When talking about in-state recruiting, football is usually the only focus, but the state of Virginia has always produced plenty of talented baseball players from many of the same areas that football teams get their talent from including the 757 and Richmond. With Virginia Tech not having the same baseball tradition as Virginia, the Hokies haven't gotten as many top in-state baseball recruits to come to Blacksburg.
However, the Hokies have a talented freshman that went against the in-state norm for the top Virginia baseball players.
Nic Enright was one of the best high school pitchers over the past few years, and finished his high school career with a tremendous senior season headlined by a 6-1 record, a 0.79 ERA, 50 strikeouts in 44.1 innings, and Gatorade Player of the Year honors for Virginia. For his high school career, Enright was tremendous with a career 28-7 record to go with a 1.33 ERA and 237 strikeouts over 210 innings.
Enright was a top prospect, but the Hokies were able to take advantage of the fact that Virginia and VCU both weren't nearly as aggressive as Virginia Tech was in his recruitment. However, recruiting Enright wasn't over when the New York Mets gave him the option to go straight to the minor leagues after the 2015 National League champions drafted him in the 19th round of the 2015 MLB Draft.
Enright was initially projected to go in the third to tenth round, but his slide to the 19th round allowed the Mets to offer as much as they wanted to. However, Enright decided to head to for Blacksburg and the collegiate level for at least the next three years instead of going into the New York Mets' farm system.
Now, Enright will become the first freshman to start Virginia Tech's second game of the season, the earliest a freshman has ever started a game in Virginia Tech baseball history. Enright has a solid fastball that has peaked in the past at 94 while also having a very good curveball that could make him quite effective for the Hokies.
Nic Enright is a big part of why Virginia Tech baseball fans can be excited about the future, but he should also give Hokie fans plenty of reason to be excited about what's going to be happening at English Field this season.
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