After posting the second-highest batting average during the 2022 USA Baseball Collegiate National Team Training Camp, Virginia Tech rising junior outfielder Jack Hurley has been selected to the formal, 26-man roster that will represent Team USA and compete for gold at Honkbalweek Haarlem in the Netherlands.
Hurley started four of five games during the recent six-day training camp that featured five intrasquad Stars vs. Stripes showcase events across three North Carolina venues: Cary (June 30), Durham (July 1-3), and Charlotte (July 4). Tech’s four-time 2022 All-American slugger batted .357 (5-for-14) with a double, an RBI, three runs scored, and two stolen bases.
“A week ago, as I sat with the 51 players that we invited to Cary, I told them what a tremendous honor this is because you are 51 of the best amateur baseball players in the United States of America,” said Team USA manager Mike Bianco. “To narrow it down nearly in half is quite a task. We shared with all of them, as honestly as we could, that there are players that will go home that will play in the big leagues and be All-Americans next year.
“I commend these coaches and the USA Baseball committee on the selections we have made,” Bianco said. “We cannot wait to get to work today and on the road to winning the championship at Honkbalweek.”
Hurley becomes Tech’s fifth rostered Collegiate National Team selection all-time, joining Franklin Stubbs (1981), George Canale (1985), Trey McCoy (1986), and Gavin Cross (2021). This summer, he is one of eight ACC players competing with Team USA and one of four such position players, accompanying infielder Yohandy Morales (Miami), catcher Jack Payton (Louisville), and catcher/outfielder Kyle Teel (Virginia).
During the 2022 collegiate season, Hurley paced the Hokies with his .375 batting average that featured 87 hits, 23 doubles, a triple, and 14 home runs. Starting all but one of Tech’s 59 games, the native of Boalsburg, Penn., carried his .400 batting average from opening weekend into May, compiling a 26-game hitting streak along the way that set the Hokies’ ACC-era program record.
Hurley earned All-American Second Team honors from the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association this season while earning three additional All-American Third Teams. The 2022 All-ACC First Team outfielder was named a national semifinalist for the Dick Howser Trophy while also earning American Baseball Coaches Association/Rawlings Atlantic All-Region First Team, Virginia Sports Information Directors All-State First Team, and All-ACC Academic Team praise.
Team USA has earned five medals at Honbalweek Haarlem since 2000, four championship gold medals in 2014, 2008, 2002, and 2002, and a bronze medal in 2012.
Hurley was joined at the training camp by Tech rising sophomore Drue Hackenberg, who came away with Sunday’s game-four victory after tossing two scoreless, hitless late innings in relief.
