The Cavaliers entered the postseason with one of the nation’s most prolific offenses. Their pitching was more of a question mark, but starters Woolfolk, Evan Blanco and Joe Savino shined the past two weeks, as did relievers Hungate, Angelo Tonas and Matt Augustin.
Woolfolk, who struggled during the regular season, made his first start since March 17 last Sunday in the final game of the regional. He started again Saturday and matched his career high with seven strikeouts.
“I didn’t have my best stuff today,” Woolfolk said, “but just battling through it all and knowing that your offense is going to score, that’s the easiest way to pitch, honestly. Everybody knows we have a top-five offense in the country, and when they can score at will, and you saw it today, you pitch a little more comfortable.”
O’Connor said he knows “the expectations of what our program should do are extremely high, and that’s fine. I know people might have been down on our pitching, but I knew what they’re made of and I knew their stuff was good enough and that it would come back around, and Jay’s a perfect example of that.”
Virginia pounded out 13 hits Saturday against four K-State pitchers. Every Cavalier who batted had at least one hit, and Saucke and freshmen Henry Ford and Eric Becker had two apiece.
Saucke opened the scoring in the top of the first with a solo home run, and Ford’s two-run single in the fifth put Virginia ahead 4-2.
Jacob Ference, a graduate transfer from Division III Salisbury University, broke the game open with a two-run triple in the top of the ninth, pushing the Cavaliers’ lead to 7-4. Sophomore Luke Hanson, pinch-hitting for Becker, drove in the final three runs with a double down the third-base line.
Hughes, a former Virginia Tech head coach, saluted the Cavaliers in his postgame press conference.
“They’re the gold standard of college baseball,” Hughes said. “They are Omaha-driven and fueled every single year. The programs that are gold standard are the ones that can refuel, reload, have their rosters get turned around with the draft and come back and win the same amount of games and compete to go to Omaha … That’s where we need to be, that’s where we aspire to be. It’s good to see people with integrity winning at a high level, because that’s not always the case these days in college athletics, specifically my sport.”
For a program to advance to Omaha three times in four seasons “is not…