Death, taxes and No. 5 Virginia Tech taking a weekend series from an ACC opponent in 2022.
It’s become a common theme this year, and while some fans’ heads have turned, John Szefc knew his team was this talented coming into the season. In an early February interview, the Hokies’ head coach believed that his team would mirror what Notre Dame did in 2021.
The Irish came out of nowhere last season, claimed the ACC regular season title before falling one win short of a trip to the College World Series last spring.
“If you went out and watched Notre Dame this time last year,” Szefc said in February, “you’d be saying the same thing. Why is this guy in the lineup? Who even is he?”
Szefc’s evaluation was more than fair. Griffin Green, who has turned in excellent Friday start after excellent Friday start, pitched sparingly last year out of the bullpen; Drue Hackenberg was an unproven freshman that’s quickly turned into one of the best pitchers in the ACC; the lineup and bullpen, which were strengths halfway through 2021, were bullied during the latter portion of the ACC schedule.
But this season, and especially this weekend, Virginia Tech has been the bully.
It was more of an unconventional series win at Disharoon Park in Charlottesville against No. 14 Virginia (33-12, 14-10 ACC) for Virginia Tech (31-10, 14-8 ACC). Typically, Green and Hackenberg team up for a Friday and Saturday win, while turning Sunday into a bullpen day.
The Hokies got the first part of the equation right with a 5-2 on Friday, but Hackenberg struggled in 4 ⅔ innings on Saturday which ended up in a 6-3 loss for Tech. That set up the oft-used bullpen day in game three.
For the second Sunday in a row, Henry Weycker pitched 4 ⅔ innings, which stabilized the game for the offense and gave Tech enough time to overcome a four-run deficit over the final six innings for a 7-5 win.
The Hokies continued to turn heads and jumped up from No. 7 to No. 5 in the D1 Baseball poll on Monday, their highest ranking ever. They also rose 18 spots over the weekend to No. 5 in the RPI rankings.
Friday – Virginia Tech wins 5-2
Green has emerged as one of the best arms in the ACC. A quiet guy in conversation but loud and filled with emotions on the field, he’s helped turn in six-straight series-opening wins on the bump and was just as masterful against the high-powered Cavalier offense.
It wasn’t going to be an easy task – UVa came in with the third-best batting average across Division 1. Tech trailed the Cavaliers by a spot at No. 4, but Green lived up to the challenge after scattering seven hits and four runners to limit Virginia to one run.
He got a lot of help from his defense early. Nick Biddison, Eduardo Malinowski and Carson DeMartini combined for a 9-4-5 relay in the bottom of the second, which cut down Jake Gelof, who tried to take third on a lead-off triple.
UVa later had runners on second and third before Malinowski leaped in the air to snag a line drive for the second out and then loaded the bases on a walk before Green was able to induce an inning-ending double play.
But the defense was enough to spark Tech’s offense, which scored two runs in the third on DeMartini’s 11th home run of the season and a Jack Hurley RBI single. Virginia struck back with a run in the fourth, but that’s all it would score off of Green.
In the sixth, Tech added two more insurance runs when Conor Hartigan doubled home Cade Hunter from first and Lucas Donlon traded places with Hartigan on second one pitch later. Then, Biddison smoked a solo home run in the ninth to increase Tech’s lead to 5-1, while Graham Firoved, who recorded the final six outs, yielded a solo homer to Chris Newell in the ninth.
But that’s where the final score would stand as Firoved got the next three hitters to go down in order.
Saturday – Virginia wins 6-3
It’s become synonymous for Hackenberg to follow up Green’s Friday start with a better one of his own. But for the first time since March 13, Tech dropped a Hackenberg start.
Hackenberg worked relatively unscathed for the first three innings until Gelof hit a home run with an out in the fourth. Then with two outs in the fifth, the floodgates opened.
Kyle Teel, Alex Tappen, Gelof and Devin Ortiz all hit two-out RBI singles to give UVa a 6-0 lead by the time Hackenberg departed with two outs in the fifth. Tech responded with Tanner Schobel’s RBI single in the sixth that scored Biddison. Schobel was thrown out trying to steal second, but Gavin Cross scored before he was tagged out.
Grant Umberger, Christian Worley, Ryan Metz, Sean Fisher and Brady Kirtner worked the final 10 scoreless outs for Hackenberg in relief. Schobel added a solo home run in the ninth for his 14th home run of the year to bring Tech closer, 6-3, but Brandon Neeck set down Hurley, Malinowski and Cade Hunter to win Saturday’s game.
Sunday – Virginia Tech wins 7-5
Sunday in the ACC hasn’t been very kind to the Hokies. They’ve been searching for a true Sunday starter all year and received two solid outings from Jordan Geber against Miami two weeks ago and at Boston College last Sunday.
The two starts were enough for Szefc to trust Geber to pitch against one of the top lineups in the nation, but he struggled against the seven batters he faced, yielding four runs on three hits, a walk and two homers. He departed after VT had surrendered a 4-0 lead and that’s when Szefc turned to Weycker, who dealt for the second consecutive Sunday out of the bullpen.
He threw 4 ⅔ scoreless innings, which gave Tech enough time for the offense to figure out Virginia starter Jake Berry, who departed in the fifth inning after VT had pulled back to within a run.
How did the Hokies get there? Well, a Malinowski sacrifice fly and Hunter’s RBI single in the fourth cut the deficit in half, 4-2. In the fifth, Schobel smoked an RBI double with runners on first and second, while Hurley tied the game at four with a sacrifice fly of his own.
After a short rain-delay before the bottom of the sixth began, Weycker and Firoved worked a scoreless inning after stranding runners on the corners. To begin the seventh, Cross hit the go-ahead home run while Hunter followed with his second RBI single of the game and Lucas Donlon also added an infield RBI single.
Following the top of the seventh, Tech led by three runs, 7-4, as Firoved worked the final 13 outs. However, he yielded a solo homer to Tappen with two outs in the seventh to bring UVa a run closer, 7-5.
But Firoved bounced back as he set down seven of his final eight hitters before Teel popped up to Malinowski at second base to end the game. That gave Tech its first series win in Charlottesville since the school joined the ACC prior to the 2005 season.
For now, Virginia Tech is in the driver’s seat to host its first NCAA Regional since 2013. Ironically, that’s the last time the team made the tournament.
But first, the Hokies travel to Marshall on Wednesday before ending the season on a 10-game homestand. Villanova and No. 10 Louisville come to town over the next two weeks while Duke rounds out the ACC schedule.