For a team full of youth and inexperience, tanner schobel leads the way

Wyatt Krueger

April 15, 2021

BLACKSBURG, Va. — In a lineup chock-full of youth, Tanner Schobel has stood out as an instant-impact player for Virginia Tech ever since he stepped foot on English Field for his first game this spring.

“It felt like a game seven,” Schobel said after the Hokies swept Kent State in their season-opening doubleheader. “I was really nervous.”

The nerves, though, didn’t waver his confidence.

The true freshman infielder from Williamsburg, Va. stared down Kent State’s Luke Albright — the No. 85 pitcher on MLB Pipeline’s top 100 list — in the first game of Tech’s season-opening doubleheader on Feb. 21.

As Albright stood tall on the mound with a runner on first in a 1-1 ballgame in the bottom of the fifth, Schobel had a tough task at hand. He had already been overpowered by Albright’s high-90’s fastball three innings prior — He was struck out on four pitches in his first collegiate at-bat.

Cade Swisher opened the frame with a lead-off walk, leaving the young second baseman in a pressure-packed spot just an hour or so into his collegiate career.

Schobel could have let the stress of the moment get the best of him. But he didn’t.

He used his lightning-quick hands and his short, compact swing to send a RBI double down the left field line to break the tie. The knock gave the Hokies a 2-1 lead in a game that they would later go onto win, 3-1.

Standing at five-foot-10, 170 pounds, some consider him to be too small to play shortstop. But he doesn’t let those doubts deter his confidence.

Schobel has started every game this year — he began the year at second and shifted to short when second baseman Nick Biddison returned to the lineup on April 6 following Biddison’s recovery from shoulder surgery — and has been a key piece to the puzzle for No. 17 Virginia Tech (19-9, 14-7 ACC), who sit in first place in the Coastal Division and third in the overall ACC standings after sweeping Wake Forest this past weekend.

Schobel played his high school ball at Walsingham Academy, a five minute drive from William & Mary. There, he was an all-state player four times and won two state championships. He was undoubtedly the star of his high school team, and naturally, the opportunity to play Division I baseball presented itself along his high school journey.

“It wasn’t until eighth grade that I really wanted to play college baseball,” Schobel said. “I always enjoyed baseball and thought it was fun, but after I got my first email from a college asking me to come to a camp, I started going to tournaments and talking to coaches."

"It kind of fell on my lap. I was very fortunate for that because it doesn’t happen to everyone.”

Virginia Tech assistant coach Kurt Elbin played an integral role in the recruitment of Schobel. He initially recruited Schobel when he worked as an assistant at VCU before joining the Hokies’ staff in 2017.

The Virginia Seminoles, Schobel’s travel ball team, had coaches that grew and maintained strong relationships with the Rams’ staff. That's where Schobel’s relationship with Elbin first began. The two would talk from time to time, but Schobel had his sights set on a Power-5 school.

“Early on, my travel ball coach asked me to give him a list of schools I would be interested in going to,” Schobel said. “I thought ACC, SEC and big schools that would be fun to play at. I told him Virginia Tech and didn’t know Elbin was going to end up there at the time.”

Virginia Tech hired its current manager, John Szefc, in June 2017, just a few months before Schobel attended a high school prospects camp the summer before his junior year of high school began.

Pitching coach Ryan Fecteau was the first assistant to join Szefc’s staff when he followed Szefc from Maryland to Blacksburg, just 12 days after Tech announced Szefc’s hiring.

The second assistant to join Szefc’s staff?

Elbin.

He and Schobel, who had already been talking because of past connections, met up at the high school prospects camp where Elbin raved to Szefc about Schobel’s abilities as an infielder. Just days after the camp concluded, Schobel was offered a spot on the roster and he committed on Sept. 3, 2017.

“Coach Szefc trusts his assistants and what they think about players and how they’ll fit into the program,” Schobel said. “I just thought their organization, how good the facilities were, everything about the academics and how they seemed very structured was going to be good for my development and for me to be the best baseball player I can be.”

It didn’t take long for Schobel to develop into one of the team’s best hitters — just two at-bats, in fact. He’s knocked the cover off the ball since his RBI double on opening day, hitting .291, driving in 22 runs and posting an OPS of .853, good for fourth best on the team in all categories among players with at least 30 at bats.

The Hokies have easily been one of the biggest surprises across the collegiate baseball landscape this season. And it’s not because no one expected them to have the talent to compete with the ACC’s best, but mainly because of the youth and inexperience the team possesses.

Schobel hasn't been the only true freshman to burst onto the scene, despite not having a senior season in high school due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Most players in the starting lineup are listed as either a sophomore or a freshman. Senior outfielder Tanner Thomas is the only player listed in the starting lineup that’s listed as a junior or older.

True freshmen like center fielder Jack Hurley and catcher Dayne Leonard have been able to contribute with early opportunities presented to them. Hurley starts in center field on a nightly basis, and Leonard was inserted into the lineup following Cade Hunter’s broken hamate bone.

On top of that, guys like right fielder Gavin Cross, second baseman Lucas Donlon, shortstop Fritz Genther and multiple relief pitchers that played in a limited amount of games as freshmen in 2020 have been big contributors on the roster as well.

“You’re dealing with a really young team here. Another couple examples of that are Cross, Genther, those kinds of guys in that class.” Szefc said when discussing managing his young players. “They played 15 games last year — that’s it. Those guys have only played six ACC weekends in their lives — that’s it."

"It sounds like a lot of games, but it’s really not that many games, and they’re having success, so you gotta keep it very short and simple and not get too involved with much detail other than what is exactly on the plate in front of us tomorrow.”

“Coming in as a true freshman and getting the job done, not even blinking an eye is pretty impressive to watch,” redshirt freshman TJ Rumfield said. Rumfield Transferred from Texas Tech over the offseason after playing in four of nine games in the Red Raider’s shortened season. “I know where I was as a true freshman. To see other guys ready for it is exciting. They’re only going to get better.”

Although on the field it seems as if Schobel hasn’t missed a beat, he still feels that there are still adjustments to be made in the transition from high school to college baseball.

“I’d say the hardest adjustment has been the hours we put in,” Schobel said. “People hear how much of a grind college athletics is in general, but they don’t understand until they get here. My body, my mind, everything being tired all of the time. It wasn’t from a physical aspect of the game, mostly off the field has been the tougher part.”

On Sunday, Schobel hit a three-run home run in the top of the fourth to break a 2-2 tie in an eventual 10-9 win over Wake Forest.

This weekend against a marquee Georgia Tech program, Schobel and Co. can make another statement as the upstart Hokies continue to make noise nationally.