Emotionally speaking, Louisiana State coach Paul Mainieri was spent. Getting to the College World Series, regardless of expectations, takes a toll on a program’s skipper. Take into account that top-ranked LSU, a national powerhouse, was coming off a trip to Omaha and considered a lock for the sport’s ultimate stage, and it becomes understandable how the pressure built before the first pitch of the season was thrown.

Eight years later, as the University of Virginia baseball team prepares for its first appearance in the College World Series, Dennis Womack has the benefit of perspective. “I tell you what, that report might have been the best thing that ever happened,“ said Womack, the Cavaliers’ baseball coach from 1981 to 2003. At the time, though, Womack’s reaction was different. It was April 2001, and the Cavaliers were in Winston-Salem, N.C., for a weekend series with Wake Forest when they heard the news. Back in Charlottesville, a U.Va. task force, alarmed by the rising cost of college athletics, had recommended that the university split its 24 sports into four tiers, with each tier to be funded differently.

The Virginia Cavaliers opened the baseball season with 19 consecutive wins, and they haven’t lost many games since then. Which begs a question: Aren’t they a little young to be doing this?

In the NCAA baseball tournament, each team is allowed to carry no more than 25 players on its roster. The limit during the regular season is 35. Virginia, which meets Mississippi in a best-of-three NCAA super regional, has 32 players in its program. Which meant sixth-year coach Brian O’Connor had the unenviable job of telling seven of his players, including John Bivens (Prince George High), Tyler Biddix (Mills Godwin) and Brad Grove (Deep Run), that they couldn’t participate in the NCAA tourney.

The trip to Blacksburg didn’t go so well, though it ended on a high note for the visitors, but the University of Virginia baseball team thoroughly enjoyed its recent stays in Durham, N.C., and Irvine, Calif. Small wonder, then, that the Cavaliers are looking forward to the next stop on their postseason odyssey: Oxford, Miss. “I think we prefer to play on the road,“ Steven Proscia said yesterday at Davenport Field. Asked why, the freshman third baseman answered, “I just think that it’s going out there and wanting to make a statement.“

ATLANTA - B.A. Vollmuth hit two second-inning homers off Georgia Tech ace Deck McGuire to power Southern Mississippi past the Yellow Jackets 12-8 last night and send the Eagles to their first NCAA Super Regional. A former Deep Run standout and ACC pitcher of the year, McGuire (11-2) gave up nine runs in the inning, the most he has allowed in his career. Only four of the runs were earned. Southern Miss (38-24) will play Florida in the best-of-three Super Regional in Gainesville, Fla.

CHARLOTTESVILLE—Where the University of Virginia baseball team plays next in the NCAA tournament depends on what happens tonight in Oxford, Miss. At 8 o’clock, top-seeded Mississippi hosts No. 3 seed Western Kentucky in the final game of the Oxford regional. The winner will advance to meet ACC champion U.Va. in a best-of-three Super Regional this weekend.

RVINE, Calif. (AP)—Franco Valdes hit a go-ahead triple in the sixth inning to help Virginia beat top-ranked UC Irvine 4-1 on Sunday night and advance to the super regionals for the first time in school history.

IRVINE, Calif.—Brian O’Connor made it blatantly obvious. Two words would not be mentioned inside Anteater Park: Oregon State. In 2007, Virginia won the first two games in the Charlottesville Regional only to watch everything that could go wrong do just that. Two players that hit in the top four spots in the batting order were lost to season-ending injuries during the regional. Another was drilled by a pitch in the neck, leaving a grapefruit-sized lump.

San Diego State ace Stephen Strasburg lost for the first time this season as Robert Morey pitched six shutout innings and Steven Proscia hit a two-run homer in Virginia’s 5-1 victory in an NCAA regional last night. Strasburg (13-1), the probable No. 1 overall pick in the draft next month, struck out 15 in seven innings. But San Diego State’s first tournament appearance in 18 years was spoiled by Morey (3-0), who allowed five hits and struck out nine for Virginia (44-12-1). The Cavaliers have won six straight.

ESPNU isn’t the only network that will carry tonight’s game between the University of Virginia and San Diego State in the NCAA baseball tournament. It will be shown live on Comcast SportsNet, too. Second-seeded U.Va. and No. 3 seed SDSU meet at 7 p.m. EDT in the first game of the double-elimination regional at Irvine, Calif. CSN also will broadcast Game 4 (11 p.m. tomorrow), Game 5 (7 p.m. Sunday) and Game 6 (11 p.m. Sunday) from that regional. The other teams in Irvine are top-seeded UC Irvine and No. 4 seed Fresno State, the defending NCAA champion.

In the top of the eighth, with the score 3-3 in the ACC championship game, Tyler Wilson stood on the mound Sunday and, amid palpable tension at Durham Bulls Athletic Park, composed himself. There was only one out, and the bases were full. And now the University of Virginia sophomore was trying to clean up the mess he’d made against top-seeded Florida State.

What : First game of the double-elimination NCAA tournament regional in Irvine, Calif. Virginia is seeded No.2 and San Diego State No.3. Top-seeded UC Irvine meets No.4 seed Fresno State, the defending NCAA champion, at 11 p.m.
  Records : ACC champion Virginia is 43-12-1. San Diego State, an at-large representative from the Mountain West Conference, is 40-21.

There’s no place Linda and Philip Wilson would rather be this weekend than the NCAA baseball regional in Irvine, Calif. Like the parents of most University of Virginia players, though, the Chesterfield County couple will have to settle for watching the team’s games on ESPNU.

CHARLOTTESVILLE—The NCAA threw a “couple of curveballs” at the University of Virginia baseball team. That was how Craig Littlepage, U.Va.‘s athletic director, put it yesterday afternoon as he left Davenport Field after the pairings for the 64-team NCAA tournament were announced. Virginia fans might not be as diplomatic as Littlepage. They’re steamed about what they believe to be shoddy treatment by the NCAA.