Following Selection Monday’s selection show, where Virginia Tech qualified for its first Regional appearance since the 2022 season, Virginia Tech infielder Ethan Gibson and catcher Henry Cooke spoke to the media virtually. Here is the entirety of what the pair had to say:

Ethan Gibson

On the initial reaction to learning that the team was headed to Los Angeles:

“Definitely pumped up, excited for the opportunity to play. Here’s another day to play baseball, so until you get 10 minutes at a time, like Tyson [Petersheim] said, and have fun with it.”

On the impact for Gibson and Cooke to play postseason baseball for the first time at the college level:

“Definitely a dream come true. Worked hard, all of us coaches and players, everybody around us. It’s been a fun journey and a fun ride, so hopefully just keep doing what we can do and being where our feet are.”

Q: What’s your kind of first initial reaction, seeing that you might have to play a team as good as UCLA is this year?

“Just the same as any other game. still baseball, we’ve been playing it for a while, so we’re just going to keep doing that.”

On Ethan Ball:

“Definitely awesome to see his success. He deserves it. One of the hardest workers I know. Always comes up big for us. So, just playing with him, hanging out with him outside of the field, just a great dude, got a great family. So it’s definitely been a fun ride with him, watching him kind of grow and develop into the player that he is, and knowing that he’s gonna continue getting better, and he’s gonna be a really good player.”

On Hudson Lutterman persevering through injury:

“Definitely a gritty dude. I think the thing that kind of surrounds this team is nuts, guts, and grit. So, watching him do that doesn’t surprise me at all. Also, one of the hardest workers I know, hard to slow that fellow down. So, it’s been awesome to watch him, and he continues to do great things. So, it’s awesome.”

On the feeling of seeing Virginia Tech up on the screen:

“It was cool. I hadn’t seen that since me being here, so being able to experience that and experience it with some of my best buddies was definitely awesome. Something I’ll remember for the rest of my life, for sure.”

Q: So, did everyone play it cool, or was everyone going nuts?

“No, we were excited. We definitely celebrated. So ready to go.”

On what makes this team so good that it’s the first team in Gibson’s tenure (last appearance: 2022) to make NCAAs:

“Nuts, guts and grit, that’s what I’d say… I got that one from my dad, so that what I would say. Put hard work in there, as well. But definitely a gritty bunch of dudes.”

On the gratification after the low points of the season:

My dad told me a long time ago, you can never get too low, and you never get too high, so just stay even-kell. I think that’s what we did. I don’t think there’s ever a time where we were like panicking. We were just like, just gotta come together and play. We know we have talent, and we know we can definitely shock some people. And just control what we can control and have fun with it.”

On what Gibson thinks getting back to the tournament means for the coaches:

“Definitely rewarding. They work just as hard as us, if not harder. So, seeing the smile on their face, but knowing the work’s not done, it was a surreal feeling. So, ready to go out there, take care of business, and do what we can do.”

On how cool it’s going to be to see Brett Renfrow pitching in a regional for the first time:

“It’d be awesome. Been here with him for three years, known him far longer than that. So, just watching him and knowing all the work he’s put in, as well as the guys beside him, it’ll be awesome. So, I can’t wait.”

Henry Cooke

On the initial reaction to learning that the team was headed to Los Angeles:

“It was excitement just to know that we worked all year for this moment, and yeah, they are the No. 1 seed. But we feel like if we play our best baseball and pitch the best we can and hit like we’ve been hitting, I feel like we can beat anybody, so let’s just go out there and prove ourselves.”

On Szefc remarking that there was surprise in the room at the travel distance and whether Cooke saw that:

“I didn’t think we’d be going out to California or anything like that, but I knew we’d have to travel somewhere. But it’ll be fun going out there again for the second time this year.”

On what a day like today means given the low points of the team this season:

“It’s amazing. I’ve wanted to make a regional ever since I’ve been here. I mean, we’ve been close. And then a bunch of injuries has happened, so not having a full healthy team the whole season hurts your chances of making one. But everybody pretty much stayed healthy for this year and helped us out. A lot of things went into making this regional.”

On how badly Cooke wanted to make a regional:

“Bad. Giving another chance, another week to play, and it’s just hopefully we get another week after this to play.”

On the benefit of prior travel to California from May 1-3:

It’s a lot. We now know how the time changes affect us, and when we need to fall asleep in order to not affect us as much. So, just having that under our boat’s been pretty good.”

On the importance of winning series finales vs. Georgia Tech, UVa. and Miami:

“It was huge. Those series, we didn’t play our best first two games, but every single one of those series, we went out and played our best on a Sunday. It’s huge taking those away. When you add them up at the end of the year, as long as you have 15, it’s a good chance you’re in.”

On the emotional gratification of rounding out his career with, at minimum, an NCAA Regional:

“It’s good. I mean, it’s why I came here, and it’s why I’m pretty sure everybody on the team came here was to go to compete in the postseason.”

On if the team is excited to play in Los Angeles after playing at Berkeley (Northern California) in early May:

“Yeah, hopefully it’s a lot warmer there. It was kind of chilly in Northern California.”

On what makes this year’s team good:

“We’re so tight-knit, and everybody likes everybody. It’s just like we know we have the talent to do whatever is ahead of us, and whatever games, it’s just putting it together and playing together on the field and not being selfish.”

On why this team is different than years past that’s led to the first regional berth since ’22:

“Like I said before, the injuries. 2024, we had something special, and we had a bunch of our pitchers get injured. If that didn’t happen, I think we would have hosted a regional if that stuff didn’t happen. It’s just now, it’s coming together, and everybody’s playing for each other.”

On if there’s any part of the mentality of this unit that hasn’t been prevalent in previous teams:

“No, I mean every single team I’ve been on [at Virginia Tech], it’s just been just like this one, it’s just a matter of fact of injuries, like that’s the only thing I can really give you.”

On the impact of the Georgia Tech series finale — Virginia Tech is the only ACC team to beat the Yellow Jackets at Atlanta:

“It was huge looking at it now, but we never really thought about it once it passed. Once we got past it, it was just the next game.”

On what it’ll be like seeing Renfrow and Griffin Stieg pitch in NCAA Regionals for the first time:

“It’s gonna be huge. I’m excited to see how they do. I know Brett’s gonna be nails… gonna give us a good start, so just see how it’s gonna pan out.”

On Gibson’s “nuts, guts and grit” mantra and how that mentality has helped the team rally:

“That’s the first time I’ve heard that saying, haven’t really heard that saying much, but that’s basically all we’re made of, is just what he said. So, it’s been good, just being tough. We try to go into the same game with every mindset, just being tough outs and being tough on the mound, just being tough all the way around.”

Q: How have you seen Hudson sort of be emblematic on that? At the ACC tournament, he’s kind of limping around on the ankle, even as he’s ripping a double.

“Yeah, that’s the definition of this team, and Huddy, he sprained his ankle two weeks ago, but he’s back on in the Clemson series. Then DHs in the ACC tournament. That’s what we are.”