It’s hard to believe that college baseball season is here. It hasn’t been particularly cold this year, but it’s still winter, and the pros are just at the Pitchers and Catchers report portion of Spring training. They didn’t tell that to colleges though. The NCAA baseball season is underway (the Softball season started a little while ago and we’ll have a weekly update on them, too). Right now we need to take a look at the baseball team and see how things are shaking out after an offseason where several players left for the minor leagues, and others graduated from the program.

Coach John Szefc is back at the helm, and he’s actually returning most of his pitching staff, and that includes standouts from 2019; Zach Brzykcy, Ryan Okuda, Ian Seymour, and Chris Gerard. The coach has also been doing some serious recruiting at all positions, especially the pitching staff. There are 12 total Freshmen on the pitching staff, and 3 are listed as both Pitcher and Outfielder.

On the receiving side we have players who haven’t really scratched the surface of the goofy turf batters’ boxes at English Field. Sophomore switch hitter Carson Taylor is presumably going to start behind the dish, and Freshman Cade Hunter is going to back him up.

The infield is split between newcomers and some returners. Back in the infield for the Hokies are Reagan Teegarden, Spencer Palmer, Nick Biddison, Kevin Madden, and Nick Holesa. Coach Szefc has added three Freshman to the mix. With a long college season it’s a good bet that all of them will see some time on the field.

The Outfield is probably the smallest and shallowest part of the roster, though the most experienced players on the roster are backing everyone up. With metal bats, good outfielders are important in college ball; Tanner Thomas, Brennan Reback, Jason Rooks, and Jonah Seagears will all get field time.

What’s most important about the roster is that the coaching staff has finally stabilized. The issue will be how the big loss of experienced talent will affect the team’s performance, especially early in the “get wins” portion of the season. Remember, the ACC is College Baseball’s SEC, and once the Conference schedule picks up the wins are going to get more and more difficult.

So, where are things starting and when? The team heads to Conway, South Carolina for three games against some pretty formidable non-conference opponents in the Brittian Resorts Baseball at the Beach Tournament.

Game 1 will be a stiff opener on February 14th, against San Diego State (those of us Nats fans know that name and a certain Stephen Strasburg). Saturday the 15th the Hokies will play UNC-Greensboro, and then Sunday they’ll wrap up the tournament against brutal Coastal Carolina (presumably the host team). This is pretty hard warm up whallop to take. All three of these programs can play some ball.

The Hokies Open at home on February 18th (Tuesday - drat) against East Tennessee State University. Then off to Lousiana to face off against the Ragin Cajuns of Lousiana-Lafayette.

Folks this is a tough start, and Coach Szefc is going to look to do better than his 1 game shy of .500 season in 2019.

We’ll be reporting game highlights and get photo passes when we can get to home games to cover. It’s going to be a long season, and the early games are going to be interestingly wintery...

GO HOKIES!!!