In just four short years, Pete Hughes has managed to resurrect the Virginia Tech baseball program and turn it into a national contender. It’s been a long 10 years since the Hokies last made the NCAA tournament and for those who actively follow the Hokies baseball team, all of that pain and suffering has finally paid off. The Hokies will head to South Carolina and square off against the Citadel in the first game of the double elimination pool.
Tech was selected as a two seed and will play on the Gamecocks campus alongside three other teams in their region. The first round is split up based on seeding, as the one seed (South Carolina) will play the four seed (Bucknell). The two seed (Virginia Tech) will play the three seed (The Citadel). Since this is a double elimination round, the winners of those games will meet on Saturday while the losers will head to the “losers” bracket and face each other Saturday afternoon. Whoever loses that game will head home. The winner of Saturday night’s game between those who won on Friday will advance to Sunday’s championship game with a 2-0 record. The loser will face the winner of the first “loser’s” bracket game Sunday morning and whoever wins that will face the team that is 2-0 Sunday afternoon. Needless to say, you want to stay out of the loser’s bracket.
Hopefully I didn’t confuse you there but it all works out in the end. Don’t lose two games this weekend and you stay alive to make it to the Super Regionals, where you play a three game series against the winner of another regional. The Hokies got a bit of a tough draw, having to play The Citadel in the first round followed by either Bucknell or South Carolina. However, if Tech can find away through both of those, they will be setting pretty on Sunday.
The game against the Citadel is a tough draw for Tech seeing that Bulldogs will likely throw their ace, Asher Wojciechowski, who is a likely top 10 pick in next months MLB draft. Tech will counter with Justin Wright so expect Friday’s affair to be low scoring. If Tech can survive and advance in the winner’s bracket then they will likely face South Carolina.
South Carolina gets the home field advantage in this regional and overall they probably have the best team in this pool. They lack a true superstar but they have a solid lineup 1-9 and their pitching staff is one of the best in the SEC. Having to beat South Carolina on their home turf is tough but the Hokies have done it against Miami, Florida State, Georgia Tech, and they even won a game against UVA, who is arguably the best team in the nation this year.
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If past history is of any relevance then the Hokies probably wont make it past the Regionals. In fact, no Tech baseball team ever has. However, this team has defied odds all season long and with our starting pitching, I wouldn’t be shocked if the Hokies went on a bit of a post season run. Whatever happens, it’s nice to finally have a baseball team you can be proud of.
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