Virginia coach O’Connor to square off against mentor Mainieri and LSU in first CWS appearance

Understudy vs. mentor when Virginia opens CWS

RICHMOND, Va. — Brian O’Connor has a book’s worth of memories of the College World Series, growing up just a few miles from Rosenblatt Stadium in Omaha, Neb.

As a child just across the river in Council Bluffs, Iowa, he looked forward to attending games there with his father and brother every year from the time he was 4 years old.

He pitched for Creighton in the 1991 College World Series, absorbing a 12th-inning loss in his only appearance when a chopper up the middle bounced just out of his reach.

He also coached there in 2002 with Notre Dame during his nine years as an understudy to Paul Mainieri, and is heading back for an opening game against his best friend in coaching.

The Cavaliers (48-13-1) earned their first trip to Omaha on Sunday with a 5-1 victory against Mississippi. They will make their first appearance in Rosenblatt Stadium this weekend against Mainieri and LSU (51-16), which will be making its 15th trip to the final eight.

The game is the only way the matchup could have happened, O’Connor said Monday.

“We have talked about it plenty of times before that we would never play each other until the NCAA said that we need to play each other, and now it happened and it just so happens to be in Omaha,” he said. “We’ll be friends up to the game, through the game and after the game.”

But, he added, “the players will decide the game on the field.”

O’Connor said he and Mainieri talk three or four times a week during the season and a few times a week in the offseason, a bond that began growing when Mainieri took a chance on a 23-year-old assistant coach at Notre Dame, and together they built a championship contender.

“When you become so close to each other, when you work in the same office with somebody for nine years, when you are side-by-side trying to build something together for nine years and in the fight together, you grow a really true fondness for each other,” O’Connor said.

He said Mainieri gave him the autonomy to learn the coaching ropes at Notre Dame.

“I’m forever grateful to him for that,” O’Connor said. “What I’ve learned as a coach, I have learned from Paul Mainieri and I think he’s the best in the business.”

O’Connor, in his sixth season at Virginia, hasn’t done too badly himself.

Virginia has been to the postseason in each of his seasons as coach, and has earned its berth in the CWS by winning 10 of its last 11, all on the road. It started with four consecutive wins in the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament, the clincher coming against top-seeded Florida State, and continued with a remarkable performance in the regionals.

Sent to Irvine, Calif., Virginia first topped unbeaten Stephen Strasburg of San Diego State, widely regarded as one of the top pitching prospects ever, and then won two straight from the host team, then the top-ranked team, to advance to the super regionals for the first time.

At Oxford, Miss., a first-game loss on a walkoff home run in the bottom of the 12th inning snapped an eight-game winning streak, but Virginia came back to win the next two games.

O’Connor said he never hid from his team that few have expected them to keep winning at any point along the way, and he sees no reason to change his approach before Omaha.

“Our players will go out there, they’ll be loose, and they’ll just be going out there to play a ballgame on Saturday, and that’s how I want them to look at it,” he said.

“I think that’s a big reason that we’ve had success.”

Which is not to say, he added, that they should be satisfied.

“I want them to enjoy what they’ve accomplished, but then get focused and understand what the task is at hand, and this team has done a really good job of this,” he said.

“They’ve handled everything that’s been thrown at them.”

And maybe the games ahead will help him leave Rosenblatt with a better taste than he did after that game in 1991 against Wichita State, which he said drew the largest crowd in the history of the College World Series to that point and more than lived up to its billing.

In the 12th inning, though, a chopper hit back toward the middle bounded about a foot out of his reach, and when the second baseman and shortstop collided, Wichita State won 3-2.

The winner’s bracket game, he said, was long regarded as the best in College World Series history, and proved to be his only appearance in Omaha before Creighton was eliminated.