This past weekend was certainly humbling but here are a few thoughts on the baseball team through week 3. • Season Outlook: Despite the tough weekend against 3 SEC teams, there are some areas of hope for at least being in consideration for an NCAA Tournament appearance. Both Mississippi State and Texas A&M are Top 10 in current Massey Ratings and they both looked the part and should be potential Omaha-bound teams. Losing to them the way we did hurts but they appear to be elite and only confirm we aren’t a CWS caliber team. Looking at our performance against Tennessee should give us a better measure as they are currently #27 in Massey Ratings while we are #44. Our offense struggled mightily against them and generally all weekend so that is a big area of concern, but we were competitive against what should be at least a quality NCAA tournament team. And while the Massey Composite rankings are finalized yet through week 3, we will likely be in the 45-55 range. For comparison, our 2022 team was ranked #47 through week 3 so there is still time for this season’s story to be written. We most certainly don’t have the type of offense we did in 2022, but we have the potential for better pitching if Preston Crowl, Aiden Robertson and Griffin Stieg can figure things out. One other thing to consider in this past weekend's games is we got a bit unfortunate with pitching matchups as we ended up facing three high-quality lefty starters. It appears that hitting lefties is still an issue for us but we have fared a little better against righties and we will have very few, if any, opponents where we'll see three straight high-quality lefties. • Ethans of Impact: One of the biggest bright spots early this season has been the instant impact of freshmen Ethan Ball and Ethan Grim. Both came to VT with a strong pedigree and high expectations, and both haven’t disappointed to begin their careers. Ball arrived as our highest rated hitting prospect in the Coach Szefc era, and he has more than lived up to his rankings as he has been our most consistent and productive bat to start the year and has the look of a future pro. On the mound, Ethan Grim was under consideration for being selected in last year’s MLB Draft but made his way to Blacksburg. He has wasted no time making his presence known as he not only secured a weekend starter role but has had three good to great starts showing quality stuff, poise and pitching ability. He could certainly hit a wall later this season, but he looks like someone that should be able to hold his own as a weekend starter in the ACC. • Offensive Question Marks: With how many hitters we lost off last year’s team, our batting lineup had holes we attempted to fill primarily through the transfer portal augmented by development amongst returning players. In terms of our transfers, the results have been a bit of a mixed bag. Sam Grube got off to a very hot start and appears like he will be a standout, but he struggled in this past weekend’s tournament, going 0 for 9. Owen Petrich has been about as expected while Pete Daniel and Sam Gates have been a bit inconsistent. In terms of returning players, Henry Cooke has been in a huge funk all season, hitting just .063 in 32 at bats. Treyson Hughes has also had some struggles at the plate. He showed some signs of life in this past weekend’s games, but he isn’t hitting for power and has an under .700 ops. Hudson Lutterman has shown some flashes of extra-base power but is still hitting for a low average (.212). One positive on offense besides Ethan Ball has been the development of Nick Locurto who appears to have made a case for the starting LF role, showing a well-rounded approach at the plate while also playing a solid left field defensively. • Pitching Challenges: Our bullpen has been inconsistent to begin the year and had a couple of very rough games. Preston Crowl, Aiden Robertson and Brody Roe have especially struggled with multiple poor outings. Between the three of them, they have pitched to a 12.76 era across 18.1 innings. All three were expected to have big roles on this year’s staff so we’ll need them to sort things out and be more reliable options for us to make a run at an NCAA tournament appearance. • Pitching Positives: Despite the struggles of Crowl/Robertson/Roe and some other relievers that likely won’t pitch much this year (Stone, Berzonski, Exum, Lazaro, Wise), our pitching has had some bright spots. Taking out the aforementioned pitchers, we have 9 pitchers that have combined for a 4.21 era across 72.2 innings. And if we exclude Griffin Stieg who has started slow coming off of injury, we have 8 pitchers that have combined for a 3.59 era across 62.2 innings. Probably the most encouraging is the improvement in command for both Luke Craytor and Logan Eisenreich who have at least temporarily moved out of Ricky Vaughn territory into a much better place. The sample size is obviously small, but both have made great initial strides this year with Craytor going from 8.3 bb9 and 56.8% strikes last year to 0.0 bb9 and 73.7% strikes in 5.0 innings this year. Eisenreich was at 10.5 bb9 and 54.1% strikes last year and has improved to 4.9 bb9 and 61.4% strikes in 7.1 innings this year. One other positive development in the pitching department has been Brendan Yagesh. He was injured for most of last year and was primarily used in lefty/lefty short stints, but this year he has proven to be a capable multi-inning middle reliever.