O’Connor reflects on Cavs’ emotional CWS elimination

OMAHA, Neb. — Almost an hour after the last pitch was thrown, Virginia baseball coach Brian O’Connor crept slowly towards the team bus, pausing to sign a baseball for a young fan.

Emotionally spent from a grueling 4-3, 12-inning loss to Arkansas that ended a magical ride for Charlottesville’s boys of summer, O’Connor was shocked to see those standing nearby give him a lengthy ovation.

It did little to ease the pain.

Stranding 14 runners on base, squandering a two-run lead in the ninth and watching as Arkansas staved off elimination in the College World Series left the skipper down and out.

Yet after the game, O’Connor attempted to lift the spirits of the best team in Virginia history.

“I just told them that I couldn’t take the hurt and the pain away from them because I know that it means so much to them,” he recounted. “I know that they felt coming here that we could legitimately win the national championship, and when you put so much into something all year long, through fall baseball and through winter workouts and the entire season, and you have everything right there in front of you and it doesn’t happen, it’s painful for them.

“But I just told them that I’m proud of each and every one of them. I told them that we’ve gotten to this point because nobody has pointed fingers at their teammates; they’ve stuck together as a group all year long. I’m proud of them and we’ll address the season later on and what we’ve accomplished. At the end of the day even though the season is over, they need to stay together like they’ve stayed together all year.”

If anyone can relate to the pain of watching a season come to an emotional end at the College World Series, it is O’Connor.

As the closer at Creighton, he pitched in an extra-inning classic that ended the Blue Jays’ 1991 season.

Virginia closer Kevin Arico, who gave up a two-out, two-run homer in the ninth, is now in that boat.

“I feel for the kid. It took me some time,” O’Connor said. “Unfortunately, Kevin is going to have to live with that for the summer. I am confident he will be able to handle it.”

All the blame could not be placed on Arico. The Cavaliers had runners in scoring position in the final four innings of the marathon.

“That’s a lot of runners to have on,” O’Connor said. “It is such a great feeling in those extra innings that we are going to get the big hit. We got the big hits to get the runners on and in scoring position but we couldn’t come up with the big hit to win the game.

“Some uncharacteristic things happen in the College World Series.”