Tech adds women’s golf
On May 14, Tech AD Jim Weaver announced that the athletics department will begin a women’s golf program, which makes it the 22nd intercollegiate sports program at Tech.
The squad will begin competition in the fall of 2015. Weaver hopes to name a head coach by July 1 of this year and plans on giving the coach a year to recruit student-athletes and build the program. Recruited student-athletes will start in the fall of 2014. The Hokies will commence team play in the fall of 2015 and become eligible for the Atlantic Coast Conference championship that spring.
“We have been working toward this day since joining the ACC, but wanted to make sure that everything was in place for this program to succeed before starting this process publicly,” Weaver said in a release. “Our men’s golf program has proven that golf at Virginia Tech can be highly successful.”
The women’s golf program will share the Pete Dye River Course of Virginia Tech and the included Virginia Tech Golf Team Complex with the men’s team. The practice facility already includes a women’s golf locker room, and it features indoor hitting facilities, outdoor covered and heated tee areas and a full practice range. The facility also includes state-of-the-art video equipment and other modern instructional modes.
Women’s golf will be the first new sport added by the Hokies since the school joined the ACC in the 2004-05 academic year and the first new sport at Tech since softball was added in the 1995-96 academic year. Tech will become the 11th ACC school to compete in women’s golf.
ACC announces football rotating crossover opponents
Each year, the Tech football team plays every team in the Coastal Division (six games) and also Boston College from the Atlantic Division. BC serves as Tech’s primary crossover opponent.
On June 4, the ACC announced each team’s rotating crossover opponents for the next 12 years. This opponent is the one ACC team that changes every year on each team’s schedule. Each ACC school will play all of its rotating crossover opponents twice during the 12-year rotation, once at home and once on the road, but not in consecutive years. Here are the rotating crossover opponents for the Hokies through 2024:
Six Hokies selected in MLB Draft
Shortstop Chad Pinder headlined a contingent of six Tech players who were selected by Major League Baseball teams in the 2013 MLB First-Year Player Draft held June 6-8. The six players drafted marked the second-most ever drafted from Tech. In 2010, eight Hokie players went in the draft.
Pinder went to the Oakland A’s in the “Competitive Balance Round B” of the draft. This round came after the conclusion of the second round.
Pinder, ranked by many as one of the top 100 draft-eligible prospects, was the 71st overall selection. The junior from Poquoson, Va., became Tech’s highest draft choice since 2002 when pitcher Joe Saunders went to the Anaheim Angels with the 12th overall selection.
Pinder, a first-team All-ACC choice, started all 60 games and batted .321 this past season. He hit eight home runs and drove in 50 runs. He recorded a .483 slugging percentage and a .404 on-base percentage.
Outfielder Tyler Horan, pitcher Jake Joyce, pitcher Eddie Campbell, pitcher Joe Mantiply and pitcher Colin O’Keefe also were drafted by MLB teams.
On the second day of the draft, the San Francisco Giants selected Horan in the eighth round, and the Washington Nationals took Joyce in the ninth round. Horan led Tech with a .342 batting average, and he also hit 11 homers and drove in 50 runs. Joyce went 7-1 in 30 appearances, with a 4.16 ERA. He struck out 56 in 62.2 innings.
Campbell, Mantiply and O’Keefe went on the final day of the draft. The Seattle Mariners drafted Campbell in the 15th round, while the Detroit Tigers selected Mantiply in the 27th round. Campbell went 2-5 this season, with a 5.40 ERA, but pitched well in his final two starts. Mantiply, Tech’s ace, went 6-1 this season, with a 2.85 ERA. He struck out 50 in 75.2 innings and walked just 25.
The Los Angeles Angels selected O’Keefe in the 33rd round. He pitched in just five games this season, going 0-2 with a 15.88 ERA.
