ACC Championship week is here - VT managed to do enough to get a first round bye and will play Wednesday at 5pm against the winner of the ND / Clemson game from Tuesday. Tourney is in Charlotte this week, and all games (I think) will be covered by ESPN/ACCN and nobody should need an ESPN+ subscription to watch. Full bracket here - https://theacc.com/feature/baseball-championship#bracket
In other news, the ACC announced the end of season superlatives - https://theacc.com/news/2026/5/18/acc-announces-2026-baseball-season-awa...
- Ethan Ball made the all-freshman team
- Brett Renfrow made 2nd team
Also, ESPN's updated top-150 draft prospects (https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/48778463/2026-mlb-draft-rankings-upd...) has Renfrow at #76 which should be a good news story for him to finish off the year.
Comments
I thought Ball and Cooke would get All ACC HM nods beyond the freshman team. Going to be interesting to see if we can keep Ball around with how well his freshman year went.
Hokies still 3 seed in Morgantown Regional in today's D1 Projections
I want to believe, I'm just not going to allow myself to.
I'm still in denial. I had 'bout given up on the boyz.
Baseball America has them in the 3 seed in the Gainesville regional
NC State at Duke got started at 9am - State up 3-0 in the bottom of the 2nd.
Stanford @ Cal at 1pm
ND @ Clemson at 5pm
Louisville @ Pitt at 9pm
Duke opening up a can on NC State... 15-8 going into the B8. Duke with 14 2-out RBIs
Duke piles some more on in the 9th... 21-8 going into the bottom of the 9th. Now with 18 2-out RBIs
Duke advances 21-12. Faces UVA tomorrow
Let's hope for a repeat of the football score there!
2nd game underway - Stanford just doubled their run total with a 3-run shot in the 5th to make it 6-1 over Cal.
11-2 Stanford in the 8th
Stanford moving on by a score of 11-4. Faces Miami tomorrow at 1pm.
Helps with the ole RPI
Hadn't even registered for me on this one.
Cal flew to Charlotte for this game against Stanford... a school 90 minutes from their campus.
They traveled 2,715 miles across the country to play a regional rival, lost one game, then had to hop on a 5.5-hour flight back to California 😂
Would love to see the ACC's net carbon impact for this year...
Much more competitive game this evening between ND and Clemons. 4-2 ND going into the 7th.
ND wins 5-4. Hokies vs Irish tomorrow
night cap of Pitt and Louisville pushed back to 9:35 start time
Pitt won 16-8. Plays Wake next at 9pm Wednesday.
Today's lineup of games:
- Duke / UVA @9am
- Stanford/Miami @1pm
- ND/VT @5pm
- Pitt/Wake @9pm
Wahoos advance over Duke, 6-4. Will play #1 seed GT @3pm tomorrow.
Game #2 under way in the top of the 3d; Miami up 3-2
Stanford falling apart in the middle innings - 9-2 Miami now in the B6.
Game... Miami advances by a score of 11-2; Will play BC tomorrow at 3pm.
Hokies and Irish are on deck. Game time still set for 5pm
First pitch coming up. Grim gets the ball to start.
What would be your best guess about what the team needs to do to make the College WS? Win at least 1 game? Need to win 2 or even more? Not following baseball beyond what gets posted here, but based on the vibe people have given off, I'm guessing a loss to ND would knock them out, but wanted to ask someone who follows much more than me.
if you ask ME - we need to win the ACCT. VT does have a good RPI, but its the record that concerns me. Starts like the one they are having right now are why I'm not high on our chances.
Thank you. And ouch. That does not bode well if true.
I will state with a lot of certainty that I'm the biggest pessimist on VT's chances right now. Most here think they are in, with a win or two to make it certain. I think they need to win it all to take opinions out of the equation. A loss tonight would be absolutely devastating to their chances.
Awful start - ND gets all 9 batters to the plate and scores 4, and chased Grim which immediately screws up the bullpen situation for the rest of the weekend if we get to tomorrow.
Ugh.
Ethan Ball immediately shows why he was on the all-freshman team - crushes the first pitch he sees to LC to get VT on the board, 4-1
2 more come across, VT puts up 3. 4-3 ND going into the 3rd.
Balls deep... or Ball goes deep, again, tie game at 5 with more to go in the Hokies half of the 3rd
Jam escaped in the top of the 5th. 6-5 Hokies.
Lutterman with a clutch hit oppo to put up another run, 7-5 Hokies.
Gates with a sac bunt to score another, 8-5.
What's the purpose of a challenge if they still don't make the right call? Good guys up 6-5, but didn't change the ruling on a called out sliding into 3rd that looked pretty obvious to me that he was safe.
Frank spotted in the club boxes
LUTTERMAN. BIG BALLS!
12-6 now. Pedal to the metal.
Hokies piling on - now 12-6 going into the 7th.
Drink
And we give them all back... 12-10 now
Hokies load bases in the 7th but only get one in. 13-10 Hokies
Blunder in the ND OF on a routine grounder turns a single into a triple and run comes in - 14-10 Hokies.
