Virginia Tech didn’t have the season it wanted to on the diamond in 2023. Coming off a historic year in which it went 45-14 and hosted an NCAA Super Regional, it was ranked as high as No. 11 in the country before finishing the year 30-23 without notching a win in the ACC Tournament, dealing with a plethora of injuries along the way.
Despite that and the fact that the Hokies lost several key veteran contributors, they had a clear mindset at Friday afternoon’s media day: they believe that a return to form is imminent this spring in Blacksburg.
“We’ve got about two weeks left, and it’s good that we have two weeks because we’ve still got a lot of preparation that we have to do,” Tech’s seventh-year head coach John Szefc said. “But we feel pretty good about it thus far. Knock on wood, we haven’t had any major injuries in the preseason. … Considering all we lost last year to injury and the draft, we feel like we’re in a pretty good place.”
Perhaps the biggest question mark on this year’s roster lies in the pitching staff. After a lackluster 2023, the arms of the primary rotation have either gone pro (Drue Hackenberg and Anthony Arguelles) or will be unavailable this season due to injury (Griffin Green). No active pitcher has started a game in ACC play.
However, that group has plenty of promise. A key returning piece is right-hander Brady Kirtner, who turned down a deal with the New York Mets after being drafted in the 12th round in August.
The redshirt junior, who was a key bullpen piece in 2023 with a low-90s mph fastball and mid-80s mph slider, said it was a tough decision but ultimately the correct one. He chose to return to school to elevate his game to new heights, including a potential shift into the starting rotation.
“I’ve been able to add a third pitch in my changeup,” Kirtner said. “I think that’s a big factor in transferring from the bullpen to a starting role. But I’m excited to see the next couple of weeks to see how I build up and how I can be effective in that role.”
Another significant arm in the rotation figures to be sophomore right-hander Griffin Stieg. The McLean, Va., native threw 18 ⅔ innings out of the bullpen as a freshman in 2023, allowing 26 hits and 14 earned runs while racking up 24 strikeouts.
Stieg spent his summer with the Bourne Braves of the Cape Cod League and the Bethesda Big Train of the Cal Ripken Collegiate Baseball League, tossing a combined 9 ⅔ innings while giving up just four earned runs while fanning 13 batters.
With Green, the supposed incumbent ace, being unavailable this season due to an elbow injury suffered last April against Georgia Tech, Stieg should find himself as a top option in Tech’s rotation. Szefc described the former top-150 prospect as a high-level pitcher who has come a long way since his freshman season.
“I think he has a really high ceiling,” said Kirtner, Steig’s throwing partner. “I get to see him up close every day and see the progress that he’s made from last year with all of his pitches and his velocity. And really his mindset shifts from being a freshman to being a more experienced sophomore now. So I think that’s his big thing: keeping his mindset right, continuing to become better every day. I think his ceiling will be really high in the future.”
Fellow sophomores Jacob Exum (28 strikeouts in 29.0 IP in 2023) and Andrew Sentlinger (12 earned runs and 34 strikeouts in 26 ⅓ IP), who each got great experience out of the bullpen a year ago, could also see increased roles in 2024. The same goes for Matthew Siverling (21 strikeouts in 17 ⅔ IP), who enters his fifth season with the program.
Through the transfer portal, the Hokies brought in two potential weekend starters in graduate transfers Jeremy Neff — who racked up 49 strikeouts in 48.0 innings with Richmond last season — and Grant Manning (3.58 ERA in 73.0 IP with Chapman in 2023) to provide some veteran depth.
Other transfers on the mound include Jordan Little (East Carolina), Carson Ohl (Grand Canyon), Wyatt Parliament (Rutgers), David Shoemaker (UPenn) and Jordan Vera (Ole Miss).
Tech also has promise amongst its own homegrown arms, including freshmen Madden Clement and Brett Renfrow, two guys Szefc and Kirtner raved about.
Still, Szefc, pitching coach Ryan Fecteau and company are taking their time in figuring out Tech’s rotation.
“I have an idea of six to eight guys that might fit into [the rotation],” Szefc said. “So I can tell you three or four guys and it might be the other three or four guys. … I don’t think there is [a clear cut opening day starter].”
