The fly ball carried and carried through the shadows, through the wind, in front of the left-center wall, and off the glove of the left fielder before it was picked up and thrown back in. The Hokies that took over the ballpark at Patriots Point in Mount Pleasant, S.C., who were filled with more grumbles than elation to that point, erupted into a loud cheer in the top of the sixth inning.
Virginia Tech center fielder Jack Hurley, who already had a triple in his back pocket, saw the baseball scoot away from College of Charleston’s cut-off man and took off for home plate. Hurley was already sliding across home plate by the time the ball was thrown back to the infield.
Down 3-1 with Carson DeMartini on first base, Hurley delivered a game-tying Little League home run. The Hokies (1-1) emptied out of the away dugout and formed a crowd for Hurley after he crossed home plate. For a team that struggled to put runs on the board in the first 15 innings of its season, the inside-the-parker jolted the No. 14 Hokies’ offense awake in which it scored 11 unanswered runs over the final four innings en route to a 12-3 victory over the Cougars (1-1).
“There’s no better way than a come from behind win on the road,” Tech head coach John Szefc told Tech Sideline after the win. “Our guys had only scored three runs [before Hurley’s triple] the whole weekend. So it was important.”
On Friday, the offense only managed three hits. On Saturday, though, Tech recorded 12 with three going for extra bases. But it started just about the same way Friday ended.
Like Griffin Green on Opening Day, Drue Hackenberg had little issue with Charleston’s lineup. He yielded three runs (one earned) and struck out four in his 4 ⅔ innings. He gave his team a start good enough to come away with a win, but the offense had only picked up three hits to that point.
The Hokies had an early 1-0 lead in the second inning thanks to Garrett Michel’s RBI single, but it was quickly erased once the Cougars scored three in the fifth.
Henry Weycker replaced Hackenberg with two outs in the fifth. With a runner on third, he bounced a pitch to Gehrig Ebel that allowed the third run of the inning to score. But trailing 3-1, Weycker bounced back to punch out JT Marr for the first of his career-high 10 strikeouts.
Hurley’s Little League homer came an inning later. Weycker returned for the bottom of the sixth, striking out two of the three hitters he faced. That’s when the momentum flipped.
“I knew I hit it [well],” Hurley said. “I thought it was going to [go out of the park] because the wind blows a lot more at Tech than it does here.”
In the next three innings, Tech scored nine more runs. The Hokies faced one of their former teammates in the seventh with the game tied at three.
With Marcus Dux, who transferred from Tech over the summer, on the mound and the bases loaded, David Bryant singled through the right side of the infield to score two runners. Then Chris Cannizzaro doubled home Ebel and Bryant. And finally, Carson Jones singled home Cannizzaro to cap off the five-run inning with an 8-3 Tech lead.
“We’re kind of just passing it on to the next guy,” Michel said. “And that’s what we have to do every game. The next guy is going to be able to do the same thing as you.”
But neither Weycker’s dominance or Tech’s offensive machine was done quite yet. After allowing a lead-off single, Weycker toyed with the next three hitters, setting them all down on strikeouts.
“We were just trying to build on it as much as we can because you know you’re on the road and you never know what’s going to happen,” Szefc said.
In the top of eighth, the Hokies scored four more runs. Here’s how: With runners on first and second, Carson DeMartini singled home a run, then Jack Hurley reached on a safety squeeze that plated another. Next, Carson Jones grounded out to second for the second out, but the ball was hit deep enough to score DeMartini. Michel followed with his second RBI on his third hit of the afternoon, scoring Hurley.
“It’s challenging as a freshman,” Michel said. “But it’s not something that’s unbearable, I accept the challenge. It’s awesome, it’s something that I strived for. I’ve worked so hard for this moment – it’s awesome.”
Soon, Virginia Tech’s lead swelled to 12-3 and Weycker punched out four more batters over the next two innings. He shoved.
“First outing, you got the jitters, just like every year,” Weycker said. “But after the first couple innings – and to group everything together – yeah, I was pretty confident.”
The offensive explosion late clouded Tech’s offensive struggles through its first 15-or-so innings this season. But the Hokies have many more chances to fix their issues. The corrections started in the later innings and can continue on Sunday with a chance at a series win.
“If we play like we did today, our pitching does their thing and our offense continues to put up runs, I think we can go a really long way,” Hurley said.
Box Score: Link