Reason For VT Baseball Optimism

For Virginia Tech, baseball begins in just 10 days. The Hokies will kick off their 2016 slate Feb. 19 at The Citadel.

Coming off a 27-27 campaign last season, there’s plenty of room for improvement, but also reason for optimism. For coach Pat Mason, his third season at the helm could be his best yet.

After having multiple injuries and issues in the rotation last season, Virginia Tech pitchers seem to be healthy and ready to go after a huge period of rest. Mason made it clear in the off-season that his pitchers would not throw for a period of time to take care of some of the wear and tear on their arms.

“The first thing that’s going to jump out at you is we are going to be a little bit healthier on the mound,” Mason said. “I think we are just as talented at our front end. Of course we lose Sean Keselica, but we return 80 percent of our innings so essentially Sean is the only pitcher we lost from last year’s staff.”

Keselica is a big workhorse to lose. He started in all 12 of his appearances last season and went 5-4 with a team-low 3.47 earned run average with 55 strikeouts. That doesn’t include his .313 batting average at the plate.

The Hokies will be bringing back four pitchers that missed the season last year due to injury, Andrew McDonald, Tom Stoffel, Nick Anderson and Ryan Lauria, who sat out because of the transfer rule along with rehabbing from Tommy John surgery. McDonald is the only one of the four with notable college experience, with a 6.75 ERA in eight appearances, including 10 strikeouts and a save.

“We add those four players back into the mix and we brought in what I can think a pretty special freshmen group of pitchers,” Mason said. “There’s a lot of depth to support the top end of the rotation.”

When the Hokies lost another pitcher due to mononucelosis, Kit Sheetz, Virginia Tech only had nine guys in the pitching rotation, which really hurt the team during the week when they had games.

“There were days where we would pitch whoever was available,” Mason said. “We were able to manage our weekends accordingly, but that left us a little bit thin on week day games. If you look back at last our season last year, we had a really great weekend schedule and we held our own in every single game.”

Despite Virginia’s national championship last season, it may seem that the pressure of the rivalry is even more apparent now, but according to Mason, that isn’t the case. Virginia Tech did sweep the Cavaliers in a three-game home set in late March.

“To me, when teams in our area are succeeding, that’s great for baseball,” Mason said. “Obviously we had some great success against UVA last year when they came into town and we were able to sweep them. I don’t think there is any pressure there, but it certainly raises the game.”

With success against top programs last year, it shows that the Hokies are that much closer to a championship.

“We can sell that and say, ‘hey this is how close our program is’ and the national champions came in and we handled our business accordingly,” Mason said.

Mason mentioned that despite last season’s record, his team was pretty good and worked as a cohesive unit. This season’s team seems to be a little different from last year’s team, with guys that have the love and want to do nothing but play baseball.

“I thought that last year’s team was a cohesive unit, but there is something a little bit different about these guys,” Mason said. “It’s like we’ve got 35 baseball rats that just can’t get enough of the game.”

The Hokies lost much of their firepower from last season. Erik Payne, Alex Perez and Brendon Hayden all exhausted their eligibility and took 202 hits, 25 home runs and 139 runs with them. But outfielder Saige Jenco returns, as does catcher Andrew Moog. Together, they combined for 100 hits and five home runs.

“I will say this, if there is one thing that is really special about this group of guys is how much they love the game of baseball,” Mason said. “You can just see it at every single practice. There are teams that you need to motivate in different ways and there are teams that motivate themselves. Their love for the game and their love for each other is shown in every day of practice.”

When discussing the importance of the alumni to his program, Mason mentioned his four values or areas that he wants his recruits to buy into: family, academics, community and team.

“To me, when we are recruiting and I sit down with a recruit and we talk about four areas that I want everyone to buy into,” Mason said. “I think that our academics, team and community speak for itself, but the family part we want people to come through our program that are obviously from their own family and their own walk of life, but when they leave here they can see that Virginia Tech is now part of their family.”

Not many programs have baseball nights like the Hokies do. This pre-season gathering that intermingles the players and fans is an opportunity to get ready for the season and get both parties excited for the upcoming season.

“To me this is the perfect time to do this,” Mason said. “Everyone is excited about the season.”

Along with an auction and socializing with players and fans alike, there is always a guest speaker, this year’s speaker being former Virginia Tech catcher and current West Virginia Black Bears’ manager, Wyatt Toregas. Mason stressed the importance of having former players come back to motivate current players about the upcoming season.

“To see alumni come back, the doors open to come back and get together with old friends, meet some other players that maybe were a generation before or after them, it creates an excitement,” Mason said. “It makes players proud of where they came from and want them to come back even more. That whole mix of that lends itself to be a tremendous night.”