BLACKSBURG - The Virginia Tech baseball team recently just wrapped up its fall season with the conclusion of its Fall World Series. Up next for the Hokies are their preparations for the winter break and the upcoming 2021 spring season.
During the last few weeks, the Hokies' coaching staff has reflected on its fourth fall in Blacksburg with Q&A's. The last feature (below) is with head coach John Szefc. If interested, check out past Q&A's with assistant coach Ryan Fecteau (click here) or assistant coach Kurt Elbin (click here). Also, in case you missed it, check out Szefc's mic'd up session below, which was posted socially on Monday.
𝐌𝐢𝐜'𝐝 𝐔𝐩🎙️ 𝐌𝐨𝐧𝐝𝐚𝐲 - Head Coach @VTCoachSzefc pic.twitter.com/gXVAvw99ON
— Virginia Tech Baseball (@HokiesBaseball) November 2, 2020
Q: With such a long layoff from live action, what was your biggest concern for the players as they returned to practicing back at Tech?
JS: "For our new players, there was no high school baseball last spring. We also didn't have a lot of our guys play in the spring or even in the summer. Then, when the guys got here, there were a lot of protocols they had to go through in order to get on the field. So, a lot of these guys coming in had not played competitive baseball for a long period of time or with any kind of structure. So, we knew it was going to be a little bit more of a period of adaptation to ACC-level college baseball that we normally we have it at. It was a very productive fall in a lot of ways, though, in that we had two full months of action and we still have three more weeks of small group practices."
Q: Can you discuss the offseason plan for the players once they leave Blacksburg in a few weeks?
JS: "That's another thing, as most of our guys are going home for Thanksgiving and not coming back, so it's going to be a two-month layoff instead a month and that's a big difference. So, we're going to have to have guys be very diligent doing baseball activities at home when they're away from campus on their own so that when they do come back, they're prepared for what we'll ask them to do. It's just going to be a. little more difficult for them being away for two months rather than one month, but that's just how the year's been, so it's just another challenge. We just keep taking them one at a time and take care of them when they come."
Q: What do you see from the team that you liked during the fall?
JS: "I think we have a lot of veteran guys returning and we have different degrees of experience. I was particular happy with the three returning seniors – Jaison Heard, Peyton Alford and Tanner Thomas – they each had really good falls, as they should. They have the most experience, and after being given an extra year, which is great, but if I were in their shoes, I'd be dying for every day of baseball I could play. And that's the way they were this fall and that's the way they've been and I think that's a really big strength of our team. Then there's another group of guys, like Anthony Simonelli, who came back and probably would have been a draft pick last year if it was a normal draft. He's been a big shot in the arm for us. Then some of our position players, like the three freshmen – Fritz Genther, Gavin Cross and Cade Hunter – even though we didn't play a lot in the spring, they did get a fair amount of experience, a full year of preparation and they were on our ACC road trip to Georgia Tech. That is certainly valuable for guys in their first year like them. Then there are the other group of guys, like Chris Gerard, Kevin Madden and Nick Biddison, who are entering their third year in college, but haven't played a ton of baseball because of missing last year. But their experience they bring back will certainly be helpful."
Q: The team is relying more heavily on the newest technologies available, how are the players embracing that?
JS: "I think, No. 1 is that we have a great guy to interpret it, and we do in Kyle Sarazin. He's done a real good job on both the pitching and hitting side of interpreting the numbers and putting those together into individual packages for the players. And that's where it starts, because if you don't have a guy to interpret it, it's just numbers. No. 2, our assistant coaches have done a great job of utilizing the technology in their own coaching plan. It's still a relatively new thing, so you might find some guys who shy away from it, but with Kurt Elbin, Ryan Fecteau and Tyler Hanson, those guys have really embraced it and have made it a big advantage for us. And then, finally, the players, I think they've accepted it. It's not the end all, be all, but I think it's a great tool that can measure a lot of things on the hitting side or on the pitching side. And if you're not open to accepting the data and using it as a part of your game, you might not be taking advantage of something that can give you an advantage if you use it properly. So, again, with the baseball technology, it's three things – interpreting it, the coaches using it and the players accepting it – and I think we have all three of those things. It's always a work in progress, like anything else, but that is really come on really strong. When I first got here, it really wasn't a thing at that point in 2017 and now, three years later, it's a big thing."
Q: Among the newcomers, has anyone surprised you?
JS: "TJ Rumfield is an experience, polished hitter and has some defensive versatility at third and first, and as a left-handed hitter, he will help us move on from the departure of someone like Carson Taylor. Two really interesting position players that have excelled quickly in Jack Hurley, a centerfielder, and Tanner Schobel, a middle infielder. Those three showed this fall that they are pretty advanced. On the pitching side, we have a graduate transfer from The Citadel in Shane Connolly, who has had a really good fall. He's an experience starting pitcher and an older guy. Then, we have a couple interesting first-semester arms in Jackson Ritchey, Grant Umberger, Griffin Green, Brady Kirtner and Kyle McKernan, who came to us once Furman dropped baseball over the summer. All of them had good falls, but they're all at different stages having not pitched their high school seasons. So, they're playing a little bit of catch up this fall, but all of those guys should make a strong impact this year."
Q: What were your takeaways from the Fall World Series?
JS: "The Orange team won the first three games and then Maroon came back and won the final four, so it was actually pretty bizarre. The first game was as lopsided as a game you will ever see with Orange winning big and then the last three games were one-run games and two of them were walk-offs. So, you went from a 19-4 win for one team, and in all, four of the games were one-run games and there was a 5-2 game as well. As a coach, you just want to see competitive baseball, you want to see guys playing their best at the end of the fall, and you want to see no major injuries – and we got all three of those. So, it was a good thing in that respect. I was happy for the players, but it's hard because someone has to lose there, but it was good competitive baseball. Guys are certainly competitive during the series, but they get over it pretty quickly and move on, but for that span of time, it was good. It was what we wanted it to be."
Q: Lastly, do you have any news on the spring season you can share?
JS: "The only thing that I know for sure is that the ACC cut back schedules by 10 percent of all spring sports, so we would go to a max of 50 games, opposed to 56. I've been on many different scheduling calls with the ACC and there have been no other decisions made yet. I will tell you this that both the ACC and Virginia Tech has done a great job through this whole thing, pushing through it and not giving up. We've all had to struggle through it and I feel good about the spring, especially when talking with the other ACC baseball coaches. We knew what a tough spring was we just had, and I don't know exactly what this spring will look like, but I do feel good about it being a good competitive season. I think we are learning more on what Covid is and how to deal with it on a baseball level. I just want to give a lot of credit to the school, the ACC, but also you have to give credit to the players, who have been coming out every day not knowing, but they come out and do their work and persevere.