Note of Apology: This Spring turning 66 and feeling every second of it left me barely able to walk, climb stairs, sit, stand... you name it, it was agony. A visit to the doctor finally mended the situation but the exhaustion from the nearly two months of pain and limited mobility left me with very little of the baseball season to cover actively. Many thanks to Bryan for covering during my spotty ability to write and contribute for the past two months, but the recovery time was needed and welcomed. It’s back to the writing and photography, though and also preparing to hit the football field in the Fall.

Picking Up the Results of the Baseball Team’s 2025 Effort

Let’s close out the 2025 season and go over some of the events that landed the Hokie baseball team out of the NCAA playoffs for the third season in a row. The first important thing to note, is that the season didn’t start out like it ended. Coach Szefc and the program had a respectable roster of returning talent including Sam Tackett, David McCann, Henry Cooke, Clay Grady and Ben Watson in the field, and starting pitcher Brett Renfrow on the mound among several returning relievers like Grant Manning, Preston Cowl, and Andrew Sentlinger.

The Hokies got off to a really promising start. The offense was really good and often dominating, and the pitching (for collegiate pitching at this level) was good enough to win games, and by April 9th, Tech had finally nipped the D1 Baseball top 25 at #25. Their most impressive and noteworthy non-conference win was against 20th ranked Troy, and it looked like Coach Szefc had found the solution to keeping the team on the winning side of things.

Tech had a positive record overall record, and a series win against Notre Dame in the ACC. Unfortunately, though the cracks were beginning to show a bit because in the winning record there were series split losses with NC State and eventual ACC regular season champs Georgia Tech. With the Tech vs. Tech series being exceedingly tight.

The NC State split when the Wolf Pack’s way, but the final game, Tech did what plagued them most of the season on offense. There was an offensive explosion of 20 runs and NC State couldn’t catch up even with it scoring 8 runs. Tech had developed a sort of blowout to drought to blowout sort of offensive sine curve and that can be good or bad depending on the quality of pitching coming from the bull pen.

There was some hope though. The Hokies might not win every game, but it had positioned itself to challenge the 2nd half of the schedule with play that could pull down most of their series matchups, if they could keep the pitching and batting sine curves in sync with each other.

Unfortunately, what you see ahead after a great start and a surprise tight 3-1 win over a ranked team isn’t what actually happens upon execution. The 24-10 Hokies were swept decisively, at English Field, by the Florida State Seminoles, and never really seemed to recover. The FSU sweep contained the final signs of serious struggle at the plate with the Hokies only managing 4 runs over the three games. Of their 17 total hits, 9 came in the final game and they only netted 2 runs from them.

The Liberty loss at home (Tech would lose to them again in Lynchburg in May) seemed to mark the reality that the air had come out of the balloon. Tech travelled to Pittsburgh to take on the Panthers and they swept the Hokies even with Tech pushing them to a 13-inning marathon. Tech just couldn’t get the combination of offense and pitching to keep and hold the lead. The Hokies barely earned a 2-game sweep of Mercer at English, before waiting to wrap the season against the Hoos as commencement week shifted the series to the left by a day. Tech did manage a split by winning game 2 on Friday, 5-4, but their offense just never really managed to connect or score.

There seemed to be a touch of hope for a deep run into the ACC Tournament. Tech’s win over Stanford for the first game, had 7 runs scored at the end, and Clemson was a winnable game if the Hokies could keep up that pace. Unfortunately ( again... a theme ) the Hokies jumped out to a one run lead, and then their offense went to sleep. Clemson ended the Hokies’ 2025 baseball season on May 21st with a 1-6 loss.

The Record

Overall, the Hokies had a positive season. Yes, we know that they didn’t get to the baseball show, and they struggled in the 2nd half with games that they had the talent to win but couldn’t execute enough offense or defensive pitching to take.

Tech was 31-25 overall. They managed a 17-14 home record, and a winning 11-10 road record. They were even 3-1 in neutral site games. To be over .500 in baseball isn’t a bad season. It’s not going to cut it in the ACC, though because the Hokies ended up 12-18 with a disastrous 5-10 at home.

The pitching that struggled a bit and was uneven in the 1st half, maintained that struggle through the season. They finished with a combined 5.24 ERA, but the struggles with the bull pen relievers remained.

On offense, the Hokies were doing well for ¹ ⁄ ₂ a season but by the last at-bat, their team batting average had dropped to a subpar .243, with the other teams pushing a .302. ( Conference stats only for this one. ) If you string the two realities together you get a combination of slow grinding, low scoring games with only a few bright spots.

The 2025 Hokies couldn’t pitch their way out of trouble, and the bats just weren’t consistent enough to score men on base and often left them empty.

Coming Changes

When three years of barely par performances, and many pitching struggles become more than noticeable, there usually are changes to make, and Coach Szefc was very quick to make them after the season closed. His long term (8 years going back to Maryland) assistant Ryan Fecteau (pitching and associate head coach) has been let go. Also, Kyle Sarazin the first director of player development has also been sent to look for fresh opportunities.

The high hopes born of the 2021 and 22 seasons slowly collapsed into a chronic par struggle to keep pace. The changes were inevitable, even if difficult for Coach Szefc. It’s business, though, and maybe Coach Fecteau will find a place where he recovers some stride and finds a pitching staff that can win games. We wish him luck. He was a good bench coach but could never seem to get the bull pen fully up to speed.

Coach Szefc might be advised to find a good offensive coach, especially a batting coach. This season, the offense was often more effective at swatting the gnats in the lights than making good contact with the ball. The frustrations over having no outs and runners on the corners or even loaded bases turning up one or even no runs need to be answered. Those situations are where offenses win games. Maybe one game next season we’ll be surprised to see a batter step back and choke up with a 2-out batting approach, looking for a single to score two with the bases loaded - instead of swinging for the fences.

And for Whit... in speaking with several former ball players over the years... English Field is horrible. The all-turf field is brutal. Go find someone to put grass and dirt back on the field. Baseball has taken enough hits over the decades; the insult of turf fields is just brutal.

2025 is Officially Over, the Ball Park is Empty Again

Graduation has happened. Several players are due to be drafted, and we’ll have to wait until Coach Szefc finalizes his restaffing to see how he fills the anticipated empty slots on the field. The MLB Draft looms, and we will track it and report on who is headed for the minor leagues.

GO HOKIES!!!