It’s hard to believe, but it’s time for another sport to get underway at Virginia Tech. February is the start of College Baseball season. The first pitch for the 2018 Baseball Hokies will be at the Coastal Carolina Tournament in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina on Feb 16^th through the 19th. It’s more tournament work in far flung places for most of the first half month of baseball. The Hokies won’t open their home schedule games until our Prices Fork Road Rivals the Radford Highlanders (hey, the Highlanders have a seriously good baseball team, they made the NCAA Tournament last season and we didn’t) come calling on Feb. 27^th. Then it’s back out on the road until we open the 2018 ACC Baseball Season against Pitt.

There will be lots of familiar faces returning to the Hokie lineup this season. That’s really good news. The new faces, however, might be the best news that we’ve had in a while. The Hokies have a new coach, John Szefc (sounds like ‘chef’). There may be some returning starters, many of whom upped their games last season, but Coach Szefc is the biggest upgrade that Whit Babcock has pulled off to date. The Athletic Director is a former baseball player from JMU, and has assured us that he’s serious about fielding a high quality well-staffed and equipped baseball program. Union Park is one of those big projects, and pictures will be forthcoming when there is something more interesting than half poured concrete structures, and piles of dirt all around.

The other project was fixing the coaching and recruiting level that just kept us out of the running in a very high level ACC League. I have mentioned it several times, but the ACC is to college baseball what it is to college basketball; one of the top Conferences in the NCAA. Competing in what is becoming another revenue sport means getting better recruiting results along with providing the facilities to field competitive baseball teams. AD Babcock has pushed hard to get his foot in the door. We had the sticks last season, but not the pitching. As we take a look at the roster we’ll see a major influx of new arms in the mix. Coach Szefc is already looking to make a mark.

Tech has a 55 game season schedule that is piled with away games. The last few regular season games will be played after the 2018 Commencement. There are almost no “cupcake” teams in this marathon. If we get to the ACC Tournament the team will play far into May, and even into June if the reach the NCAA and go anywhere. John Szefc got Maryland into the Tournament a couple of times; it’s not out of the question, which was the whole point of bringing him in.

It’s going to be a long haul. We’ll be working with the AD Media guys for access and game pictures. There will be lots of things to report, and we’ll be there with wraps for games, and who knows, maybe well get to talk to some folks on the record. It’s going to be a great season for Hokie Baseball; but we have to start somewhere.

Next Up: The position player roster review.

GO HOKIES!!!!

It’s a rebuild and revamp year.

John Schneider - SB Nation