Cavaliers Find Way To Berth In CWS

CHARLOTTESVILLE -- Entering its first College World Series, Virginia will take the diamond at Omaha's Rosenblatt Stadium on Saturday not merely an unknown to college baseball's premier event, but also sporting a profile unlike the nation's elite college baseball teams.

Schools from the Deep South and West Coast often dominate the annual eight-team event. This year, Virginia is the northernmost school in a field that includes Louisiana State, Cal-State Fullerton, Arkansas, North Carolina, Arizona State, Texas and Southern Mississippi.

Teams from the Northeast or mid-Atlantic region seldom find their way to Omaha in June. In fact, no team from the region has reached the College World Series since Maine in 1986. Wichita State, which took home the national title in 1989, is the only team from outside of the South or the West Coast to win the College World Series since Ohio State in 1966.

"They just have so many advantages," Virginia Coach Brian O'Connor said. "There's a big advantage in recruiting, in scheduling and also what you could do in the NCAA play."

O'Connor attributes most of the discrepancy to a cause-and-effect that starts with weather. Warmer weather in the South and West allows for more nonconference home games, which helps teams compile early season wins. More home games generate bigger crowds and greater fan interest, which lead to bigger and better stadiums. The larger ballparks and high win totals help when the NCAA assigns hosts for the super regionals (the second round of the NCAA tournament), and O'Connor said that in most years, six of the eight teams that host super regionals advance to the College World Series. This year, five of the eight second-round hosts made it to Omaha.

"You have a 75 percent chance of going to Omaha if you have a super regional," O'Connor said. "We're defying those odds quite a bit this year."

The NCAA attempted to remedy the weather discrepancy in 2008, when it instituted a universal start date for both preseason practices (Feb. 1) and the regular season (teams are not allowed to play before the last week in February). Previously, teams could start practicing and playing earlier in the year, giving a big edge to schools from warmer climates.

In recruiting, elite players from the North are more willing to migrate south than vice versa. Of the 14 out-of-state players on the Cavaliers' roster, nine are from states north of Virginia. The lineup that helped beat Mississippi in the deciding game of the super regional on Sunday included two players from New Jersey, two from Pennsylvania and one from Maryland.

Associate head coach Kevin McMullan, a New Jersey native who previously coached at Indiana (Pa.) and St. John's, said the talent discrepancy between players from the North and South is not as pronounced as the reputation indicates. There is often a big difference early in a player's development, McMullan said, but he praised the fundamentals of mid-Atlantic and Northeastern high school players.

Because baseball fields are sometimes not in playing condition during winter months, players from those regions are often stuck in gymnasiums focusing exclusively on drills. There will be bunting practice in one corner, ground balls fielded off a wall in another corner and conditioning up and down a staircase.

"You get some guys who have a little edge, who have something to prove," McMullan said.

Cavaliers infielder Phil Gosselin, a native of West Chester, Pa., has become conditioned to hearing dismissive comments about players from the Northeast. Gosselin hit a first-pitch home run off No. 1 draft pick Stephen Strasburg in the first inning of the Cavaliers' win over San Diego State in their NCAA tournament opener.