As the Cavaliers embark on their first trip to the CWS, what gives them the belief they can accomplish what no team has done in 52 years — win in their first appearance at Rosenblatt Stadium in Omaha?

“We’ve got something special. We’ve got heart,” said All-America CF Jarrett Parker. “We’ve already faced great teams and done some great things ourselves. The sky’s the limit. We think we can do anything now.”

When one of those elites, LSU (51-16), takes on Virginia (48-13-1) in the opening round Saturday night, it will try to deflate a high-flying team that has no fear. Since the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament, where the Cavaliers won despite being seeded sixth, Virginia has gone 9-1 with all but one of the victories coming over higher-ranked opponents.

Beating San Diego State pitching phenom Stephen Strasburg in the NCAA opener told the Cavaliers they belonged.

“Because they stepped up and beat Strasburg and then beat the No. 1 team in the country [Cal Irvine] in their own ballpark twice, it gave us an unbelievable amount of confidence,” said Virginia six-year coach Brian O’Connor.

It’s a belief built on pitching and defense. Since the ACC tournament, Virginia has outscored opponents 54-26. In six NCAA games, Virginia has committed four errors and given up just nine earned runs.

“If you can jump on a team early with a two or three-run lead, you can do so many more things,” said senior pitcher Andrew Carraway (8-1). “You can keep them from playing small ball, or bunting guys over. Your only goal is to maintain or extend that lead. Pitching is what allows you to start that process.”

With four freshmen and three sophomores in the starting lineup, this was supposed to be a rebuilding year for the Cavaliers after five straight trips to the NCAAs under O’Connor. But the postseason success of the young players is evidence of O’Connor’s ability to recruit and develop players quickly.

Getting to Omaha couldn’t mean any more to a coach than it does to O’Connor, a native of nearby Council Bluffs, Iowa, and a former pitcher at Creighton, who helped the Omaha school to its lone CWS appearance in 1991.

“There are people in Omaha who take off work for a week and half just so they can go to all the games,” said O’Connor. “There are people who have had seats in that stadium for 50 years that have kept tickets in their family, and people who have kept scorebooks for 30, 40 years at every World Series game.”

So steeped in CWS tradition is O’Connor that his image appears in stone at the entrance to Rosenblatt Stadium. His father, a marble and granite manufacturer, knew a sculptor who was contracted to create the statue, appropriately named “Road to Omaha.”

If anyone knows the way back home, it’s the Virginia coach.

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