Ratcliffe: With everything on the line, Wilson shines

OMAHA, Neb. — Brian O’Connor has been around a lot of great baseball players during his nearly two decades in coaching, but there’s always going to be a special place in his heart for Tyler Wilson.

The senior right-hander from Midlothian earned that distinction with his actions both on and off the field.

Thursday night, with Virginia facing a possible end to its magical season against a California team seeking revenge, Wilson stepped up like he has all season long and kept the Cavaliers’ dream alive in the College World Series with an 8-1 over the Golden Bears.

UVa lives another day, advancing to tonight’s semifinals against reigning national champion South Carolina, the same team that tamed the Wahoos on Tuesday.

For Wilson, answering the bell in the ultimate challenge was his kind of thing.

He hurled 7.2 innings, holding the aggressive Bears to only one run off five hits in front of the largest CWS crowd at TD Ameritrade Park (25,833). Wilson couldn’t have pitched much better.

“I approached this game the same way I have approached all my starts all season long,” said Wilson, now 11-0 on the season. “I wanted to turn the (Cal) lineup over and give our offense a chance to win the game.”

That’s exactly what he did by commanding his fastball early, and as usual, adding a wicked slider that kept the Bears off balance all night long. He struck out five and didn’t issue a base on balls.

“He did a great job,” said Cal designated hitter Tony Renda. “He kept us off balance to the point where we were popping a lot of balls up, which is uncharacteristic of our team. His slide was on and his fastball was getting us.

“A guy like him, you have to take advantage of his mistakes, but he didn’t make many,” Renda concluded.

That’s typical Tyler Wilson, who has been consistent all season long, but particularly golden in the postseason. Consider that in six postseason appearances, including four starts, that the righty has not given up more than one run in any of those games, often pitching deep into the game.

During that span he has walked only three batters and struck out 34.

By beating Cal last night, he quietly tied former Cav Jacob Thompson for second on Virginia’s career wins list with 27 behind tonight’s starter Danny Hultzen.

“In all my years of coaching, this guy is as good a leader as any I’ve ever seen,” O’Connor said of Wilson. “Not only is he talented but he does things the right way.”

O’Connor was referring to the way Wilson decided to come back for his senior season and made the transformation from reliever to starter and was always dependable.

“He’s a perfect teammate, just a warrior out there,” O’Connor said. “He deserves any and all the accolades he can get.”

No wonder the Virginia coach was confident he had put the ball into the right pitcher’s hands with everything, the entire season on the line for his ball club. The coach was never thinking about another outing down the road for Wilson in this series, because there was no tomorrow if the Cavs faltered, so he was comfortable keeping his starter in into the eighth inning when the righty began to show signs of tiring just a bit.

Wilson, who chuckled when asked if he could pitch again on Friday against the Gamecocks, but meant it when he said he would do whatever is necessary to keep winning, admitted he was pitching with a lot of adrenelin against Cal.

“Hey, it’s the College World Series … how could you not pitch with adrenelin,” Wilson said. “I was ecstatic just to be out there and to give our team momentum for the rest of the tournament.”

It was Wilson’s second appearance against the Bears, having pitched 2.1 innings of relief of Hultzen in Virginia’s opening game of the CWS. He was nearly flawless in that one, too.

In fact, in 10 innings against Cal this week, the Wahoo hurler gave up only eight hits, two runs, struck out seven and didn’t walk a batter.

“I don’t know if I was happy to see him,” said Cal coach David Esquer. “His numbers were really good and he handled us. Either we didn’t handle him or he got us to get out front and hit the ball in the air.”

Wilson said he noticed that the Bears batters were very aggressive early in the count, making it even more important for him to establish his fastball.

Right now, if Virginia had to nominate a player for MVP, it would be hard to ignore Tyler Wilson’s performance, particularly in the postseason.

That’s why he has earned that spot in O’Connor’s heart.

That’s why he wishes he could start him a couple more times before it’s all said and done.