In back-to-back weeks, Virginia has lost two games that ostensibly, it should have won. The loss in Pittsburgh cost the Cavaliers a shot at the Coastal Division title. The 29-24 loss to Virginia Tech on Saturday cost Virginia the Commonwealth Cup, a winning regular season and most of all, a loss of pride.

I remember talking to former UVA pitching coach Karl Kuhn after the Hoos lost the 2007 Charlottesville Regional to eventual College World Series Champion Oregon State. He said they told the team to remember watching the Beavers celebrate on their home field. How that felt … an opponent celebrating a championship on their home field – like they owned it. That’s what Hokie fans and players did Saturday.

The word irony is taken from “a literary technique, originally used in Greek tragedy, by which the full significance of a character’s words or actions are clear to the audience or reader although unknown to the character.”

I don’t know if the UVA football staff and players are aware of the significance of their actions from Saturday afternoon’s game, but they are clear to those of us who watched. I hope the feeling of watching the Virginia Tech fans celebrate on Virginia’s home turf with their football team, burns, and hurts their hearts and makes them determined to establish their football bona fides like UVA’s baseball team did 14 years ago. Following that 2007 Regional series loss, Virginia baseball won four of its next five regionals and finished 5th, 3rd, and 2nd, in the College World Series before winning the NCAA title in 2015.

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