Cavalier Corner

nificant roles on the team, this was the first time in UVa's four trips to Omaha that the Hoos swept the Regional and Super Regional — going 5-0 in the first two stages of the NCAA Tournament. The Hoos won their CWS opener, 5-3, over Arkansas with more late-inning heroics when fourth-year third baseman Kenny Towns hit an RBI double with two outs in the eighth inning to break a 3-3 tie. In game two, UVa shut down the potent Florida Gators with Waddell and closer Josh Sborz combining for a two-hit, 1-0 shutout. Virginia's third contest was bittersweet. Florida won the outing, 10-5, forcing a final elimination game for a trip to the CWS championship series. The contest also marked the return of Kirby to the mound. The Virginia ace went two and two-thirds innings, allowing four runs but the start got him back in the flow of pitching and likely served as a preparatory appearance for his final collegiate outing later in the CWS. In the elimination game, the lead changed hands five times — but in the end, Towns again came up big. This time, it was with the bases loaded and one out in the bottom of the seventh, when he lifted the game-winning sacrifice fly. Waddell and Sborz kept the Gators in check, limiting a Florida club that averaged 7.8 runs per game in the CWS to just four. After the game O'Connor continued address- ing what was the overarching mantra of the 2015 Cavaliers. "You all are going to think I'm just hitting repeat here, but this team has — in this postsea- son run — just been amazing," O'Connor stated. "The toughness and the resiliency of this group has been really impressive, the heart that they've continued to show is a lot of fun to watch. And this game is kind of a small microcosm of what our postseason's been like." For many, after the season the Cavaliers expe- rienced, just getting to Omaha might have been enough. But Towns said the coaches weren't go- ing to allow the team to settle for simply reaching the big stage. "The one thing that Coach O'Connor and the other coaches kept preaching to us is you've just got to grind through it," Towns said. "We had a lot of ups and downs during this year, but they didn't expect less out of us. They kept their expectations high on us, and just told us to grind it out. Clutch hitting from players such as fourth-year third baseman Kenny Towns helped UVa score the go-ahead run in the fifth inning or later in all 10 of its postseason victories. PHOTO BY MATT RILEY/COURTESY UVA

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