OMAHA, Neb. -- The David and Goliath matchup of the College World Series had the early makings of another underdog triumph.
Cal, a team that almost wasn't this year, entered the tournament with the worst record of the eight teams at 37-21 and a sixth-place finish in the Pac-10.
The ultimate Cinderella is the team true baseball fans are rooting for, but on Day 2 inside TD Ameritrade Park, No. 1 national seed Virginia played the evil stepmother, as it used some clutch, late-inning hitting to put the Bears away 4-1.
"We had confidence the whole time," Virginia catcher John Hicks said.
"Their pitchers did an unbelievable job of keeping us in the game until we could string a few hits together.
"We knew that we'd come through eventually, that we'd eventually get on the board."
Few had the Bears upsetting the Cavaliers on Sunday, but deep down, most were hoping for it. Nothing against Virginia, but the country loves an underdog, and the Bears are a, well, bear of one.
Both teams used solid pitching efforts to stymie the opposing offense -- it was scoreless through six innings, the first time that's happened at the College World Series since Florida State and Arizona State in 1987. Virginia finally broke the scoring drought in the seventh when Hicks' single to center scored Keith Werman from third. A batter later, Steven Proscia's sacrifice fly made it 2-0.
The Cavs tacked on two more in the eighth, including getting their final run of the afternoon on Werman's second hit of the day.
It's been a rough season for Werman, who entered the tournament hitting just .210 after he hit over .400 in his first two seasons.
Werman then found his low point when he was pinch-hit for in the ninth inning of the deciding game of Virginia's super regional.
Werman bounced back in a big way Sunday with a 2-for-4 performance that he's hoping propels him through the week.
"That's probably one of the hardest things about this game is you're going to fail," Werman said. "And it's a matter of being able to stay positive every time. You still go up to the plate and clear out what happened.
"Maybe you fail that one time, you come up the next time and you forget about it and start over and have that positive thought and visualize things."
As for Cal, that's a team visualizing its own redemption here in Omaha. There was a time when Cal's baseball program was left for dead and needed a heavy amount of donation money and budget cuts to stay around.
Now, the Bears are on college baseball's biggest stage.
Hicks said he's admired Cal from afar for most of the year, but momentarily lost his sympathy when his Cavs were paired with the Bears. Naturally, he doesn't feel too bad for putting them in an 0-1 hole.
"I wouldn't say we feel like villains," he said. "We feel pretty good right now, getting the first win under our belt. It's tough because you root for a team like that, but when you're playing them you can't really root for them."
As for the Bears themselves, they might be wounded, but they aren't done. There's still at least one more game for Cal, and coach David Esquer expects to see the fight that's carried his team to previously unimaginable territory.
"We're here to prove something," Esquer said. "Our team in general is not here just to participate. We made that clear that if you're just happy to be here, then you'll be going home fairly soon. They're here to win ballgames.
"I told them if you don't come to win we might as well not go. We get a participant's badge or trophy whether we win or not. Let's come here to win."
