Baseball Seasons are LONG Even in College Sports

The hard reality of college baseball is minor league pro baseball. The minors are the gateway to the majors, and the baseball draft is a tempting gimme for young men who live to play the game. Baseball is, as I have said many times in the past, a life sport. The people who play it have to acquire serious skill sets, catching, throwing, hitting, running bases before they even are considered good enough for more than a sandlot team. That means starting early and playing a whole lot. Baseball seasons are always marathons that end up in longer more intense long-distance sprints to cap off the marathon seasons.

We’ll cover the first part of the schedule in this piece and move to the roster in the next one. The Hokies are scheduled to play 56 games for the regular season which starts on Friday February 17th, and runs until May 20th when the regular season wraps up. Then the entire second season starts on the 23rd with the beginning of the ACC tournament, which is a double elimination affair. We won’t even talk about the NCAA tournament group and regional play that proceeds before the beginning of the college world series. The teams that make it all the way to the end are playing in late June.

That means the crowds are also going to be limited. This season Blacksburg probably won’t be hosting far into the post season if the team makes it. That’s going to be unfortunate because the entire community got together and packed Atlantic Union Park for the games. And that’s the primary story of Virginia Tech 2023 baseball. Can the Hokies get to the post season? Can they win the ACC tournament? And then, can the Hokies go deep, like they did last season, into the NCAA tournament? It remains to be seen.

Let’s look at the first month and a half of baseball ahead for the Hokies. There are non-conference games and an early tournament that will get the players warmed up. The ACC Season starts off on March 10th with a weekend series against Boston College. So, here’s the February and March schedule to look at and consider:

The Hokies Start on the road in slightly warmer weather (hopefully) in Charleson South Carolina for a series with the College of Charleston. They open at home on the 21st with a game that starts late enough for us to get over there and cover it with the camera, so we’ll get pictures of the East Tennessee State University game.

That weekend, we’ll probably get a shot at covering the Sunday Game against Bryant who comes to Blacksburg to play what will probably be winter coat game, too. In both of the series, the Hokies will be favored but baseball is always a game of surprises. We’ve always said that it’s a season of splits where a team that pushes above its average and sustains it at the right time will prevail.

The Hokies start the season with #13 Baseball America and #14 D1Baseball rankings from those major baseball publications.

The ACC Season Starts Fast and Stays Difficult

The Hokies will be pretty well tested before March 10th. They do have a very good chance at piling up some wins and confidence before the Eagles of BC come flying into Roanoke-Blacksburg Airport. Boston College always manages to put together a really good baseball team so look for the opening ACC series to be a real challenge for the Hokies. Before that happens, and after the season opening series with Charleston College, your Hokies will face East Tennessee State (1), Bryant (3), Radford (1), Charlotte (3), and then a short 2 game series with UMass, Lowell. That should be a good warm up, but there are no ranked or “up” programs in that group. It means that Coach John Szefc is going to have to work doubly hard to get them ready. That’s because once the ACC season kicks in, it kicks hard and often.

To finish out March, the Hokies will not only face non-conference opponents, East Tennesse, again, then there is the traditional exchange of home games with VMI. The Hokies have to travel to Coral Gables to face Miami on the road, then they travel all the way to Pittsburgh to play the Panthers in the normally frigid western Pennsylvania winter. Then in what is a sort of interesting switch, the Wahoos drive out I64 and down I81 to visit English Field for a very early three game series that ends March and begins April.

So, the Hokies are facing a tough schedule through most of March (In like a lamb, out like a lion?), and much of it on the road in the winter weather (except the pneumonia whiplash inducing trip to south Florida a week before camping in igloos near the head waters of the Ohio River).

Last season the Hokies surprised lots of teams. This season they will be surprising no one. They’ll be defending their deep run into the post season and looking to repeat.

Next up, we talk about the players and push a few highlights as the preseason honors pile up for the returners. Hack is back!

GO HOKIES!!!