SALEM, Va. – It was a special day on Tuesday with a lot of firsts. The Salem Red Sox taking the field for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic, and Virginia Tech junior Kevin DiDomenico is calling his first game for the Sox.
“It was a long time coming,” he said. “Talking with Allen for a couple months now, it was a long time coming now, but it couldn’t happen without Bill Roth.”
The newest voice of the Red Sox is part of the Sports Media and Analytics major at Virginia Tech. The courses are run by former Virginia Tech play-by-play great Bill Roth, who teamed up with the General Manager of the Sox Allen Lawrence, to help place DiDomenico in Salem.
“Bill Roth from Virginia Tech came to me and presented this opportunity and thought it’d be a good opportunity for his students to come and broadcast some of our games,” Lawrence said. “It really was a win-win.”
But he isn’t the only one with the opportunity this summer. The Virginia Tech Communications Department is represented in 8 cities between the minor league and wood bat teams.
“They know what our kids can do, they’ve seen us on ACCNX, they’ve seen them on 3304 sports, which is our multimedia online platform for student journalism at Tech,” Roth said. “Now we have the opportunity to put those young men and women on the air in really exciting cities.
And while summer school may not be for everyone, it’s clear the Hokies don’t mind.
“Bill always says the best classroom is at a ballpark,” DiDomenico finished, “and I couldn’t agree more.”