I don’t think it’s a stretch to say that there’s a ton on the line for Virginia baseball this evening at Davenport Field. Simply put, if St. John’s comes in and steals a second straight game from the Cavaliers, this season will be considered an epic failure. Anything less than a second straight trip to Omaha will be a disappointment for this bunch.

Sounds harsh, but it’s true. When you bring back just about every key position player from a team that advanced to Omaha by winning first a regional then a super regional on the road, you are expected to win a home regional. Especially when you’re a national seed. More so when you spend much of the year ranked No. 1 in most of the major national polls.

Virginia pitcher Tyler Wilson made a pretty good point last night as he let the dust settle from St. John’s stunning Game 6 win.

“It’s a tough loss, obviously,“ he said. “But we’re going to bounce back, just like we have all year. We’re going to come together more than we ever have. We’re going to go out in full force.“

He later talked about making sure the Cavaliers won the first three innings of today’s game. The longer St. John’s hangs around today, the more confidence the Storm is going to have. Not that the Johnnies lack in that area. I was pretty impressed with the frank way the players spoke about playing Virginia, and about how all of the pressure has shifted to home side for today’s decisive game. I was fully expecting canned responses—“We’re just going to take it one pitch at a time, etc.“—but when the Washington Post’s Zach Berman asked Kevin Kilpatrick yesterday if all of the pressure was on UVa, the pitcher responded by basically saying: “How can it not be?“

Virginia coach Brian O’Connor certainly looked aggravated last night as the post-game press conference went on. A sampling of quotes from the Cavaliers skipper:

On the performance of St. John’s Kevin Kilpatrick, who held the Cavaliers scoreless for the game’s final 5 1/3 innings:

“To throw 5 1/3 innings at a critical point in the game? That was frustrating that we couldn’t scratch off a couple of hits against him. The problem was that we let them hang around. We had a chance to put them away on the mound when we got the five spot in the fourth inning. Unfortunately, Robert (Morey) walked the leadoff hitter and gave up the two-run home run. So we just let them hang around. When you have an opportunity to put somebody away, you have to do it offensively and on the mound.“

On the pressure of performing today:

“I don’t worry about it. We’re 60 games into the season. I think I know our players. They’re tough kids. They’re resilient. I’ve got to have complete confidence tomorrow that they’re going to come out tomorrow with everything that we have. They haven’t shown me anything this season to make me feel any differently. Is there pressure? Sure. I’d be lying if I told you that there wasn’t. You’re a national seed. You’re hosting a regional. That’s what I told the team afterward. Everybody assumes that you’re supposed to just roll through it and win three games. That’s just not the way it works. You’re playing a great opponent. You’ve got to go out and take it. I think we’ll come out loose and ready to play tomorrow and give it our best shot.“

After being asked what he’d like to see happen differently at the plate today:

“What would I like to see differently? I don’t know how good of a question that is, quite frankly. Really. Obviously, I’d like to see more hits, I mean, things like that. You don’t score 15 and 13 runs and then all of a sudden things are broken. St. John’s did a great job against us tonight. We squared up a lot of balls. I remember Phil Gosselin hit a couple of balls right on the screws. They made some nice plays. You know, that’s baseball. We’re human. We’ve just got to do a little bit more, that’s all.“

Did he consider pitching around Jeremy Baltz, St. John’s power hitting freshman?

“I can tell you this. I would never have pitched around him. I would have never walked him or tried to do anything like that. I mean, that guy is the winning run. Sure, he’s a threat to hit the ball out of the ballpark. But if he hits the ball out of the ballpark, he hits it out of the ballpark. The guy is human. You’ve got to try to make your pitches. Unfortunately Tyler didn’t get the ball exactly where he needed to.“

—Virginia has lost 12 games this season and has yet to drop two in a row. Virginia after losses:

* Feb 20: L at East Carolina, 6-1; Feb. 21: W at East Carolina, 14-11
* March 5: L vs. Wright State, 2-1; March 6: W vs. Dartmouth, 14-3
* March 14: L at Florida State, 9-8; March 16: W vs. William & Mary, 9-1
* March 27: L vs. Clemson, 4-3; March 27: W vs. Clemson, 3-1
* April 2: L at North Carolina State, 6-5 (11); April 3: W at North Carolina State, 8-4
* April 10: L vs. Georgia Tech, 9-7; April 11: W vs. Georgia Tech, 9-1
* April 14: L at VMI, 12-3; April 16: W vs. Virginia Tech, 4-2
* April 18: L vs. Virginia Tech, 8-5; April 20: W vs. Richmond, 11-3
* May 20: L at Miami, 5-4 (11); May 21: W at Miami 3-1
* May 27: L vs. Florida State, 11-4; May 28: W vs. Miami, 12-7

—The NCAA’s way of deciding home and away teams at these regionals is ridiculous. Coin flips? Coastal Carolina was the No. 1 seed in the Myrtle Beach Regional and deserved to have the last at-bat in that game today. Having the higher seed in the regional should mean something.

Today’s lineups:

ST. JOHN’S (43-19)

Jimmy Brennan cf (.277, 2 HR, 20 RBI, 5 SB)

Matt Wessinger 2b (.305, 6 HR, 52 RBI, 9 SB)

Joe Panik ss (.379, 10 HR, 53 RBI, 6 SB)

Jeremy Baltz lf (.398, 24 HR, 84 RBI, 6 SB)

Jimmy Parque rf (.359, 4 HR, 46 RBI, 8 SB)

Greg Hopkins 3b (.356, 7 HR, 59 RBI, 5 SB)

Paul Karmas 1b (.321, 8 HR, 55 RBI, 1 SB)

Sean O’Hare dh (.349, 1 HR, 30 RBI, 5 SB)

Joe Witkowski c (.216, 0 HR, 8 RBI, 0 SB)

RHP Kyle Hansen (8-2, 3.55 ERA, 17 APP, 14 GS, 91 1/3 IP, 71 H, 36 ER, 36 BB, 84 K)

VIRGINIA (49-12)

Phil Gosselin lf (.376, 9 HR, 56 RBI, 18 SB)

Keith Werman 2b (.424, 0 HR, 23 RBI, 9 SB)

Dan Grovatt rf (.288, 8 HR, 56 RBI, 6 SB)

Steven Proscia 3b (.318, 10 HR, 63 RBI, 8 SB)

Jarrett Parker cf (.341, 10 HR, 54 RBI, 11 SB)

John Hicks 1b (.310, 8 HR, 48 RBI, 7 SB)

Tyler Cannon ss (.343, 3 HR, 38 RBI, 10 SB)

Franco Valdes c (.223, 1 HR, 12 RBI, 0 SB)

John Barr dh (.379, 1 HR, 22 RBI, 7 SB)

RHP Branden Kline (4-0, 2.97 ERA, 20 APP, 6 GS, 57 2/3 IP, 45 H, 19 ER, 17 BB, 50 K)

That’s it for now. Follow me on Twitter @ChrisLangLNA for in-game updates.