Mixing youth and experience, Hokies win first NCAA regional in Blacksburg

By Sam Alves

Staff Writer

June 5, 2022

BLACKSBURG — Side by side, there sat the veterans who led No. 4 Virginia Tech to its first NCAA regional championship.

Head coach John Szefc, who in 17 years as a collegiate skipper had never coached — let alone won — a home regional, donned a maroon VT windbreaker over his uniform.

To his left, first baseman Nick Biddison, who recorded the last out of the Blacksburg Regional, dressed more casually, walking up to the stage to address reporters with a non-playing hat flipped backward and a maroon pullover sweater over his chest — his game uniform still on underneath, though.

And at the end of the row, starting pitcher Ryan Metz sat in full uniform, perhaps not ready to let go of the biggest moment of his unheralded college baseball career after 4 ⅔ innings of much-needed, one-run ball.

Tucked between Biddison, the fourth-year junior; and Metz, the fifth-year senior; true freshman Carson DeMartini also sat, standing out not just for his youth but for his attire, too. Completely changed out of his No. 4 uniform and with eye black washed clean from his face, DeMartini rocked a fresh t-shirt and khaki shorts, looking like he was ready for a stroll on the beach or a late-night summer barbecue.

And there will be time for that, sure, but not this week — not after DeMartini’s three-run homer in the fifth inning iced the biggest win in program history. Biddison pulled a homer himself on the very next pitch, the exclamation point in Tech’s 7-2 win over Columbia in Game 6 of the Blacksburg Regional Sunday night.

For the first time, Virginia Tech will play in a Super Regional. Either Oklahoma or No. 14 Florida will travel to Blacksburg for a best-of-three series next weekend.

“These guys, this team has just been different,” Metz said. “I’ve been a part of five Virginia Tech teams — all with different cultures, all with different mottos and ways they go about their business. And this one’s been the most fun to be a part of, in my opinion. The way these guys play, we love each other. We go out and fight and just grit.

“I think it was funny because at the beginning of the year, I looked at these guys and I was like, ‘These guys are just different.’ I honestly could have told you we were going to do this at the beginning of the year before we played a game. And not from a talent standpoint, just from the way the chemistry on the team is.”

But as Szefc is quick to say, baseball games aren’t won by the bond of friendship. In the end, good players and good health have been the key to Tech’s success this season.

Tech’s lineup is legit, with top-to-bottom power, and the one-two punch of Griffin Green and Drue Hackenberg on the mound has set the Hokies up for weekend success this season, especially with the emergence of Jordan Geber as a third starter. But Geber took the mound in relief of Green after just two innings — shortly before Tech’s 14-run barrage — on Saturday, immediately begging the question: Who will start on Sunday?

“We needed a big start,” Szefc began. “We gave the start to Ryan because we know what we’re getting with this guy. He throws strikes. He pounds the zone. He challenges hitters. It’s not ball, ball, ball. He lets the defense play behind him. He is super mature. I can’t say enough about him.”

He also turned in Tech’s best start of the weekend. An out short of earning the win, Metz struck out four batters and surrendered just one walk over 80 pitches.

“A lot of people don’t see what he does behind the scenes,” Szefc continued. “I’ll be walking out of [the] Weaver [Baseball Center] at some weird time, and he’s in there doing shadow bullpens. No one sees that; they see a day like today, when everything is ribbons and streamers and everyone is patting you on the back. I don’t think a lot of people understand what goes into the work that this guy’s put in to get to this point.”

So what was the mentality ahead of the biggest start of Metz’s life?

“They told me I was getting the ball, and it was: ‘Let’s get through inning one. Alright, inning two.’ Just not getting ahead of myself, not letting the moment get bigger than it needs to be.”

That start allowed Tech’s offense to “figure it out,” as Szefc put it. Tanner Schobel blasted a two-run homer in the first, and Biddison drove an RBI triple to right-center field in the second, the game’s winning hit.

After Metz departed, Graham Firoved and Henry Weycker teamed up to finish the last 4 ⅓ innings.

And once Biddison scooped up the final grounder and scurried to first, the dogpile — the first of its kind on the baseball diamond in Blacksburg — commenced. It was years in the making, and despite postseason inexperience, the Hokies looked more than ready to make history.

“At the end of the day, it’s 60 feet, six inches to the plate, and we’re all college baseball players,” Metz said.

For another week, at least.