Double Digits in Non-Conference Games
The road trip to Chapel Hill wasn’t a complete disaster. The Hokies managed to scare the Tar Heels in Game 2, and then work hard to earn a split against a team that hadn’t lost an ACC game at home this season. They had only lost a single game in Chapel Hill against Coastal Carolina before the Hokies took the third game of their series.
That seemed to ignite something in the Virginia Tech energy level. Prior to that game the team had been struggling to find its lost mojo against ACC teams and had dropped too many series to feel even remotely comfortable in getting a shot at post season play.
Well, four games and 50 runs later and the Hokies are, first of all, qualified for the ACC tournament starting at the end of May, regardless of the outcome of the last 6 conference games against Miami and UVA.
Before we summarize the last four games, let’s look at where the Hokies stand as the final two weeks of the season loom, because regardless of making the ACC Tournament the Hokies need to make sure that their seeding is set up with an actual chance at winning the double elimination phase of group play, and advancing.
Currently the Hokies are 31-14 for the season, overall. Folks that’s a super season regardless of the eventual post season opportunities. The team was ranked for most of the year, and with this last 5 in a row they might inch back into the D1 top 25. Normally, the rankings are more bragging rights than effective representations, but in the case of a potential at-large bid for the NCAA Tournament Regionals to follow the ACC Tournament, every win counts, conference or not. What’s pretty impressive about this season is that Tech’s home and away records are both in positive territory. Tech is a whopping 21-7 in Blacksburg, and 10-7 on the road. The committee will need to see lots of that sort of record to open the door for a seeding bid. Well, that’s short of this sort of head of steam taking over, and propelling the Hokies to an ACC Tournament win, but we won’t get ahead of ourselves, now, will we?
Now on to the Games and the Wins
Tech has not played North Carolina A&T since 2015. The Aggies were hovering right around 500 when they arrived in Blacksburg on an absolutely beautiful Tuesday evening for baseball. The Hokies took advantage of their positive momentum, and also the perfect weather to put up a first-rate pitching performance by the bull pen. Better yet, the game turned out to be special on defense because of lack of bull pen committee use. Madden Clement who was credited with the win, went an impressive 5 and a third innings. He gave up just 2 hits and struck out 7 batters. What’s even more special was that he issued ZERO walks. He put up 67 pitches in that period and hung a goose egg in every one of his innings pitched. Well, that seemed to fire up his relievers because neither Preston Cowl, Jacob Stretch, nor closer Andrew Sentlinger gave up a base on balls or a run for that matter. It was a total Tech shutout.
On the bottom side of each inning the Tech offense kept up the pressure. The A&T pitchers managed to blank the Hokies in 3 of Tech’s 8 halves. The remainder of the time the Hokies either manufactured something to get across the plate and that included their 5 run bottom of the 3rd scoring explosion that had several A&T errors (2 formal throwing errors and a wild pitch). Tech did get some big knocks in that frame, but the Aggies had trouble getting the bleeding stopped due to mistakes in the field.
At the Plate
Doubles: Eddie Micheletti, David McCann, and Gerhig Ebel
Home Runs: Ben Watson, and Nick Locurto (first of his career)
On the Bases
Steals: Carson DeMartini, Clay Grady
Grady was plonked once, and also caught stealing once.
* From Hokie Sports
The Aggies didn’t agree to a run rule game limitation, so the teams played a full 9 for the Aggies and the Hokies earned another shutout for the season. It’s a really great thing when the pitching and the batting get synchronized. It was an 11-0 shutout, and the Hokies walked away with some confidence.
The Weekend of Sweeps
At some point in the schedule review, the University of Ohio Bobcats and the Hokies decided that Friday’s weather forecast looked pretty grim (it wasn’t really that bad and if they had started the game at 2pm instead of the originally scheduled 7pm they could have had the three-game series in three days. Maybe the Bobcats had flight and other schedule issues, and maybe they thought that they’d take advantage of the usual split nature of a double-header, so the schedule was adjusted to have Game 1 and Game 2 played on Saturday May 4th. Well, the weather was less cooperative on Saturday than it was on Friday so Game 1’s start time was moved up to 11am.
Quality Pitching for the Hokies, Again
It was cool and drizzly all morning in the Burg, so when Brett Renfrow took to the mound, there wasn’t any predicting how well the pitching would go. The last cool and rainy outing the Manassas, Virginia Freshman starter had some control problems. Renfrow had none of that in this one. Renfrow (6-2) stayed on the mound for 79 pitches and five full innings of work. He issued 7 strike outs, gave up 3 inconsequential hits, and only walked 2 batters. Renfrow only had runners in scoring position (2nd base) twice. He even registered a 3 up 3 down for his final frame. It was a quality start for him and a quality finish for reliever Matthew Siverling. Siverling did allow the Bobcats the opportunity to kill the skunk in the top of the 7th inning when he gave up three singles in a row, but only a single run scored and the game was called at the 7th inning stretch since Ohio had agreed to the run rule, and the Hokie offense was still using the quality bats.
