If you’ve only been following Virginia baseball for the last six years, you may not know this. There was a time when the Hoos weren’t making frequent visits to the College World Series. There was a time when they couldn’t even win a regional.
Yes, that was a storyline at one time. Jump into the Wahoo time machine and go back with me to 2004.
That was Brian O’Connor, Kevin McMullen, and Karl Kuhn’s first season at Virginia. The team finished the year 44-15 in O’Connor’s inaugural season and hosted its first ever NCAA Regional. Virginia went 2-2 but lost to Vanderbilt in the finals. The Hoos made an early exit in 2005 by going 0-2 at the Corvallis Regional, the second NCAA Tournament appearance of the O’Connor era. Over the next three seasons, the Cavaliers failed to make it beyond a regional, going 1-2 in both 2006 and 2008 and making it to the championship game in 2007 before ultimately falling to Oregon State.
Despite the five consecutive regional misses, O’Connor’s plan was on track. When he took over the Cavalier program, his first goal was to ensure his team became a perennial regional competitor. If his players understood this is what the expectation is and they start to learn and understand what it takes to win at this time of year, then greater things will come. The fact is, if a squad doesn’t make it to the NCAA Tournament, there are no trips to Omaha.
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