With the winter months still lingering and the snow still falling, the Virginia Tech baseball pitching staff looks to bring the heat early and often.
Redshirt-senior right-hander Rhett Ballard will man the front end of the rotation as the No. 1 starter for the Hokies.
Ballard features a sinker and a slider, which both produce their share of ground balls for the Tech defense. His success will depend on how much help he gets from his infield.
Head coach Pete Hughes feels that Ballard starting the first game of the weekend series will be crucial to the Hokies' success.
"Your biggest fear as a coach going into game one of conference play is having your starter not go more than three or four innings, and then you've got to exhaust your bullpen game one, which would kill you game two and three," Hughes said. "We think Rhett gives us our best chance of being consistently deep into game one, which will rest our bullpen for the rest of the weekend."
Starting the Saturday games will be 5'9" left-hander Justin Wright. As a freshman last season, Wright threw a complete game against top-ranked Miami.
Wright does not possess the physical stature that many other Atlantic Coast Conference pitchers do, so he relies on a deceptive motion that hides the ball coupled with an 89-mph speed. He has made progress with his curve ball over the offseason, and his performance as a freshman should pay dividends this season.
"Just getting the experience is a major thing," Wright said. "Being able to throw against such good teams last year, you're not going to be as nervous when you face them this year."
Rounding out the weekend rotation is sophomore Sean McDermott, who also received crucial starting experience as a freshman.
McDermott throws an 85- to 88-mph fastball with great location. His breaking ball is inconsistent, but when he's throwing it well, it's effective against right- and left-handed hitters.
For Hughes, McDermott possesses the kind of attitude needed to turn the Tech program around.
"We're trying to change a losing mindset into a winning one," Hughes said. "That kid personifies competitive spirit. He's a bulldog. We expect him to get better than he was last year."
While Hughes has confidence in his starters this season, perhaps Tech's best pitcher, sophomore Jesse Hahn moved to the bullpen to fill the role as closer.
"If you're just grading stuff, he measures up with the best closers in the country -- best arms in the country in college baseball," Hughes said. "If we can get to him, we think the game is over. We think we have enough depth in the starting rotation to have that kid hanging on at the back end of the game."
Even with such immense talent, the move from starter to closer may prove to be difficult.
"The hardest part about (closing) is getting yourself ready to go into a game, staying warm," Hahn said. "You have so much time. You have no clue when they're going to call your name to go in. So you've got to make sure you're ready at all times."
With solid starters and a potentially great closer, Hughes still has slight worries about his middle relief.
"To me, the biggest question mark is those middle relievers getting it done so we can get to Jesse at the back end of the game," Hughes said.
First out of the bullpen will be junior transfer Ben Rowen, who features the lowest submarine delivery Hughes has ever seen.
Rowen throws a fastball, breaking ball, change-up and even a riser similar to the softball pitch, which is brand new to Hughes and elusive for many of Tech's hitters.
Also expected to shoulder much of the load out of the pen are freshmen Ronnie Shaban, Clark Labitan and junior Kyle Cichy.
In addition to helping out in relief, freshmen Matt Price, Luke Erickson, redshirt-freshman Marc Zecchino and junior Josh Wymer will be splitting up the midweek starts.
Hughes stressed the importance of these games.
"Those guys who are going to start these midweek games for us, those are crucial for us because it's just another opportunity to win games, you know? We need to do that because we haven't done that in seven years around here," Hughes said.
Despite Tech utilizing an extremely young pitching staff, Hughes maintains high expectations.
"They've got to get better," he said. "I think physically and in terms of maturity, they've gotten better. So, productivity-wise, it has to fall into place. And we expect that to happen."