Hokie Hardball: A Season Update

Hokie Hardball Summary

As promised, a start of some light shining down on the Hokie Hardball team. I will likely try to run game threads, analysis and post game summaries as often as the schedule allows from this point forward. We start this thread with a quick summary of where Tech Baseball stands already on the season, who has gotten them there, and what they have coming up.

The team is currently 11-9-1 and 4-4 in the ACC. Not necessarily the start that this team hoped to have after having so much success last season. This team had to account for losing a huge senior class last year so growing pains were to be expected. At this point last season they were 16-5, well on their way to post season play. They have played four games against ranked opponents, all losses so far unfortunately. Tech fell early in the season to LSU and then was swept in a three game set by Clemson at the beginning of March. Their biggest wins so far are probably a three game sweep of Pittsburgh, and an 8-2 victory over Texas Southern.

The team has not faired well against in state opponents so far this season, losing to VCU 21-14, William and Mary 7-0, tying with Richmond 10-10 after ten innings, and getting a win against Radford 6-1.

So how have they gotten to this point?

Youth is served.

The team is relying on quite a few freshmen in key positions this year, as the entire roster only has two seniors, Brad Markey, the top starting pitcher (2-3) over six starts with a 3.13 ERA over 37.1 innings pitched, and Tanner Mcintyre, another pitcher who is (2-2) over one start in eight appearances with a 5.09 ERA over 17.2 innings pitched.

The 35 Man Roster has 15 freshmen on it. There are three freshmen regularly in the starting eight, and two freshmen in the starting pitching rotation. Saige Jenco (.355,3 2B, 6 RBI), a redshirt freshman, is the starting centerfielder. Tom Stoffel (.340, 2 2B, 9 RBI), a freshman, has started 14 of 21 games mostly in right field. Miguel Ceballos (.261, 2 2B, 6 RBI), another freshman, has started 15 games at third base.

Kit Scheetz(1-1, 8.83 ERA, 17.1 IP) freshmen starting pitcher, has started three games and made two other appearances to have the fourth most innings pitched on the staff. Aaron McGarity (0-0, 5.71 ERA, 17.1 IP), has made two starts and five appearances and has an equal number of innings pitched to Scheetz so far. Luke Scherzer (1-1, 3.09 ERA, 11.2 IP) a relief pitcher, has made eight appearances (second most on the team), putting in 11.2 innings thus far.

As a group they have performed fairly well thus far. Jenco has the highest batting average on the team at .355, has a 27-9 walk to strikeout ratio, and leads the team with ten stolen bases in thirteen attempts. Stoffel is second on the team in batting average at .340. Both of these guys seem to hit to get on base and have to rely on others to hit for power, as they only have five extra base hits in their forty hits so far. Scheetz needs to work on his ERA, which is at 8.83, and has a 1-1 record thus far. McGarity has no decisions but a slightly better ERA at 5.71. Both will need to greatly improve those ERA if Tech is going to remain competitive. Scherzer has been the best of the three freshmen pitchers with big contributions, going 1-1 with a 3.09 ERA. Ceballos has had an average production at the plate but seems to be a liability in the field with four errors so far this season. There are a couple other freshmen that play key reserve roles. Ricky Surum has played in sixteen games so far and Ryan Tufts has gotten into about half the games this season.

The Rest of the Starting Lineup

Now that you have met the freshmen, lets touch on the other key members of the team this year. Five juniors, composed of Mark Zagunis (.286, 5 2B, 1 HR, 19 RBI), Sean Keselica (.286, 6 2B, 22 RBI), Brendon Hayden (.247, 6 2B, 1 TR, 4 HR, 25 RBI), Kyle Wernicki (.250, 3 2B, 1 TR, 1 HR, 6 RBI) and Alex Perez (.272, 3 2B, 1 TR, 12 RBI) make up most of the starting lineup. There is only one sophomore usually in the starting lineup on this team and thats Matt Dauby(.240, 4 2B, 1 HR, 8 RBI). The rest of the reserves so far this season havent made much in the way of significant contributions.

The Pitching Staff

We have already touched on the one senior and two freshmen that have made eleven of the twenty one starts for this team thus far. The other key members of the starting rotation are Sean Keselica (2-0, 6.30 ERA, 20 IP) with five starts and Luis Collazo (0-0, 6.43 ERA, 14 IP) with two starts.

As for relievers, it appears that the coach relies heavily on Sean Kennedy (1-1, 1.98 ERA, 13.2 IP) as he has been called upon to pitch in eleven games thus far. He is joined by Jon Woodcock (0-0, 2.84 ERA, 12.2 IP), Phil Sciretta (2-1, 6.39 ERA, 12.2 IP) and also Tanner Mcintyre and Luke Scherzer who we discussed earlier. The rest of the pitching staff has made minimal appearances and/or have significantly poor performances.

The Reasons.
I was hoping to be able to put my finger right on why they havent won more games but there doesnt appear to be one reason. It going to take a little more digging into each game to clarify the root causes. They havent lost a ton of close games, so it appears by looking at the stats that between some minor fielding issues, some underwhelming pitching other than a few standouts and the inability to hit in certain games all combined to bring this team to where its at right now.

Whats next?

That being said, they have a winning record, they have a manageable schedule moving forward with no more ranked teams, they have 18 home games of their remaining 32 games, and even their road schedule doesnt appear too hazardous. I would expect them to win probably 18 or 19 of their remaining games and be on the bubble for an NCAA bid that may come down to their performance in the ACC tournament.

All of this starts with their game today against Notre Dame, which at last check is tied at 4 in the 11th inning. Their next individual game is Tuesday at Liberty that may get affected by the weather we are expecting. Their next series will be against LOLUVA in Charlottesville starting this coming Friday, March 28th at 6 pm. They play the Wahoos both Saturday and Sunday at 1pm to close out this series. Lets cheer on some Hokie Hardball as they move forward this season.

Forums: 
DISCLAIMER: Forum topics may not have been written or edited by The Key Play staff.

Comments

Please join The Key Players Club to read or post comments.

Hokie, Hokie, Hokie, Hy!
Tech, Tech, VPI

Please join The Key Players Club to read or post comments.

This is my school
This is home