Time was running out on Brian O'Connor if he wanted to take his Virginia baseball team to Rosenblatt Stadium, at least the Rosenblatt Stadium of his youth.

Rosenblatt Stadium, home to the College World Series since 1950, will be torn down in the next year or two and be replaced by a new downtown stadium.

"I've had multiple conversations with a good friend of mine that I lived with back in Omaha," O'Connor said. "He kept saying, 'This is the year, Brian. This is the year. You've got to coach a team in that stadium before they demolish it.' "

O'Connor was born in Omaha, Neb., and has been to Rosenblatt Stadium as a fan, as a player for Creighton and as an assistant coach for Notre Dame.

Now, at 38, he will be taking a team to Omaha for the first time as a head coach. The Cavaliers (48-13-1) earned a spot in the field of eight by winning two of three games this past weekend in the Oxford (Miss.) Super Regional.

O'Connor grew up across the Missouri River from Omaha in Council Bluffs, Iowa.

"My home, growing up, was about a 10-minute drive from Rosenblatt Stadium," O'Connor said. "My dad used to take my brother and I to the College World Series every year. I started going to College World Series games when I was 4 years old."

O'Connor's parents and his wife's parents still live in Council Bluffs.

"The entire city of Omaha [and the surrounding area] wraps its arms around this two-week event," O'Connor said. "I believe it's the greatest sporting event in college athletics."

O'Connor's only regret -- and it's not a big one -- is that the Cavaliers will meet LSU (50-16) in the first round. The Tigers are coached by O'Connor's former boss, Paul Mainieri.

"I've got mixed emotions," O'Connor said. "Paul Mainieri has been my mentor as a coach. He hired me when I was 23 years old to be his head assistant at Notre Dame. He gave me a ton of autonomy in my job, working with him there for nine years.

"I feel he is the best in the business. That's the professional side of it. Personally, he is absolutely my best friend in the industry. Paul and I talk 3-4 times a week during the season and a couple of times of week in the offseason.

"We've talked plenty of times before that we would never play each other before the NCAA said we had to. "

In 1991, O'Connor pitched the 11th and 12th innings for Creighton in an epic College World Series game with Wichita State.

"I was the losing pitcher in what people called the greatest game in College World Series history at the time," said O'Connor, whose coach for the Blue Jays was current Chicago Cubs general manager Jim Hendry.

"It was the biggest crowd in the history of the game. We had beaten Clemson in the first round and I gave up the third run to lose the ballgame. I wish I could have it back."

The winning run scored on a chopper that went over O'Connor's head and couldn't be handled by the Creighton second baseman and shortstop, who collided.

"Jim Hendry tells me that, if I'd caught that chopper, we'd still be playing today," O'Connor said. "I think, if I would have caught it, that we would have had a chance to win the national championship. Sure, you're disappointed about the loss, but that was a long time ago."

The next year, O'Connor was pitching professionally for the Martinsville Phillies, where he was 4-2 in his only season. After the season ended, he was offered an assistant's job at Creighton and took it.

College baseball was in his blood.

"It was an incredible experience and feeling," O'Connor said. "So much is going to be made about me going back to Omaha, but I really don't want it to be about that. I don't want anything to detract from the feeling that our players are going to have playing in that city and that stadium."