For the Run Rule to Be You have to Score, Too
Well, it didn’t start out looking like the Hokies had managed to bring the big hammers to the game in the 1st inning. Sort of Ben Watson‘s single, the team was retired without threatening much of anything in the 1st. Both pitching staffs looked like this could develop into something of a duel.
Then it didn’t.
Renfrow got himself out of a little 2-out pinch in the top of the 2nd and kept the Bobcats from crossing the plate. The offense, starting four batters into the order, with Eddie Micheletti was looking at a choice, get going or it was going to be a long first game of a DH. Eddie M. did the ominous. He drew a lead-off walk. You can cue up the great white shark music at this point. Clay Grady singled, then Henry Cooke singled. Micheletti scored on that one. Then DH Eddie Eisert doubled, sending Grady home, and Cooke to 3rd. Gehrig Ebel and Christian Martin both grounded out, but Ebel’s generated a run. Martin’s put Eisert on 3rd. Instead of giving up with the three already across, Carson DeMartini generated an RBI knock scoring Eisert. Then Ben Watson tripled into deep right field pushing DeMart across the plate. Cannizaro drew a walk and turned the inning over with Micheletti coming up for a 2nd time but striking out. It had to have been one of the 5 best inning performances for the Hokies this season. They were working the pitches, working the ball into play, and advancing the runners.
The Hokies would go around the order, plus again in the bottom of the 6th, with Ebel hammering a lead-off homer, and then the Hokies just taking advantage of some pitching struggles by Ohio. They worked walks, singles, and HBPs into loaded bases, and a 6-run parade.
The Hokies would score 3 more in the bottom of the 6th, with singles, a throwing error by Ohio killing a double play, and a big 2 RBI triple by Carson DeMartini.
Game 2 was Definitely Different, but Not in the End
The run rule helped both teams, because with a two inning shorter game. The “nightcap” was looking like it would be played before any really bad weather started. It started pretty much as the 11am game did, not much in the way of better temperatures and still a drizzly rain popping in and out of the action more than struggling relief pitchers.
Hokie Pitching Surprised, Again
The head scratcher for the season has been where in the world did the starting rotation go for the Hokies? Both Wyatt Parliament and Griffin Stieg (Stieg with a worrisome 1st batter exit last weekend) have dropped off of the rotation. Game 2 was started by graduate transfer Jeremy Neff. He took to the bump with mostly a reliever’s record in place, and a loss on his chart. He didn’t look much like an overused reliever in this one. Neff posted a quality start, and even with a couple of pinch prone innings, managed a good start that was mostly great in that it lasted for five and a third innings. Tech, for the third game in a row, didn’t have to go deep into the bull pen to finish a game. Neff’s 2 run 73 pitch effort was enough to get the Hokies close. Reliever Jacob Exum came in and cleaned things up and slam the door with an inning and two-thirds of shutout work. That was short of two innings because the Hokie bats were still in the dugout from Game 1.
This Time the Scoring was Steady
The Hokies have been plagued with “bursty” scoring all season. They’d pile up runs in two or three innings in a game and go silent for the remainder. If that was enough to win, and it usually was for non-conference opponents, then it worked, but in tight games, it wasn’t a great formula, because solid pitching or tricky progressions like Duke’s constant changing of pitchers, presented problems for the Tech lineup.
Game 2 was more of a complete and steady effort where the Hokie offense opened up the scoring in the bottom of the first for 3 runs earned by small ball featuring a walk, three singles, and an HBP. While the Hokie pitchers were keeping the Bobcats from crossing the plate, the Hokies were just piling up the runs a few at a time. They scored 3 in the bottom of the 2nd with their characteristic long ball featuring a triple by Christian Martin, and an RBI single by Carson DeMartini, and a two-run homer by Chris Cannizzaro. The Hokies would put up 3 in the bottom of the 3rd with a couple of a single, a walk, and then a 3-run homer by Gehrig Ebel. Tech would score 2 in the bottom of the 5th and 3 in the bottom of the 6th, all with small ball singles, walks, and baserunning.
At the Plate
Total Hits: 13
Doubles: Christian Martin, Ben Watson
Triples: Christian Martin
Home Runs: Chris Cannizzaro, Gehrig Ebel
Sacrifice Flies: Christian Martin, Carson DeMartini
Hit by Pitch: Cannizzaro and Henry Cooke
* From Hokie Sports
With the run rule governing, the top of the 7th was in the hands of the pitching staff and Jacob Exum who had a couple of runs to play with gave up only an inconsequential single to end the game on an induced fly out to right.
