joe Koshansky, giving his scouting report on Joe Koshansky in his first two years on Virginia’s baseball team.
Self-deprecating? Yes, but also largely accurate.
Man, has that scouting report changed.
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Cavaliers earn ACC honors
May 25, 2004
Virginia’s baseball team didn’t quite get the top seed that it craved in the ACC tournament. But the Cavaliers cleaned up in individual awards as voted on by the nine conference coaches.
Joe Koshansky was named the ACC’s player of the year – the first Cavalier to receive that award – and Brian O’Connor earned coach of the year honors.
Third baseman Ryan Zimmerman joined Koshansky on the All-ACC first team, while pitcher Andrew Dobies and shortstop Mark Reynolds made the second team.
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Nothing Regular About UVa's Season
May 20, 2004
The most remarkable regular season in Virginia baseball history ended in the most appropriate fashion possible. Another comeback. Another Joe Koshansky blast. Another Casey Lambert save. Another improbable victory.
Except, by now, it’s hard to say any win by the Cavaliers is improbable. They have found so many ways to prevail under every conceivable circumstance that Wednesday night’s 5-4 triumph over Liberty was exactly what everyone at Davenport Field has come to expect.
“That game right there has been our season and is our team,” said first-year coach Brian O’Connor, the chief architect of UVa’s 42-11 record – its most wins ever in a regular season and best winning percentage since going 18-4 in 1940.
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Cavaliers Dig the Small Ball
May 18, 2004
A few weeks ago, in a home game against Florida State, the Virginia baseball team sent 10 batters to the plate in the first inning. Seven of them reached base. Four of them scored. Only one of them hit the ball out of the infield.
“We’ve had a lot of innings like that,” UVa coach Brian O’Connor said with a smile after three walks, two infield singles, an error, an RBI groundout and a double down the left-field line got the Cavaliers off to a 4-0 start en route to a 15-2 victory.
In baseball terms, it’s called “small ball,” and it’s yielded big results for Virginia (40-11, 18-6 ACC), which is ranked No. 7 in the latest Collegiate Baseball poll and sitting in first place in the ACC despite a pronounced lack of power.
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Andrew Dobies: Virginia's Special K
May 13, 2004
 At 6-1 and 190 pounds, he doesn’t have an overwhelming physique. He doesn’t possess a long reach like teammate Matt Avery, nor does he have a 100-mph fastball. Yet make no mistake: Virginia lefty Andrew Dobies is a strikeout pitcher.
Dobies leads the Cavalier pitching staff with 82 Ks in 80.1 innings, thanks to mental toughness, command of pitches and a wicked cutter.
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Cavalier Comeback Fails to Materialize
May 9, 2004
It was the kind of game the Virginia baseball team has found a way to win all season. Down by a run in the late innings, the Cavaliers were getting good pitching. They were playing superb defense. All they needed was the clutch hit, the big play, the timely rally that they have produced so many times this spring.
Except Sunday afternoon, it didn’t happen. Instead, No. 24 Florida State came up with the key hit – a two-out, two-run double in the seventh inning – and thwarted No. 7 Virginia, 4-1, in the rubber match of their three-game series at Davenport Field.
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Virginia Bounces Back With Big Win
May 9, 2004
You can admit it. As a Virginia baseball fan, you were starting to have doubts. You’ve loved all the amazing comebacks and one-run wins. You’ve admired the heart and pluck of the players. But you had to wonder, especially after UVa was blown out in three of its past five games, just how good is this team, really?
An emphatic answer came Saturday night in front of another capacity crowd at Davenport Field.
The No. 7 Cavaliers crushed No. 24 Florida State, 15-2, and there was absolutely nothing lucky about it. They used small ball, long ball, great pitching and flawless defense to maintain their stranglehold on first place in the ACC and delivered a statement at the same time: We’re good, and we’re for real.
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For Cavs, a Familiar Result Against FSU
May 8, 2004
Walking around UVa Baseball Stadium on Friday night, it was obvious how much things have changed in Virginia’s baseball program. A team that used to draw a few dozen fans had a record crowd of 2,430 on hand for the opener of a three-game series with Florida State. There was a buzz, an electricity in the stadium that was the result of the team’s improbable success throughout the season.
Unfortunately, one thing did not change: The Seminoles still own the Cavaliers. The 8-0 rout was UVa’s seventh straight loss against FSU and 20th in their past 22 meetings.
Talk about buzzkill.
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UVa Baseball: Ready for Next Level?
April 23, 2004
So far, the Virginia baseball team has been a nice local story, maybe even a regional one. Within the sport, UVa’s success has been the talk of the state and the ACC. This weekend, however, the Cavaliers can go national.
“This is going to put us on the map,” senior Joe Koshansky said of 15th-ranked Virginia’s three-game series against No. 4 Miami, to be played Friday, Saturday and Sunday at Mark Light Field in Coral Gables, Fla.
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