After a strong second half of the regular season, it was pretty clear that the Virginia Tech baseball team was headed to the NCAA Tournament. The only question was just where they were going to go and how much travel they would need to do.
Truth be told, the Hokies would go anywhere to play. Most projections leading into Monday's Selection Show had Virginia Tech going to either West Virginia, Mississippi State, or Auburn. One even had them going to Alabama. In the end, they didn't have to wait long on ESPN's show on Monday to hear their name called. They were in the first group announced. The Hokies are the second-seed in the Los Angeles Regional hosted by top-seeded UCLA. Virginia Tech will play Cal Poly on Friday night in Southern California, while the Bruins will play Saint Mary's.
However, once the field was announced, David Teel of the Virginian-Pilot & Daily Press had a post on X that opened some eyebrows.
Virginia Tech one of two teams traveling three time zones to play an NCAA Tournament series
After the 64-team field was announced, Virginia Tech and Yale are the only two programs traveling three time zones for a Regional, according to Teel. The Bulldogs are going to Eugene, Oregon, for the Oregon Regional next weekend.
This is the second time in a month that the Hokies are boarding a plane and traveling cross-country. Earlier this month, they went to Northern California to play California for a three-game ACC series, which the Hokies won two out of three games. They won the first two before dropping the final game in the Bay Area.
According to the Virginia Tech baseball X account, the Hokies have already traveled 6,000 miles this season, so what's another couple thousand two ways? For the NCAA Tournament, the Hokies will gladly board a plane and head out to California.
Somehow, Virginia Tech earned a two-seed in the NCAA Tournament as they were expected to be a third-seed somewhere. If they were, then they would have played closer to home. This will be the second time that Szefc has taken a team to UCLA for a Regional. In 2015, he took Maryland out there and won the Regional to advance to the Super Regional. Can he do it again? It's a monumental task, to say the least.
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