Stone’s College Baseball Aspirations Become A Reality

Tyler Stone RHP / SS / Cheshire Academy, CT / 2025

HAMDEN, Ct. - At no point in time did Tyler Stone ever believe college baseball would not be in his future.

“There was never an afterthought,” Stone reflected. “When I was a 5-1 110-pound freshman I always thought I’d get into a highly-competitive baseball program. Growing up I was always of the smaller size, but I was able to compete. I knew in my mind once I hit a growth spurt it would happen. I had tons of motivation.”

At 5-6 160 pounds less than two years ago, Stone remained confident.

“I had no schools interested in me in 2022 for pitching or hitting,” Stone related. “But I had a good spring season, I won pitcher of the year as a sophomore going 5-1 with two saves at Cheshire.”

Interest finally happened.

“Going into summer I had schools at every game to see me,” Stone said. “At the first tournament there were 20 to 30 schools there. Then I went to the Future Games. I knew a lot of coaches were planning to see me throw there but I also got a whole bunch more new ones, Virginia Tech included. There were Power 5 schools that loved me and a ton that would offer right after the Future Games. The Future Games was the biggest factor in my recruitment.”

Penn State, Old Dominion and Virginia Tech ended up being the top three choices for Stone before a decision was eventually made.

“On Aug. 1 there were 30-some schools that reached out,” the sixth-rated 2025 right-handed pitcher in New England noted. “It was a very busy day.”

Not bad for someone that had no interest just a year prior.

“I had a call from (associate head) coach (Kurt) Elbin at Virginia Tech that week and learned about the school and the program,” Stone said. “I considered a lot of options and ended up reaching out to him with a text a couple days to a week later and said I thought the school would be a good fit and would like to learn more about it. I got a call an hour later from the pitching coach (Ryan Fecteau), who was not at the Future Games. He saw a video of me and said I was a guy we’d like to offer and would like me to come see campus.

“I was very excited,” Stone continued. “Before the whole recruiting process began my target area in the U.S. was Virginia and the Carolina region. It would be okay to stay in the northeast, but I was more excited to go south a little more.”

Old Dominion, William & Mary, Richmond, James Madison and Delaware were all considerations for the 13th-rated junior in New England, who toured numerous campuses with his grandfathers in late August.

“Virginia Tech was the first stop and we dedicated a whole day to it,” Stone pointed out. “When I was looking around campus and standing at the Quad, I called my dad at work and said this is amazing. It had a beautiful northeast campus feel with a big school vibe to it. I checked out the field and was very, very excited. It ended up being my number one.”

There was more that stood out about the Atlantic Coast Conference university where Stone eventually committed.

“I loved the coaching staff,” the 17-year-old said. “Pretty much the entire staff is from New England so we had that connection. They love their northeast pitchers, and they specialize in getting right-handed pitchers under 6-0 to the big leagues. They have a track record of that. Me being 5-10, it was a good fit for me.

“They also have the top-five rated college food in the country. They built a multi-million dollar pitching lab and have top of the line ways to get metrics pitching-wise. It checked off all of my boxes. There was everything I needed to get to my goals.”

The performance of the Cheshire Academy junior at the Future Games is what brought intrigue from Virginia Tech.

“What they saw at the Future Games was my mentality, my aggressiveness and eagerness to compete,” the second-rated 2025 RHP in Connecticut explained. “They shared with me a slide show of their pitchers showing emotion and they saw that in me. They also like my ability to spin the ball. They like that I have a high spin rate, a fastball to blow by hitters, and they also like my athleticism. I have a wide variety of pitches I can throw and they like that a lot. They see me as a competitor in the ACC my first year there, which I truly believe.”

The 3.5 student who is looking at a major in sports medicine/physical therapy is confident about what he will provide at the next level. 

“I will bring a whole lot of innings and very high quality,” Stone said. “My goal is to come in and show everybody what I’m about and lead the team as a freshman.”

Admittedly, the feeling of making a commitment was “amazing” according to the fifth-ranked junior in Connecticut, who gave credit to Matt Burns, coach of MVP New England; Anthony Giano, coach of Cheshire Academy; Corey Berrios at Ranfone Training Systems; along with his parents and grandparents for helping make it all a reality.

“Nobody thought I’d be able to go D-I, but I never doubted myself,” Stone said. “My family put a lot into this, including both of my grandfathers, one that lives three hours from Virginia Tech who I went on the visit to Virginia Tech with and the other who lives in Connecticut who was my uber for it all. I can’t thank everyone enough.”