Game 3 – Another Early Start, but a Regular End
A sweep of a double-header is a pretty rare thing, indeed. Sweeping both games with greater than 10 runs and in 7 innings each will attract some attention. Since these are non-conference games, often times the critics don’t pay a whole lot of attention, but Hokie nation is because Virginia Tech Hokie baseball, since the era of Head Coach John Szefc started, has now managed to pass the 30-win mark for the third straight season. They’ve also made the ACC tournament for four seasons in a row. (Remember the ACC Tournament is limited to the top 10 teams.)
The college baseball season is long and often bumpy. It starts in the dead of winter, and if your team can manage to go deep into the post season, it can last into July (well past the end of the semester). This team is enjoying success that it hasn’t tasted in quite a long time.
Now, On to Game Three and the Comeback that turned into a Rout
With the Hokies short another starter, since obviously Griffin Stieg was not available for the final game, it was up to the pitch-by-committee team to get this series closed out with a broom. It certainly didn’t look like that was going to happen in this one though.
The pitching staff put Grant Manning on the bump to start things off, and perhaps that wasn’t such a great choice given his heavy use over the last few weeks. Manning had a rough first inning with 2 outs up. He got out of the pickle, but his 2nd inning start also picked up the pickle where it left off in the 1st. Tech’s offense had manufactured a single run in the bottom of the 1st, but Ohio got Manning into a bad position and Jacob Stretch was sent in to limit the damage and clear the bases. He did manage to do that with a near miracle catch of a line shot and throw to third for the double play. That hot defensive play saved a run and kept Ohio’s scoring to 2. And that’s the way that it stayed for the Bobcats for the remainder of the game, which lasted all 9 innings for them.
Stretch made it through 3 and a third, but needed a bit of a pickup from David Shoemaker, who also got credit for the win. Shoemaker went 1 and two-thirds to set up Jordan Little to churn through two full innings, and then Preston Cowl slammed the door shut in the top of the 9th, but the game wasn’t in doubt at that point, because…
The Hokie Offense Found Their Bag of Good Bats
If you are wondering what happened to the equipment managers day, you’d have to probably check with them because they were probably busy trying to find the bag of good bats. The Hokies hadn’t managed to generate a whole lot of anything and much of nothing combined in the first four innings in Game 3. Even the announcers were noticing the struggle. Even as the Hokies’ Henry Cooke struggled around the bags and crossed the plate to tie it up 2-2 in the bottom of the 5th inning, the Tech offense was crickets chirping.
Then the bottom of the 6th rolled around, and Chris Cannizzaro did something dastardly. He drew a leadoff walk. Then he stole second base. Clay Grady pushed him to 3rd on a sacrifice fly. David McCann was plonked to load the bases, and Henry Cooke drew an RBI walk to reload the bags. Eventually, after a Gehrig Ebel line shot that just missed going into the outfield by a bit, Christian Martin generated a two RBI knock that pushed the score to 5-2. That three run burst pretty much ended Ohio’s chances of burning Tech’s broom.
At the Plate
Doubles: Christian Martin, Carson DeMartini, Ben Watson
Triples: Eddi Micheletti
Sacrifices: Christian Martin, Carson DeMartini
Steals: Christian Martin – 2, Chris Cannizzaro – 2, Eddie Micheletti, and Clay Grady
David McCann was plonked
*From Hokie Sports
As we said, before, the Bobcats didn’t score again after their 2nd inning flare up. Meanwhile, tech scored another 6 runs over the 7th and 8th innings including a manufactured run in the 7th, and a 5 run burst that featured extra base hits by DeMartini, Watson, and Micheletti. Tech only needed one more run to end the game on a run rule, early, but just couldn’t manage it. They’d have to settle for Preston Cowl slamming the door on the top of the 9th, which he did with a leadoff strike out, an induced fly out, and an emphatic “game over” standing KO. Tech wins it running away on a late start 11-2.
It’s the Home Stretch to the Post Season
Tuesday the team takes it on the road to play Liberty in Lynchburg. The Flames are not an easy team to beat, and certainly not in their house. It’s going to be a challenge to keep the win streak alive with an obvious Pitch-by-Committe game.
Then the Hokies wrap their home season with a three-game series against their ACC rivals the Miami Hurricanes, and a visit from the James Madison Dukes who beat Tech in Harrisonburg early in the season.
The Hokies will take their final regular season road trip to Hooville the weekend of the 18th of May. That’s two tough series and two tough non-conference opponents to finish out.