Grube lines one to right and another run in - 15-10
VT with a season-high with runs scored and hits this evening. Good time to be playing your best ball.
walk and a single makes it 16-10.
Lutterman drives in another on a fielder's choice. 17-10
into the 9th we go - 17-10 Hokies
We are at the four hour mark
you could hear the crowd groaning when the last pitching chance was made
I also can't recall the last time i stayed engage in a game that went 4 hours... not since the MLB pitch clock
I've done a couple hokies baseball games that went 4 hours
NCAA needs to enact the MLB rule for minimum number of batters faced coming out of the bullpen. The relentless pitching changes are ridiculous
So much this....Notre Dame pitched 10 pitchers, 8 of which pitched 2/3rds of an inning or less.
Hokies close it out 17-10. VT is back in action on FRIDAY against UNC at 3pm
Game! Blouses!
IYKYK
LFG!
I think you can say. That the hokies are officially in
I don't count any chickens before they hatch. Win today and I think you can guarantee a bid. Without that, I'll be on pins and needles until our name is called on the selection show.
I don't believe we are safe without winning the tournament, even though a win over UNC would definitely improve thing way more than last night's win.
and I fail to see how anything i said ^^^ here ^^^ is worth a downvote. If you dont agree with my take then take it up in the thread to tell me how i'm wrong. Dont deprive me of legs that I need in my pursuit to overtake Alum07 on the leg board!
I countered the down vote but hopefully whoever did it comes around. Its a legitimate opinion with how the past has gone with other Hokies teams in all sports.
I get that we have a decent RPI. That isn't lost on me. Its our middle of the conference record, the weekend sweep we suffered in Texas earlier this year, a couple head-scratching losses, and just the general sense that all VT athletics get screwed any time we're a borderline team in any sport.
Otherwise, just looking at the numbers, yeah I would say we're in. I'm just not going to let myself believe its going to happen until we see our name up there.
There's been multiple times that's been said on the boardcast. That the baseball committee is paying more attention to DSR than RPI. And that's why all the bracketology has us squarely inside the tournament and not around the first four out. We are going to be in the ncaa baseball tournament.
Hokies are currently 24th in DSR
Pitt bounces Wake 7-4 over night in a game that nobody (probably) stayed up to watch since it started after 10pm. Will face FSU at 7pm on Friday.
Flip side of this is Longwood and Radford started at 830 this morning.
GT up 1-0 on UVA in the 3rd
forgot about the early start... Looking at the weather forecast I think they made the right call to move this up. The end of game #2 this afternoon between BC and Miami could get dicey with the weather.
6-5 UVA heading into the 6th
8-5 now in favor of UVA in the top of the 7th... GT starting to sweat.
one more in on a bases loaded free-pass. 9-5 going into B7.
GT brewing in the bottom of the 7th. 2 runs already in, now 9-7 UVA with bases loaded, 2 outs, and a pitching change underway.
Grand slam GT - 11-9 GT still batting in the 7th.
Immediately followed-up with a solo shot to left center - 12-9
UVA gets one back in the top of the 8th, now 12-10. Going to need at least a couple in the 9th to keep it going.
2 run HR for GT makes it 14-10. This might have been the death blow.
Are there any good pitchers in the ACC? I keep seeing these football scores on this thread.
The field in Charlotte is a hitters park. There's always been some very high scoring games when the acc goes to Charlotte. Plus. Warm weather always favors the batters more than the pitching
This. The dimensions in Charlotte favor the hitters, and the weather (up until last night) has been helping things carry.
I don't know how we beat this GT once. Especially during the part of the season when we played them
we didn't throw center-cut fastballs down the middle like UVA is doing right now (as another center-cut fastball is thrown and immediately leaves the yard.... 16-10).
That was a inside slider. And he still hit it out
if that was a slider it deserved to exit the solar system... that had very little break on it.
I think it was more impressive that he hit it out. That ball was going to be under the hands and he basically fisted it out
That's game. GT faces the winner of the Miami/BC game this afternoon, will play again Saturday at 1pm.
Getting caught up on the afternoon game.
Bottom 7 - Miami really keeping the BC offense in check and up 7-2.
Miami bounces #4 seed BC by a score of 8-2
ACC action starts again at 11AM tomorrow with VT @ UNC
VT and UNC are live... lots of cloud coverage and fog in Charlotte today, and a big temperature drop from the first 3 days.
2 walks to start the UNC half of the 1st... already 18 pitches in
Jam is somehow escaped... UNC got the first 2 runners on, and VT doesn't allow a run. Top 2, 0-0
UNC on the board first, 2-0.
Gibson sends one deep to LC - VT ties it at 2.
Immediately followed up with a solo shot to LC again, just 30 ft deeper. 3-2 Hokies
Turned the game on, and the first pitch I saw was a Hokies bomb to tie it 2-2. I'll make the sacrifice and keep it on here at work.
And another one! 3-2
Hokies load the bases but can't push anyone else across. 3-2 going into the B3.
