After sweeping Duke over the weekend to take home the ACC regular season crown, Virginia Tech baseball earned the No. 1 seed in the ACC Tournament, which starts on Tuesday.
As the top seed, the Hokies are in Pool A with No. 8 North Carolina (34-19, 15-15 ACC) and No. 12 Clemson (35-21, 13-16).
They’ll open play against the Tigers on Thursday, May 26 at 7 p.m. before facing the Tar Heels at 7 p.m. on Friday. The team with the best record in each pool will advance. If teams are tied, the highest seed advances.
Louisville, who won the Atlantic Division, is the No. 2 overall seed. Miami finished behind Virginia Tech in the Coastal, while Notre Dame was second in the Atlantic.
The Hokies did not meet Clemson in the ACC regular season this year, but they saw divisional foe UNC in early April in Chapel Hill. They took two-of-three games from the Tar Heels, winning the Friday and Saturday games, and posted 25 runs throughout the weekend.
The North Carolina Series
Friday starter Griffin Green had plenty of run support in the series opener on April 1, a game in which Tech posted 14 hits and won 12-1. Green conceded five hits but no runs in five innings before Graham Firoved, Brady Kirtner and Jordan Geber closed out the contest.
Drue Hackenberg got the start on Saturday and threw six innings of two-run ball. Tech led 5-2 when he left the mound and closed it out, winning 7-3 thanks to two eighth-inning runs. Henry Weycker and Jonah Hurney saw action out of the pen and gave up just three hits and one run against 16 batters over three innings.
In the Sunday game, Tech started Ryan Okuda and used six different pitchers. Carolina shredded Ryan Kennedy, who gave up six hits and three runs in the 10-6 loss for the Hokies. However, since then, Geber has emerged as a third starter for John Szefc & Co. Sunday starts have been different behind Geber, who has allowed just two earned runs in his last 11.1 innings.
History With Clemson
Virginia Tech did not see the Tigers in 2022 but did travel to Clemson last spring. The Hokies took the Saturday game, 11-3, but lost the three-game series.
Clemson has won eight of the last nine matchups dating back to April 2017, and VT is 1-5 under Szefc. However, the program only ever been ranked once in the 76 previous meetings: May 28, 2010 in Greensboro, N.C. at the ACC Tournament. The No. 18 Hokies bested the No. 16 Tigers 9-8 in a game that featured 20 hits and 17 runs in a sub-three-hour game.
Clemson and North Carolina play at 7 p.m. on Tuesday on the first day of the ACC Tournament. The Tigers have won three straight games after sweeping Boston College, though they lost four of the previous five games to College of Charleston, Virginia and Coastal Carolina.
All-ACC Honors
On Monday morning, the ACC announced the season award winners and the All-ACC Baseball Team.
After being picked to finish last in the Coastal Division and winning the league’s regular season, John Szefc was named ACC Coach of the Year.
The best coach in 𝗕𝗹𝗮𝗰𝗸𝘀𝗯𝘂𝗿𝗴 👊
We are the first school to win both ACC Coach of the Year in softball and baseball in the same season for the first time since 2005. pic.twitter.com/NtBKLwrH8u
— HokieSports (@hokiesports) May 23, 2022
Louisville led all schools with eight selections on the first, second and third teams, while Virginia Tech had the second-most with seven. Four Hokies made the first team, the most the school has produced in any conference since 2003.
First Team:
Gavin Cross, So., OF
Drue Hackenberg, Fr., SP
Jack Hurley, So., OF
Tanner Schobel, So., SS
Second Team:
Cade Hunter, So., C
Third Team:
Nick Biddison, Jr., OF
Griffin Green, So., SP
All-Freshman Team:
Carson DeMartini, 3B
Drue Hackenberg, SP
Hurley led the ACC in doubles (23) while Cross tied Georgia Tech’s Colin Hall for the most triples (5). Hackenberg led the conference in ERA (2.44) and finished third in innings pitched (85.0).
He also tied Wake Forest’s Rhett Lowder in wins on Saturday when he became Tech’s first 10-game winner since 2013. He yielded just 15 walks in 13 starts (14 app.), good for the fifth-fewest in the conference among all qualified pitchers.
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It has been a lot of fun and an honor watching the baseball team and softball team this spring and of course the basketball team over the winter. Great things are happening for Tech athletics across the board!
Go Hokies!
If Clemson beats North Carolina And we beat Clemson, we will automatically go to the semi finals on Saturday. We would not have to beat Carolina, but hope we would anyway.
This No. 1 seed business is a bunch of crap. Tech plays late Thurdsday & late Friday; win 1 of 2, then play early semi on Saturday. Compare that with No. 2 seed who plays early Wednesday & early Thursday; win 1 of 2, then rest a day and a half to play later semi on Saturday. Do I have that wrong? Someone explain the “advantage” of being the No. 1 seed.
Pretty sure it’s TV calling the shots here…higher demand games on weekend. Agree it sucks.
Can’t just win 1 of 2. Have to beat the team that wins the first game so the other two each have one loss. The only advantage I see for the 4 top seeds is they get the second pitcher for the team they play in their first game.
So who came up with the schedule? The way I am reading it we are the only team who will be playing against teams that have at least one day off between games. UNC is an eight seed and gets two days rest. I can only hope that a computer came up with a random schedule.
Congratulations to both coaches. Great accomplishment
For 4 months, the team has played series where they play every day. If I’m coach, I’m chosing exactly what we got. Baseball is a game of momentum and rhythm. Two days off sitting in hotels is not a good thing IMO.
Of course, it’s even better if Klemp’s son beats cheat on Tuesday, then our focus is on beating Klemp Thursday we don’t pitch anyone needed for the weekend on Friday. If Klemp wins Tuesday, the Friday game is meaningless no matter what, Cheat is eliminated. I’m wearing my tiger gear today….go Klemp.
Ok. Having listened to Podcast, Tech had choice of off day; so, apparently Coach chose to basically replicate a Regional weekend. You’re correct NMB Hokie; best scenario is Clemson beats UNCheat & then Tech beats Clemson Thursday. Friday game basically becomes irrelevant. Can become a bullpen day if Coach chooses.
The Pool Tie-beaker is very interesting to me. Guess the only other things they could do are point differential or a coin flip. Works in VT favor this year.
I love it, you play a long grueling season. The teams that proved themselves over that span should get big time advantages in the tourney as a reward. That is what this format does.