Brian O'Connor says Virginia has tried to 'take the fight' to Duke in Game 1 of Super Regional series

The Virginia lineup has been swinging early and often against pitching from Duke in the Charlottesville Super Regional on Friday. In Game 1 of a best-of-three series between conference foes with a trip to the College World Series on the line, Virginia head coach Brian O’Connor explained the offensive approach.

In the first four innings of the game, Virginia’s leadoff hitter for the inning swung and put the first pitch in play, all resulting in outs. O’Connor doesn’t want the aggressive approach to slow down, despite the paltry results.

“We’ve tried to take the fight to them and gotten below some balls. We just need to get in the middle of the baseball and get more line drives,” O’Connor said.

Virginia did manage to push a run across in the bottom of the third inning in response to Duke plating a pair. The Blue Devils would plate another run and by the time O’Connor spoke to the ESPN2 broadcast, the Cavaliers still trailed, 3-1.

O’Connor gave some credit to Duke starter Andrew Healy, who pitched three innings and kept Virginia mostly quiet offensively.

“Well, certainly Healy did a nice job at the start of the game,” O’Connor said.

He also lauded his own starting pitcher, Nick Parker. Despite allowing the three runs, Parker had managed traffic on the base paths well and for whatever struggles he had, he could also follow it up with quick work.

After hyping up his pitcher on the broadcast during the bottom of the fifth inning, Parker went out and pitched a six-pitch top of the sixth inning to get Virginia back in the dugout.

“Well, he’s tough. He’s a guy that manages innings and that’s what he’s done. He doesn’t let innings get out of hand and we need him to continue to go out there and pound the strike zone, mix his pitches and keep us right in this ball game,” O’Connor said.

Duke coach Chris Pollard lauded Healy for his start against Virginia

The lefty allowed one run in 3 innings of work and exited the game with a 2-1 lead. Pollard was proud of his freshman, who entered the game with a 5-1 record and 2.27 ERA.

“Love him. He was really tough,” Chris Pollard said. “Executed three pitches for strikes. Pitching in with his fastball, moving it around. I thought it was a terrific outing. I’m really, really proud of Andrew Healy.”