Unlike the pitching staff, Tech seems to have a good idea of what its lineup should consist of on opening day. It helps to return the entirety of a stellar infield, which consists of sophomore first baseman Garrett Michel, junior second baseman Christian Martin, sophomore shortstop Clay Grady and junior third baseman Carson DeMartini.
“It’s huge,” Michel said. “I think the ceiling is very, very high. We expect a lot out of us four in the infield just because we know our abilities and what we’re capable of. Pushing each other every day in practice is going to be huge for us. I think we’ll have a really good year as an infield.”
DeMartini, who slashed .323/.455/.593 with 10 home runs and 57 RBI last year despite dealing with a shoulder injury, which limited him to being Tech’s designated hitter in the back half of the season, now finds himself as arguably the biggest bat in the lineup due to the departure of outfielders Jack Hurley and Carson Jones — who combined for 31 home runs and 96 RBI a year ago.
“I’m ready to roll,” DeMartini said. “I’m 100 percent. Shoulder is all healed up and ready to go. I think it’s exciting to get back. I’m always pretty nervous. You can’t really say you’re not nervous to get rolling.
“Guys are looking at me for what to do, whether that’s on on or off the field. In the weight room, how we eat, what we do after practice. I think that’s the whole leadership role. It’s not a very nerve-wracking thing for me, but it’s something that is nice to have. But it carries a lot of weight. And it’s really important, especially because we have new guys playing this year.”
Michel returns to Blacksburg after a stellar freshman season in which he slashed .329/.465/.626 with 11 home runs and 45 RBIs. In the summer, he had four home runs and 16 RBIs with a .714 OPS with the aforementioned Bourne Braves.
“He’s probably one of the more experienced and decorated hitters that would be a middle-of -the-lineup kind of guy in this league,” Szefc said. “I would expect him to be a really high-level run producer, as far as RBIs and slugging, as he was last year. And I think that experience from last year and what he did in the summer in Cape Cod is only going to help him do that more advanced this year. I think he’ll be one of the more developed offensive players in our league.”
Although Hurley and Jones will no longer be in the outfield, Tech has viable talent to slot in at the 8 and 9 spots.
In center field should be Ben Watson, a Division-III graduate transfer from Elizabethtown, who slashed an incredible .486/.559/.814 in 2023 en route to winning Landmark Conference Player of the Year. In the Coastal Plain League with Morehead City in 2022, he hit a league-record .427.
In right will be redshirt junior Sam Tackett, who Szefc is very high on entering 2024. In two seasons in Blacksburg, the Lexington, Ky., native has just three home runs and 16 RBI as a product of sitting behind some of Tech’s star outfielders. But last summer, he had a breakout stint with the North Adams SteepleCats of the New England Collegiate Baseball League (8 HRs, 25 RBIs, .953 OPS).
“He had our best fall,” Szefc said. “He kind of had a really breakthrough summer. He led NECBL in just about every offensive category. … He’ll play a very quality right field for us if he ends up being our everyday guy out there, which at this stage of the game, it appears as that he would. He just plays with a lot of confidence. There’s a lot of intangible stuff with him that you can’t really measure with a radar gun or stopwatch really. But he’s also been here, it’s his fourth year now. So you’re talking about an experienced guy.”
Tech has no shortage of question marks coming into this season, but it also had plenty entering the legendary 2022 season: a fact that isn’t lost on this current squad. That pitching staff also entered the spring with plenty of unknowns, highlighted by zero returning ACC starts, but Drue Hackenberg burst onto the scene despite not having thrown a college inning, a situation similar to many young arms currently in Blacksburg.
“I know we had a great year in ’22, but on paper, that team was not like this well-accomplished Super Regional-type team, but it did for a lot of different reasons,” Szefc said. “And I think as long as you have really good players and they can stay healthy and they understand that it’s a long haul versus just a short sprint. There’s a lot of things you’ve got to get through in the course of a college baseball season.
“But if you can get guys through it, you’ll have a lot of success with them.”
The Hokies open their 2024 campaign in the Queen City for a weekend series against Charlotte from Feb. 16-18 before heading to Harrisonburg for a midweek matchup against James Madison on Wednesday, Feb. 21. Tech opens its home slate two days later against Rhode Island.
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Well written with lots of information on the team. Thanks! February seems way too early to start baseball in Blacksburg.
Great info, Rava. Thanks!
Excuse me…Raza. Look forward to baseball coverage this Spring.