Virginia Tech’s recent stretch of all-around baseball came to a screeching halt Sunday afternoon as East Carolina broke a near five-inning deadlock that the Hokies couldn’t escape.
Tech (8-3) won its last five games by a combined score of 38-11, coasting on incandescent pitching and a myriad of scoring methods. But in the Hokies’ 6-1 loss to the Pirates (5-6) at their Clark-LeClair ballpark in Greenville, N.C., hits were sparse, and scoring ones even more so.
Only Jared Davis (2-for-5), Sam Tackett (2-for-3, RBI) and Garrett Michel (1-for-2) recorded a hit. The Pirates handed Tech seven walks, but its 1-for-9 mark with runners in scoring position — 2-for-13 if you add those stranded at first — kept nearly all of them off home plate.
Hokies pitcher Grant Manning delivered an outing that, despite three earned runs, was one of the most dominant for any Tech arm this season. Occasional mistakes hurt him, like a fifth-inning two-run homer by Alex Bouche that saw a Manning slider curl a bit too far into the center of the plate, but he performed well considering some bad luck.
The fourth hit he allowed came in the sixth inning and turned into ECU’s third run after he was removed. Costly hits, sure, but the graduate student’s nine strikeouts — which tied Brett Renfrow for the most in an outing this season — over 16 batters opened numerous windows for the Hokies’ offense that it failed to capitalize on.
The Dublin, Calif., native entered the game in relief after McNeese State transfer Cameron LeJeune started in his first appearance of the season. LeJeune, a righty, faced four batters in the first inning before his trial run ended — typical for a pitcher working back from injury.
Shortstop Clay Grady was injured Sunday after a second-inning steal attempt saw him make full-speed head-and-shoulder contact with Bouche’s leg at second base. A stretcher was rolled out onto the infield, but Grady returned to the dugout under his own power. No further update was provided.
Grady was a defensive standout for Tech this season and would be an extremely costly loss heading into ACC play next weekend. His backup, Ethan Gibson, provides sound defense but bats .154 — the lowest mark on the team aside from Ben Watson (.146).
However, Gibson was the only Hokies batter to see full bases Sunday — that at-bat came two after Tackett’s RBI single to put his team within one in the sixth inning. The sophomore lined out just in range of ECU second baseman Dixon Williams’ leap to end the inning and strand three.
The Hokies got on base just twice more across the last three frames, with neither runner advancing past first, and six of the last nine outs retired at the plate. The Pirates, however, exploded in the eighth inning to further dwindle Tech’s chances at a last-minute comeback.
USC Upstate transfer Mathieu Curtis started the inning for Tech trailing 3-1. ECU’s first two batters — Austin Irby and Michael Kalinich — singled to put two on for Braden Burress, whose right-center double ballooned the Pirates’ lead to four. After Burress advanced to third on a foul out, the Hokies called upon Luke Jackman to send two more batters away. He ended the frame after three at-bats, but not before tossing a wild pitch to plate a sixth and final ECU run.
The Hokies’ last-ditch chance at offensive magic? A Henry Cooke strikeout, a Gibson strikeout, a Davis single and then a Watson groundout.
The Pirates’ arm triumvirate of Lance Williams, Ethan Young and Brad Pruett totaled 13 strikeouts en route to their second-straight one-run defensive affair. ECU — an NCAA Tournament host in 2024 — started 3-6 this year but harbors unquestionable talent that shone through on Sunday and in its 13-1 win over Indiana State on Saturday.
The Hokies finished their third weekend of the season 2-1, the same mark as the other two. Bullpen — Manning effectively started — and situational hitting woes reminiscent of a subpar 2024 campaign aren’t what they hoped to see a week out from in-conference play (Georgia Tech on March 7), but it remains fast approaching.
Before that, Virginia Tech will return home for a two-game midweek foray against Norfolk State (0-8) on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Box Score: East Carolina 6, Virginia Tech 1