All throughout last season, Virginia Tech head baseball coach Pete Hughes endured a patchwork defense that finished 10th in the Atlantic Coast Conference, but despite the shoddy play, he knew better days were ahead.
Sitting on Hughes’ bench was redshirt junior shortstop Tim Smalling, the key to solving many of Tech’s problems. But as a transfer from the University of Arkansas, he was ineligible for the 2009 season.
“I watched him take ground balls after our games,” Hughes said. “(He) made me feel great about next year.”
Smalling wasn’t just some disgruntled lower-tier player who couldn’t crack into the lineup on a talented Southeastern Conference team during his two years at Arkansas — he was the Razorbacks’ starting shortstop for 101 games during his freshman and sophomore seasons.
Despite instant success and a soaring draft stock going into his junior season, Smalling simply did not like the environment in Fayetteville, Ark.
“I played out there for two years, and after two years I kind of decided it wasn’t the place for me,” Smalling said. “I’m in a great situation now here at Tech — got some great coaches, great teammates. It’s an (up-and-coming) program.”
Still, sitting out for an entire season was difficult for Smalling since he never had to spend much time watching games from the bench.
“It was hard for him, but you know what, he knew it was the right move for him,” Hughes said. “You talk about career development — it just goes to show, if you’re not happy in a place, it doesn’t matter if you’re in the SEC. (Arkansas) leads the country in attendance every year, them and LSU, and he was playing under that environment every night and starting — he’s gonna be great, and he’s gonna be drafted — but he wasn’t happy.”
Smalling, who played his high school baseball in Raleigh, N.C., made his way to Tech through associate head baseball coach Dave Turgeon, who knew of him while he was the recruiting coordinator for Duke in the 2006 season.
“He got his release from Arkansas and contacted us, and I was ecstatic to get the call,” Turgeon said. “You have a two-year starting shortstop in the SEC. All of a sudden, that’s going to be an anchor in the infield, and all of a sudden you’ve got guys playing where they’re supposed to.”
“It was big,” Hughes said. “Any time you can sign a quality middle, that’s all we try to do is go get middles, and here’s a kid who’s been battle tested in the SEC, so that was a big get. Really big get.”
With Smalling inserted as the starting shortstop, the left side of the Tech infield has changed for the better.
Ronnie Shaban, now a sophomore, was forced out of his normal third-base position during his freshman year to play as shortstop and struggled, but with Smalling now in the lineup, Shaban has now moved to his natural position.
“(Shaban) gets exposed a little in the middle, but when you put him where he’s supposed to be, he’s really good,” Turgeon said.
During his time at Arkansas, Smalling jumped from a .935 fielding percentage in his freshman season to a .967 fielding percentage during his sophomore campaign.
He expects to improve, as do his teammates, who had nothing but praise for Smalling, especially junior first baseman Austin Wates.
“I’m calling an under-10 error season,” Wates said. “I’m shooting for the number six. I think he’ll have around six errors, if that. I think he’s that good of a shortstop — primetime shortstop right there. Mark my words. I think that’s gonna happen.”
Smalling feels like he’s up to the challenge.
“I’m going to hopefully keep it under that, but we’ll see what happens,” Smalling said.
“Watching him versus other so-called prospect shortstops, he’s as good as anybody defensively, and him being back there can help me if I’m trying to relay something and they’re not getting the point,” said senior catcher Anthony Sosnoskie. “He can help me because he’s mature. This is his fourth year of college, so I think this will definitely be good for us.”
The addition of Smalling at shortstop will have long-reaching effects far beyond fielding percentage. Maybe the happiest of all to see Smalling in the infield this season is the pitching staff, which felt the brunt of poor defenses in past seasons.
“It takes a lot of pressure off a lot of people, especially our pitching staff,” Hughes said. “We don’t have to look for a punchout every time. Soft contact is gonna be an out — cuts down pitch totals and everything else. There’s a lot more to it than just errors. The amount of toll it puts on a pitching staff and pitch counts during the game, if you’re making all the plays and there’s no errors, and there’s soft contact early in the counts, then you don’t have to go to the bullpen so early in the game.”
Junior pitcher Jesse Hahn, who has always possessed incredible talent but has had a difficult time converting that into collegiate success, is eager to pitch with Smalling behind him.
“The first two years of being a power pitcher, I just tried to throw it by everyone, overthrow, and now I can just pitch,” Hahn said. “I don’t have to throw as hard, and I know I can pitch to contact, so I’m just trying to pitch ground balls, and I know Tim won’t make any errors. He’s solid back there.”
“I feel like (the pitching staff) felt like they had a lot of weight on their shoulders,” Wates said. “I think sometimes they might have thought that if we’re having a bad game, they had to do a little bit more than they needed to, and they might have last season.”
In addition to aiding the defense and pitching staff, Smalling’s teammates think he will be a big success at the plate as well.
“I think he’ll hit about 10 home runs plus, bat .325-.350, so I’m looking forward to seeing him play,” Wates said.
Sophomore weekend starter Mathew Price also feels Smalling will be a difficult out this season.
“I love him,” Price said. “He’s the toughest kid to pitch against when throwing against him live. He’s scrappy, he knows the zone, he won’t swing at the pitch unless it’s the pitch he wants. He’s gonna be a huge addition to the team.”
Even though this will be his first season in a Tech uniform, by taking on a leadership role, Smalling will be making contributions to the team that go beyond the box score.
“I just try to do everything right and lead by example when I can,” Smalling said. “I just try to come here every day and work hard and take some of the younger guys under my wing when I can.”
Smalling’s coaches and teammates have noticed his leadership by example, as well.
“He’s stepped right into it,” Hughes said. “It depends, you watch someone’s approach to how they go about their business, and you know it’s the right way, and then you’ve got younger guys doing the same thing; that’s leadership. He’ll speak up a little bit. I wouldn’t call him an extrovert, but he’s not afraid to say what he wants to say.”
“I think everybody respects him a lot, respects what he does, because he’s always here working hard, and he has had that SEC experience,” Sosnoskie said. “I think he’s definitely gotten everybody’s respect in the locker room.”
Best of all for Tech, Smalling says he is not focused on the draft and he simply wants to win ballgames any way he can.
“I’m just gonna go out there, and any time in the lineup, I’m going to help the team win any way I can, whether it’s defensively, offensively, just the little things,” Smalling said.
“All he wants to do is win, and all he wants to do is win for Virginia Tech,” Hughes said. “That’s why I love him.”