Home field advantage
Dedicated in 2002, Davenport Field underwent a multimillion-dollar renovation in 2010. Seats were added, locker rooms expanded, training facilities enhanced. This past offseason, a sand-based playing field was installed, along with an irrigation and drainage system, a synthetic warning track, and a FieldTurf collar around home plate.
The field is an important part of O’Connor’s project. A team that wants to recruit the best players and win the biggest games, needs a culture of baseball. That means facilities and fans.
“[The administration’s] basic philosophy was if we do things the right way and we win, the University support will be commensurate with how the program does,” O’Connor said. “The people I work for and work with have completely lived up to 100 percent of what they said they were going to do. And so I couldn’t ask for any more.”
A ticket to Virginia’s final regular season home game on May 14 cost $5, while a hot dog was $2—not bad for one of the game’s most picturesque venues. And historically, the Wahoos have just about been able to guarantee victory: UVA has won more than 83 percent of its home games during Oak’s tenure.
The 2013 Cavaliers, a sparkling 32-3 at home this year, have employed a balanced offensive attack, capable of scoring runs in a variety of ways from anywhere in the lineup. Remarkably, five of the team’s top six hitters are sophomores; the other is a freshman. All are hitting above .300.
“I mean, I see a difference in these Virginia teams and most other teams we play,” Marvin Ripley said in a sweet, slow, Central Virginia drawl. “I’m not saying the others aren’t good—they are good—but we do the little things. When a Virginia team takes the field, I’ve never felt like we weren’t in a game.”
Starters Nick Howard, Silverstein, and Brandon Waddell—who this season became the first Cavalier freshman to start a season opener since 1986—have enjoyed great success, while Crockett has anchored a dominant bullpen.
UVA’s body of work this season will afford the Wahoos their seventh Charlottesville regional in 10 years. That bodes well for a team that’s won 10 straight at home and boasts one of the most dedicated fan bases in college baseball.
“My freshman year, I think we had [a capacity of] 3,000 people max, and it was pretty rockin’ then,” Silverstein said. “Now there are 5,000 people at every home game. They’ve been great and gotten better. It’s been kind of incredible… Opposing players tell me that they didn’t expect this out of University of Virginia fans.”
A native of the area, Ripley remembers a time when few bothered to attend UVA baseball games: “There was room there for about a hundred people to sit on dirty boards. You didn’t have to worry about a ticket,” he said. “Now people are enthused and they just can’t wait to get there. They think we’re going to win every game, and that’s good. It sure is fun.”
His favorite Virginia baseball memory is one shared by many.
On June 13, 2011, Virginia faced UC-Irvine at Davenport Field with a berth to the College World Series on the line. A year earlier, UVA had lost the deciding game of a super regional on its home field, and it looked as if the Wahoos would suffer the same fate again that day. Irvine led 2-1 in the bottom of the ninth inning, and Virginia was down to its final strike with no one on base. A 1-2 pitch was smacked safely up the middle, followed by a comebacker that bounced around the infield, and a four-pitch walk that loaded the bases. With the packed house standing in unison, Chris Taylor punctuated the storybook ending by drilling the second pitch of the final at bat up the middle, and two Cavaliers came around to score.
“It was pandemonium,” Ripley said. “People were hugging each other that didn’t even know each other. People stayed around there after that game at least an hour or more. Nobody wanted to leave.”
The program is poised to add more wins as it navigates postseason play this season, and expectations could be even higher in 2014.
It’s been a decade since Littlepage first met his baseball coach.
“I remember flying back afterwards just thinking, ‘Boy, if we can convince this guy that becoming the head coach at Virginia is a great opportunity, our baseball program may really take off,’” he said. “I can remember a couple of phone conversations with Paul [Mainieri], the context of those conversations being, ‘Craig, I promise you, if you hire this guy, you will never regret it,’ and truer words were never spoken.”
The ACC Tournament begins May 22 in Durham, North Carolina. Then, capacity crowds will fill Davenport Field’s friendly confines as UVA makes its 10th consecutive appearance in the NCAA Tournament. The Wahoos will be among the favorites to advance to Omaha, and the program’s architect has a singular goal on his mind.
“It’s a very, very short list of college baseball programs that have won consistently like we have,” O’Connor said. “And I firmly believe that there will be a time—hopefully it’s this year—that we’re standing on the field hoisting that trophy after the last game.”
Macon Gunter is a licensed real estate agent with McLean Faulconer, Inc. in Charlottesville, where he represents buyers and sellers of homes and land. A graduate of the University of Virginia, Macon has covered UVA athletics for numerous news media outlets. In addition to contributing to C-VILLE, he assists the Virginia Sports Radio Network as spotter and statistician.
