Virginia Tech Baseball: Hokies enter ACC Tournament needing a miracle to reach NCAA Tournament
By Scott Roche
Not too long ago, the Virginia Tech baseball team seemed like a lock to make the 2024 NCAA Tournament after starting out the season strong. After rolling through their early-season non-conference schedule, the Hokies began ACC play winning eight of their first nine games. Then disaster struck.
Virginia Tech's pitching, starting, and the bullpen, fell apart, the Hokies offense struggled at times and they went on to lose their seven conference series to limp into the ACC Tournament at 14-16. They were swept by Wake Forest and Virginia during that stretch and lost two out of three to North Carolina, Georgia Tech, Duke, and Miami. There were games during that stretch where they lost games that loom very large right now.
They blew big leads against Duke and Georgia Tech to lose the series and winning those two games is likely going to be the difference between getting ready for Regionals in two weeks or breaking up for the summer and going their separate ways after the ACC Tournament.
Virginia Tech needs a deep ACC Tournament run to get an NCAA Tournament berth
Last week, the Hokies fell from the field of 64 projections by D1Baseball to the first four out. This week, after being swept by Virginia, they are completely nowhere to be seen in Monday's projections. That means, unless they make a run to the championship game this upcoming weekend or win the tournament, they'll be done for the season.
Virginia Tech is in Pool C with Duke and North Carolina State and that's about as tough of a draw as they could have got. They open with the Blue Devils on Tuesday night at 7 p.m. at Truist Field in Charlotte. Wednesday night, the Hokies will play NC State and unless they win both games, they are heading back to Blacksburg earlier than they thought just a few weeks ago. If they are to make a run in Charlotte, they will need their pitching, both starting and bullpen, to find its early-season success or it's going to be a quick 24 hours in North Carolina.
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