Love the shirt on the guy sitting behind home plate that reads "Chapel Hill Bill - dont forget to pickup your girlfriend at the trampoline park"
Before whatshername, they were called jumpolines.
That "strike" was a foot off the base
That last call for a strike needed a 60" bat. Sheesh... I haven't seen a call like that in quite some time.
oh...he called that a strike?
What was that out called for? No volume, since I'm at work. Stolen base, batter just watched it happen...definitely a ball, but it looked like he rung him up for something other than it being a strike.
Nope, just an egregious call
The amount of time it took him to call that a strike looked like he had forgotten what actually happened. Glad I'm not the coach. I understand not arguing balls and strikes, but that would have gotten me tossed.
I almost got tossed out of my own living room, and I'm home alone!
The umpire has now completely taken away the outside corner from the VT pitching staff.
Failing to get at least one more run across in the 4th comes back to bite us immediately
Hokies get one back... Balls deep!
Leaves the park... that thing hit the sidewalk in right center and bounced across the street.
OUT OF THE PARK
Need to find a way too keep Ball
questionable use of the challenge there... not sure what we gain in that situation other than a runner on with 2 outs.
UNC adds another, 6-4 now in the bottom of the 6th.
getting another look at the HR by Ball... that last HR might have traveled 450ft in the air
Catch a break with that UNC challenge... how they didn't overturn that call into a GR double is a head scratcher, and we follow it up by striking the guy out. Nice swing for VT.
A little payback for that awful called 3rd strike earlier. But how they missed that after replay is beyond me.
bad play at the wall and an offline throw give UNC another run... 7-4 in the B8
Yeah, that was kinda JV all the way around.
pitching change and a single that gets through the shift, 8-4 UNC.
followed-up by a 2-run HR... this one is slipping away. Bullpen biting us once again.
pitching change, and immediately another UNC runner on base.
finally out of it... time to pull 6+ runs out of a magic hat.
UNC has scored 8 runs with 2 outs today.
Doing exactly what we did against ND 2 days ago... we were clutch then, haven't had as many opportunities today, but we've left runs out there that wouldn't make this 9th inning quite as daunting.
ugh... Tech loses 10-4... Now we pray
Pitt and FSU tied at 5 in the 8th
FSU scores 1 in the 8th to take a 6-5 lead, only for Pitt to storm back and stun them with 3 in the 9th and win the game.
Pitt @ UNC tomorrow at 5pm
Pitt having a run this tournament.
Would love to see some WVU fans make their way to the game today to heckle
GT advances over Miami 9-3; UNC ends Pitt's run 12-5
Finals today at noon.
GT stretching their lead late, with 7 runs in the last 3 frames. Now leads 13-6.
GT is a wagon
They call it a Wreck.
The full tournament bracket will be announced at noon today on ESPN2
Correction... invites started going out at 12. The ESPN road to Omaha show starts at 1pm eastern
Off to LA. That was quick
Glad to see I was wrong... still, UCLA is the overall #1, aren't they?
Yes. Overall number 1 seed
Does that imply that we were the last team in the field as an at-large to be shipped to LA against the #1 overall seed?
Based on the schedule, maybe?? UCLA faces Cal Poly in their first game but Cal won their conf tourney. St Mary's won theirs too, so were the only at large for the LA regionals.
No. Ucla is facing St Mary's. We play Cal poly
We are the 3 seed in the region
Right. The other 2 in the region won their mid-major conference championships. As the 3 seed, I'm assuming that made us the last of the at-large teams having to travel that far to play the #1 seed.
I must have misread the schedule espn had posted, or they corrected an error.
Actually we are the two seed. I think espn showed it in the wrong order
I'll say it again, I'm glad I was wrong about our tournament chances. I was absolutely convinced we were going to get left out in the cold. Instead we travel all the way across the country to hang out with the #1 overall host for the regionals. This is a mammoth task, but weird stuff can happen in a double-elimination weekend.
We were more comfortable in then I thought. We are the number 32 team in the tournament
Now that IS surprising. I guess the lesson here is if we're going to be mediocre, do it when the season starts so you have plenty of time to play competent ball in conference.
Still ridiculous for a 2 seed to have to travel cross country. Other three teams its essentially a home game. We would have been better off as a 3 seed almost anywhere else.
Im just happy we made it. I've been going to hokies baseball games since 2006 when I was eight years old. This is only the fourth time they've made the ncaa tournament since then. Tech baseball with this stadium and facilities need to be making the post season on a more regular basis.
Should be... we still have a lot of room to improve. We need improvements with the facilities... starting with a proper centerfield camera bay
I put the bracket through ChatGPT to see who has the longest haul -
Yale → Oregon Eugene, OR ~2,600 mi
Virginia Tech → UCLA Los Angeles, CA. ~2,300 mi
Northeastern → Arizona. Tucson, AZ ~2,300 mi
Boston College → Oregon State Corvallis, OR ~2,600 mi
St. John's → Arizona State. Phoenix, AZ. ~2,100 mi
Yeah, we got it a bit rough