Collegiate Times

Tech redshirt freshman Buddy Sosnoskie waits for a pitch at English Field. The outfielder sees playing time while recovering from shoulder surgery.

With the car packed and sitting in the driveway at its home in Front Royal, the Sosnoskie family didn't know which way to drive.

Would the family head north on Interstate 81 to Dominican College in New York? Or would they be headed south to Blacksburg?

Ultimately, the drive led them to the New River Valley.

Then, with a dearth of catching depth, newly hired head baseball coach Pete Hughes gave starting junior catcher Anthony Sosnoskie, who did not receive a scholarship offer, a call on the first day of fall classes.

"I told him that he got in and that there was a spot on the team for him if he wanted to come," Hughes said.

Sosnoskie accepted, but that's not the whole story.

Younger brother Buddy Sosnoskie, now a redshirt freshman, was being recruited by Tech and several other Atlantic Coast Conference schools, but Hughes made it clear to both that the acceptance of Anthony Sosnoskie was not a ploy to get his brother.

Anthony understood, and he figured his brother was headed out-of-state anyway.

"I always told my parents I wanted to go out of state, get as far away from them as possible," Buddy Sosnoskie said. "Then coach Hughes was recruiting me, and I just fell in love with this place. In Northern Virginia, I was just wondering why everyone talked about Tech and how great it was. I was tired of it, and then I can see why they talked about it like this. It's a great place."

"He came down for a visit the Saturday of the first week of classes, and he said, 'I'm coming here.' And he put on the VT hat, and I couldn't have been any happier," Anthony Sosnoskie said.

Despite their love of Tech, the brothers have endured some tough times since admission.

Last season during a pitchers' fielding drill, a thrown ball hit Anthony in the face, breaking his cheekbone and ending his 2008 season prematurely.

The injury didn't hold him back long, though.

"I had surgery the day after I got hit and pretty much just let it heal," Anthony said. "I gave it two, two-and-a-half, three weeks before I did baseball stuff and then just went back right at it full speed."

He went back to baseball within the month and made the All-Star team in the Southern Collegiate Baseball League.

Anthony continues to shine now in ACC play. He ranks in the top 10 in both walks and runs batted in while hitting .343 with only 11 total strikeouts in 102 plate appearances.

"The previous two years I swung at a lot of balls," he said. "I got myself out instead. Now, I'm making them throw strikes, and when they throw me strikes I'm hitting well so far."

Now a junior and draft eligible, thoughts of being selected by a major league club this June did creep into his mind early in the season.

"It went through my head at the beginning of the season, and I went into a terrible slump," Anthony said. "You can't think about the draft and any of that stuff; you just have to play baseball.

"Whenever I put stuff in my head, I go into the toilet, so I can't put anything in my head. If somebody calls my name in June, they do. If they don't call me then I'll go to Cape Cod and have a great summer."

In addition to Anthony's cheekbone mishap, Buddy Sosnoskie also sustained injury.

Recruited as both a pitcher and outfielder, Buddy realized his velocity started to decline during his senior season at Notre Dame Academy. He had to have labrum surgery on his shoulder and redshirted his first year at Tech.

"(It) wasn't fun," Buddy said. "I felt like I could've helped, but in the long run it's probably better for me to get it all fixed, so hopefully I'll be back on the bump soon."

"We're going to err on the safe side with Buddy, and then we'll get him back on the bump here next year," Hughes said. "Definitely a guy who can help us on the mound, but we're going to err on the side of caution and make sure that arm is 100 percent healthy."

Even though he can't pitch right now, Buddy Sosnoskie has gotten a chance to get back out on the diamond.

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