First, I'll state the obvious: we needed that win. I think the stat is 30 of the last 33 CWS champions started out 2-0. There's several reasons for that, but I think what will help UVa the most is an added day of rest while TCU and Ole Miss duke it out on Thursday before one of them faces UVa on Friday.
This is huge for the UVa players. They get an extra day of rest while their foe does not. I have no clue what the pitching rotation is like, but I know Nick Howard pitched the longest he had this season last night. I'm sure he'll appreciate the rest as much as anyone. Also, we didn't even get on base in extra-innings until Irving's ground-rule double. You could just tell the batters were exhausted. Now with three days off, we will certainly have an advantage against whichever team we face, and an even bigger advantage if it's against TCU.
Also on a selfish note, I would have been furious had I stayed up just to watch us lose. I had no problem getting out of bed for work this morning because I'm always happier after we win. It's like a natural burst of energy - no coffee required.
If we had lost....I'm pretty sure everyone would have hated me today. Tired...Grumpy...Oh, the struggles of a UVa fan.
But we won! And boy, was it sweet!
Now because I can't analyze the game like others, here are a few links from around the web:
Doug Doughty: UVa outlasts TCU in 15-inning College World Series thriller
Andrew Ramspacher: Virginia edges TCU in 15-inning CWS marathon
Doughty and Ramspacher: CWS notebook: UVa baseball parents enjoying the ride together
Go Hoos!
Other Notes: Basketball team receiving accolades
- In other news, the basketball team is still receiving honors. First off is Tony Bennett, who according to ESPN, is the14th best coach in the country. Personally (and I do admit to some bias), I think this is too low. What this team did this year was truly incredible. I won't go on to list all of our accomplishments because you already know them. But coming into the season, if you had told me that we would win both the ACC regular season and tournament championships, I would call you crazy. We were supposed to be good, but not this good. And a lot of our success came from Bennett's "scheme" - the packline defense. Unfortunately, I think ESPN is holding Bennett's first few years against him, even though the team was still improving. To ESPN, this is also a sort of career achievement award, and Bennett is still considered to be on the rise. In a few years though, he should cement himself into ESPN's top-10. (As a side note, Roy Williams at UNC was ranked 16th. UNC has not fielded the teams they used to these past few seasons, so it's not too much of a surprise. I also think the academic fraud has something to do with it - and who can forget the great signs about the scandal at JPJ when we whooped them?! Point is, it's awesome Bennett is now considered a better coach than Williams!)
- As for NBA draft updates, Joe Harris is absolutely destroying it in his pre-draft workouts. According to this ESPN post, Harris has worked himself up to potentially a late first-round pick. He is getting credit for his shooting ability, obviously, and also for his defense (which was always an underrated part of his game). Even if he was a first round pick, there's still no guarantee he makes it in the NBA. But I love his rising stock because Harris really took a step back this season to help the team. He could have been a first-round pick after last season, but a "disappointing" 2013-2014 season kind of dropped him off of some teams' radars. I'm just really happy that his NBA career won't suffer as a result of his unselfishness.
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