Photos courtesy of the University of Virginia

Virginia catcher Franco Valdes is 8-for-23 in the NCAA baseball tournament. Four of his eight hits have come with two outs.

Associated Press

Virginia catcher Franco Valdes (right) hugs pitching coach Karl Kuhn as the Cavaliers celebrate their 5-1 victory over Mississippi during the Oxford Super Regional championship game last weekend.

CHARLOTTESVILLE -- Even before he started circling his Virginia baseball teammates in a pregame ritual that resembles a tribal dance, squatty catcher Franco Valdes was not one to be held down.

At age 7, he learned to play the piano. At 8, he taught himself how to switch-hit.

Valdes is the only member of Virginia's team who began his college career at a junior college and he's probably the only player whose family speaks Spanish in the home, but it didn't take long to make his presence felt.

"This time of the year, there's nobody I'd rather have our back than this kid," UVa coach Brian O'Connor said this week. "He's got a ton of energy. He's our emotional leader. He's got a lot of pride.

"He's not going to come through every time, but this kid's proven to us that he's going to come through most of the time."

Valdes, a 5-foot-11, 210-pound junior, was named the most outstanding player at the Irvine (Calif.) Regional and he would have been a leading candidate if such an award would have been given at the Oxford (Miss.) Super Regional.

At a point in the college baseball season when pitching usually prevails, Valdes has gone 8-for-23 in the NCAA baseball tournament and has seen his average rise from .278 to .288. Four of his eight hits have come with two outs.

Valdes' single plated the go-ahead run Sunday in a 5-1 victory over Mississippi that sent UVa (48-13-1) to its first College World Series, where the Cavaliers will open play Saturday against top-ranked LSU (51-16).

"It's been a once-in-a-lifetime experience," Valdes said. "I didn't even believe it until two days ago. That's when it settled in that we were really going to Omaha and would be playing under the lights at Rosenblatt Stadium.

"The last two weeks have been like nothing else -- going to California and beating the No. 1 pitcher in the nation [Stephen Strasburg] and beating the No. 1 team in the nation [UC Irvine] in their own ballpark, then playing Ole Miss in front of 10,000 heckling fans and beating them two out of three."

And, if 2006 Virginia signee Devin Mesoraco had not been drafted by Cincinnati in the first round of the 2007 Major League Baseball amateur draft, Valdes never would have been there.

"We were kind of in scramble mode," said O'Connor, who had projected Mesoraco as a three-year fixture at catcher. "We didn't anticipate [Mesoraco's early selection] and Franco was the best fit as a player and a person."

Plus, Valdes had the required academics, which isn't always the case for a junior-college player, particularly a one-year junior-college player.

Detroit had selected Valdes in the 15th round of the 2006 MLB draft but hadn't offered much money, so Valdes, a senior at Monsignor Pace High School in Miami, decided to attend Broward (Fla.) Community College for one year in order to improve his stock.

A sore arm led to throwing problems, "but sore arms heal," O'Connor said.

Besides, the sore arm kept the pro scouts away.

"Tell you the truth, the chips fell in the right spot," said Valdes, who originally had signed with Florida International. "I told myself that I needed to get out of Miami for a little bit and experience somewhere else."

Valdes' parents, Francisco and Adela, had come to the United States from Cuba approximately five years before he was born. He said his father, now disabled, once served as a director and composer for the Miami opera.

Franco does production work for his 28-year-old sister, Gisele, who is a singer.

"I make most of the music," he said. "I make all the background stuff -- drum patterns and melodies. It's a hobby of mine. I do it for fun. I do it for her."

Since he's bilingual, Valdes might have some advantages over his fellow Spanish majors at UVa, but he's also working on an architecture degree.

"After baseball, I'm really counting on being an architect," he said. "I love building stuff. I've always been around it. That's my plan."

The increase in Valdes' batting average has been accompanied by an occasional long ball, and there's never been a question about his handling of pitchers.

"Franco, defensively, is one of the best catchers I've ever seen," UVa senior pitcher Andrew Carraway said. "He's a thick guy, but somewhere in him, he's able to block anything you throw out there."

Valdes was eligible for the MLB draft for a third time this year and thought his play in the regionals might have attracted some attention. He wasn't drafted this week, but it was going to take a sweet offer to pry him away from UVa.

"I love this place with everything I have," he said, "so, coming back for another year and having another chance for a great run with [almost] the same team, you wouldn't want to pass that up."