Virginia Tech Baseball: 2 major reasons why the Hokies missed the NCAA Tournament

What looked like a very promising start to the 2024 season for the Virginia Tech baseball team, ended in a very frustrating fashion for the Hokies. They played very well at the beginning of the season in the non-conference, then started the ACC schedule on fire before disaster struck.

Virginia Tech started the season 21-5 overall and 10-2 in the ACC after sweeping Notre Dame and Boston Coolege and taking two out of three against Pittsburgh and Louisville. After that, the Hokies finished the season 11-17 and 4-14 in the ACC, which not only took them out of potentially hosting the first weekend of the NCAA Tournament next weekend, but completely out of the field of 64.

They still had an opportunity heading into the final ACC series of the season at Virginia to make a final pitch to the tournament committee, but they were swept by the Cavaliers, then dropped both ACC Tournament games to North Carolina State and Duke. It was another frustrating end to the season for Joh Szefc and his team and here are two reasons why things fell apart over the final two months.

Virginia Tech bullpen imploded

The Hokies bullpen imploded over the final two months between blowing big leads and being unable to keep them in games and allowed too many crooked numbers to keep games close to give their offense an chance to come back.

Don't get me wrong, there were times this season when the bullpen pitched really well and allowed them to pick up wins over Duke and North Carolina, but in the end, there was just too much inconsistency. That's an area that needs to be addressed.

Virginia Tech didn't get one, two or three more ACC wins

This may sound strange, but just one, two, or even three more ACC wins get them an at-large bid. Seriously, they finished 14-16 in the conference, and as deep as the ACC is, a couple more wins get them into the field. Two games that stick out that hurt now looking back at them are a game at Georgia Tech where they led 7-0 through three and a half innings, only to allow 11 straight runs in an 11-7 loss.

Then the series final at Virginia last Saturday when they held a 7-2 lead going into the bottom of the seventh only to blow that lead and force extra innings. Then in the 13th inning, they took a 9-8 lead only to allow two runs and lose. Win one or both of those games, they are an NCAA Tournament team.

It's going to be a long offseason for Virginia Tech knowing that one or two more breaks have them playing in a Regional this weekend.