OMAHA, Neb. -- Just as Virginia staggered through the final week of a midseason stretch in which it won only 10 of 24 games and lost to Old Dominion, Georgetown and VMI, reigning national champion Vanderbilt went in the tank.
The Commodores, ranked No. 1 on April 7, lost to Lipscomb. A week later, they lost to Belmont. Two weeks after that, they lost to Belmont again.
Of Virginia's struggles, shortstop Daniel Pinero said Thursday that "people gave up on us."
"But as a team," he said, "we stayed together."
A similar storyline played out in Nashville, where Vanderbilt recovered from a monthlong 9-10 slump just in time for the end of the regular season. Fittingly, it beat Lipscomb to open regional play and hasn't looked back, winning seven in a row to sit within one victory of a return to the College World Series championship series.
Vandy plays Friday night at 8 p.m. ET on ESPN against TCU, which eliminated LSU Thursday with an 8-4 victory.
Virginia also has won seven in a row. It faces Florida Friday at 3 p.m. ET on ESPNU in need of one win in two days to earn a spot in the best-of-three finals next week.
It ranks now as a distant disappointment that after playing for the title last year, Virginia and Vanderbilt failed to earn to national seeds in this tournament. Virginia, in fact, almost missed the 64-team field altogether.
In Omaha, Virginia beat Arkansas 5-3 and TCU 1-0. Vanderbilt beat Cal State Fullerton 4-3 with a walk-off, three-run ninth inning and Florida 1-0.
They're brimming with confidence in a way we've seen historically at the CWS from the likes of Miami and Stanford in the 1980s, LSU in the '90s and Texas, Oregon State and South Carolina in recent years.
Virginia coach Brian O'Connor, who has been with the Cavaliers since 2004, knows that swagger. An Omaha native, he watched the great programs at Rosenblatt Stadium as a kid. In 2011, the year the CWS moved to TD Ameritrade Park, South Carolina beat his Hoos in 13 innings en route to the title.
Whatever that championship brand of team must do to win in Omaha, they do in Omaha. And this year, perhaps, there exists two of them.
"I think there's something to that," O'Connor said after Virginia practiced Thursday at Creighton, his alma mater. "It started when we brought the team here on Thursday. We took them into the stadium. Just to see the veteran guys and just how calm and relaxed they were, they know how it operates around here. Then they can relax. They can enjoy the moment."
That ability to relax is vital at the CWS, a stage unlike anything players experience elsewhere in the college game. From the tournament format with the built-in off days to the media attention and adoration of the community, it's all foreign.
"There's people walking around in our dugout that we don't even know," Pinero said, referring to the television crews and tournament personnel not normally seen during the season. "It's a little different from Charlottesville."
No argument from Vanderbilt coach Tim Corbin.
"[Prior experience] is a factor," he said. "For a young guy to concentrate and hold his emotions during time of execution is really important, particular when you get to the end [of a game] and the margin is really tight. For us to have been in those environments before has helped us.
"It has to have helped us."
It helped Monday, for sure, as junior first baseman Zander Wiel bashed two key doubles in the late innings of Vanderbilt's comeback win over Fullerton.
"Being more comfortable puts you at ease," Wiel said, "and it's easy to get confidence."
It was freshman Jeren Kendall, though, who hit the walk-off homer. And that's the thing about the programs that develop a winning pedigree at the CWS -- older players educate the young guys, and the mental edge grows exponentially over the teams without the same experience.
"It's funny." Vanderbilt shortstop Dansby Swanson said. "We play in the SEC, but this place is different. People start thinking, 'You've got to do more, you've got to do more.' But really, you just need to relax and go play. It's the same game. There's a bat. There's a ball. There's a glove. Nothing changes."
The 2-0 starts in Omaha afford Virginia and Vanderbilt a pitching edge on Friday. The Cavaliers, in fact, are going with star left-hander Nathan Kirby, who was recently drafted 40th overall by the Brewers and has been out since April 17 with a strained lat muscle.
O'Connor said he and pitching coach Karl Kuhn made the decision on Kirby with more than Friday in mind; they're trying to win a national championship. Connor Jones, who started the CWS opener against Arkansas, likely would pitch Saturday if needed against Florida. If Virginia wins Friday, Jones will be ready Monday for the first game of the championship series.
Vanderbilt will go with Walker Buehler, drafted 24th by the Dodgers last month, against TCU. He started the opening game of the championship series last year, a 9-8 win over Virginia.
There's that experience again.
"We've been there, done that," Swanson said. "We've seen it all."