Virginia Tech baseball's NCAA Tournament hopes are fading fast

One month ago, things were going very well for the Virginia Tech baseball team as the Hokies were rolling through the first third of their ACC schedule. Then weekend loss after weekend loss in the ACC started to pile up and now they are facing a final three-game conference series this weekend at Virginia needing to win at least two out of three games to keep their fading NCAA Tournament hopes alive.

Once almost a lock for the NCAA Tournament, for the first time, this season since the tournament projections were released the Hokies have been in the field. Wednesday, D1Baseball released their latest NCAA Tournament projections and Virginia Tech finds themselves on the outside looking in.

According to D1Baseball's projections, Virginia Tech is the group of the first four teams out with James Madison, Maryland, and Mississippi. Considering how the ACC series has gone, it's not surprising to see the Hokies on the outside looking in, however, they have a huge opportunity beginning Thursday night in Charlottesville with a three-game series against the Cavaliers who are safely in the field.

Winning two out of three over the Cavaliers would likely jump Virginia Tech back into the field in the projections, however, dropping two out of three last weekend to a struggling Miami team at home did not do John Szefc's team any favors. After this series, the Hokies will play in the ACC Tournament next week and will need to improve their résumé.

Going into the season, there were a lot of question marks surrounding the Hokies and they started out very well, peeking at No. 11 in one of the Top 25 polls, but once they started dropping weekend series in the conference, they tumbled out of the rankings and now find themselves tumbling out of the NCAA Tournament projections. This three-game set against Virginia is without a doubt their biggest three games of 2024.