BLACKSBURG, Va. - The Virginia Tech baseball coaching staff announced on Tuesday the official signing of five players to National Letters of Intent for the 2008-09 school year.

"We are happy with our second recruiting class here at Virginia Tech," second-year head coach Pete Hughes said. "We believe that these players will compliment the outstanding class we signed last fall."

Joining the Hokies as early signees of Hughes' second recruiting class include pitcher Luke Erickson of St. Christopher's School in Richmond, Va., outfielder/pitcher Clark Labitan of Mira Mesa High School in San Diego, Calif., pitcher/infielder Mathew Price of The Walker School in Marietta, Ga., utility player Andrew Rash of Westside High School in Anderson, S.C., and shortstop/pitcher Ronnie Shaban of Cosby High School in Moseley, Va.

"Our goal with this class was to add to the depth of our pitching staff and continue to build a more explosive offense," Hughes continued. "We believe we have done that with the signing of frontline starters Matt Price and Luke Erickson. Also, two-way players like Ronnie Shaban and Clark Labitan address both areas of need. Lastly, utility player Andrew Rash offers the Hokies a versatile defender who has a chance to be very good offensively."

Erickson is a 6-foot-2, 190-pound left-handed pitcher who will spend his senior season at St. Christopher's after lettering for three years for Coach Justin Houston at Berkeley Preparatory School in Tampa, Fla., where he helped the team to a 19-9 record last season. He's also played first base and outfield during his career, in addition to playing on the basketball team at Berkeley.

Labitan is a right-handed pitcher/center fielder for Coach Gene Watkins at Mira Mesa, where he helped the team to the San Diego CIF semifinals last season. He was named to the Division 1 All-Eastern League first team after batting .395 in 33 games while accumulating a 1.26 ERA and 27 strikeouts in 27.2 innings pitched on the mound.

Price has earned the Top Gun Award for most outstanding pitcher for the past two seasons at Walker, and went 7-3 as a junior with a Cobb County-best earned run average of 0.85. The 6-2 right-hander struck out 64 batters in 52 innings pitched in 2007, and was the team's starting shortstop when not on the mound. In club ball this past summer, he was chosen as one of the top 20 players in Georgia to represent the state at the Sunbelt Classic in Norman, Okla., where Team Georgia won the tournament.

Rash is a right-handed utility player who has earned all-region, all-area and all-state honors for Coach Barry New at Westside. He was named the No. 1-ranked catcher in 4A by Diamond Prospects, and throughout his career, has batted .487 with 14 home runs, 12 triples, 48 doubles and 94 runs batted in.

Shaban is a two-way player for Coach Tim Lowery at Cosby, playing both shortstop and pitcher for the past three years. Last season as a junior, the right-handed pitcher/left-handed batter went 11-1 with a 1.73 ERA on the mound in leading his team to the Dominion District Tournament championship. He also hit .514 with six home runs and 30 RBIs to earn first-team all-region, metro and district, and second-team all-state. His combined statistics for his two summer league teams in 2007 included a .470 average, eight home runs and 40 RBIs.

"For the second straight year, I believe the profile of our signees has proven two things," Hughes finished. "First of all, the Virginia Tech product is not only easy to sell in state, but all over the country. And secondly, there is no one in the country that works harder at the recruiting process than this staff."