BLACKSBURG - The Virginia Tech baseball fall competitive season is complete and 2019 Opening Day is exactly 100 days away. During the next few weeks of November, while Tech is wrapping up individual workouts and the student-athletes are getting ready for final exams before the semester break, the Hokies' coaching staff will reflect on its second fall in Blacksburg with a couple of Q&A's. First up is assistant coach Kurt Elbin.
Q: How was your second fall in Blacksburg?
KE: "It's good. It was exciting because there's so many different things that we had to coach, to be honest with you. Having a group of new guys, returners, some have changed positions, there's just a lot of different things we had to coach and that's fun. A lot of the times, we don't get to coach as baseball coaches as ironic as that sounds but it was fun. New group, new energy. I thought it was a really productive fall."
Q: What did you see that you really liked from the team?
KE: "I think just overall athleticism and the depth of the group is going to help us and serve us well. Being able to put guys in different positions and being able to have players that actually can do it at a higher level. Last year we were thin due to injury, due to the roster, but this year I think we have the ability to play different guys. We will definitely have that option this year, to play some guys off the bench and not just ride the starters out for so long."
Q: Do you like the makeup of your lineup right now?
KE: "Yeah I do. I think there are some question marks. They're not bad question marks, they're good question marks. Like, do we need to hit this guy two or three because we want this other guy to be protected in another slot. Those types of questions will come up with our lineup, but those problems, we didn't actually have those last year, because we didn't have that ability to make those changes. I don't want to take away anything from that team last year and what they did, I don't want to knock them. It's just that I think our lineup is going to be well rounded. I felt like last year, we had four or five guys that gave us an opportunity to score and this year it will be a little different. I think we can get production from hopefully top to bottom. So the questions come from how to maximize the runs that you can score within the lineup by just putting guys in different spots. I do like the looks of the lineup. I like the new guys. It was good to see them play, it was really refreshing."
Q: In addition to the new guys, the new faces, what has Brian Neal brought from a strength and conditioning aspect?
KE: "He's been great. We're glad we had the chance to bring him in and we're fortune that he gets to work with our guys so closely every day. He's an extension of our staff and the biggest thing he's added is a culture of work. That is something that goes unnoticed at times and you can't see it when you actually play the game - what they do in the weight room and the culture that they build in the weight room. Right now, I think guys are rallying around the fact that it's fun to be strong. You can work really, really hard in the weight room and still go be successful on the field. Young guys don't necessarily come from that environment, that's new to them - being able to lift and go hit or being able to lift and go play at a high level. That's tough for those guys and they're not used to that. But having Brian here and injecting that type of work ethic and culture into the weight room has been really good for us."
Q: Who, if anyone, has surprised you this fall?
KE: "I think there's not really any true surprises. The biggest ones just from a position player perspective, we felt we were getting some special players out of Carson Taylor, Kerry Carpenter, Nick Biddison, Kevin Madden. I didn't think that Carson Taylor would be as advanced as he is from the offensive perspective. That's a pretty big surprise. I see that guy hitting in the middle of the order for a couple of years and that starts this year. Nick Biddison is a truly versatile athletic player that we feel can fit a lot of different roles for us. He's extremely gifted when it comes to the athletic side of things. He can really run. He's got some twitch and some pop. He's been interesting. Kevin Madden is a guy that we're excited about. He's kind of raw on the baseball side because he was a three-sport guy and never focused on baseball. Getting to coach that guy has been fun because he's new to almost everything that we talk about. His ceiling is really high. Kerry Carpenter is the guy that stuck out the most. He's got to be one of the better hitters I think, hopefully, in the ACC and one of the better hitters I've coached in a while. He just has a knack for getting hits on the baseball."
Q: You had your three world series games, but you had the addition of the two exhibition games, 12 plus innings, did you like that format? Was that good to be able to play outside competition?
KE: "Absolutely. Anytime you can sit in the dugout, and watch your guys offensively and defensively, it really helps. I know at times, when we are playing an intrasquad game, I'm just standing out there coaching third base. To come in and actually watch our guys in different shifts, positioning wise, how they move defensively, sometimes those are things you lose sight of because you're always coaching on one side of the ball when you're just playing against yourself. When you're playing another team, you see the other side of the ball and that's always good to see that. Then just to see your guys compete against other players, it was good. When watching them, it starts to form your identity as a team. I wish we could go to four games. I think that maybe at some point that might happen for college baseball."