NCAA baseball tournament, track and field nationals, Bill Walton

In this edition of Virginia Tech Hokies News, the NCAA Baseball Tournament field of 64 was announced and Virginia Tech will send several track and field participants to the NCAA National Meet in Oregon next month.

After starting the season 21-5, it looked like the Hokies baseball team would make the NCAA Tournament, but they sputtered on, going 11-18 to finish 32-22 and missing out on an at-large bid. However, the ACC had eight teams in the field, five of which earned the right to host next weekend.

Clemson, Florida State, North Carolina, North Carolina State and Virginia will host, while Duke, Wake Forest and Georgia Tech also took the field. North Carolina, Florida State and Clemson have all earned Top 8 seeds and will host a Super Regional if they advance. Despite the Hokies playing 10 games above .500, they missed out on a bid and Florida, who finished 28-27, received a bid. Did Virginia Tech deserve a bid now? Probably not, but it should be stated as Kendall Rogers of D1Baseball pointed out that Florida has an AD on the baseball committee. Do what you want with that.

The 2024 NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships will be held June 5-8 in Eugene, Oregon and the Hokies will send 13 competitors to participate.

On the women’s sideLindsey Butler, Journey Gurley, Chiara Sistermann and Katrin Brzyszkowska will compete, while on the men’s side EJ Bell, Brandon Burke, Kennedy Harrison, Chidozie Kalu, Judson Lincoln IV, Connor McClure, Sean Murphy, Nick Plant and KJ Tillmon will also participate.

Former UCLA standout and NBA champion Bill Walton died Monday after a battle with cancer. One of the more colorful commentators, Walton was a legend behind the microphone announcing college basketball games. He will be missed.