Virginia Tech Hokies News: Basketball's early-season schedule, John Szefc not concerned about bullpen

In this edition of Virginia Tech Hokies News, the men’s basketball team will play an early-season non-conference matchup against a Big Ten school, and baseball coach John Szefc is not concerned about a weekend breakdown.

Virginia Tech men’s basketball to play Penn State early in 2024-25

Just what the 2024-25 Virginia Tech men’s basketball roster looks like remains to be seen, but one thing is for sure, whoever is part of it, will get an early-season non-conference game against Penn State out of the Big Ten.

The Hokies will play the Nittany Lions in Baltimore, Maryland at the CFG Bank Arena as part of a doubleheader that will also include in-state rival Virginia. As part of the doubleheader, the Cavaliers will play Villanova out of the Big East. 

Baseball coach John Szefc is not concerned with the bullpen’s rough weekend

The Hokies baseball team dropped two-out-of-three at home to seventh-ranked Duke at English Field and a big reason was because of the bullpen’s meltdown in Games 1 and 3. On Sunday, Virginia Tech had a 9-4 lead with nine outs remaining, but the bullpen allowed nine runs over the final three innings in a 13-10 loss.

On Friday night in Game 1, the Hokies bullpen fell apart in a, 9-8, 11-inning loss, and in the two losses, they allowed 17 runs on 16 hits in 10.2 innings of work, something that doesn’t seem to concern head coach John Szefc.

“I’m not worried,’’ the coach said after Sunday’s game.

Well, he should be as aside from a dominating performance from his pen in Game 2 on Saturday night, the bullpen has struggled and they need to figure it out quickly as a daunting three-game ACC series awaits them this upcoming weekend at North Carolina. After losing their last three conference series and seven of their last nine ACC games, the Hokies fell out of the latest Top 25 poll.