A nearly four-and-a-half-hour Hokies comeback effort was curtailed on Sunday when Georgia Tech pulled off a ninth-inning rally to claim an 8-6 victory and the series.
It was the second last-minute win of the weekend for the Yellow Jackets (13-3, 2-1 ACC) and another heart-wrenching loss for Virginia Tech (11-5, 1-2 ACC). After rebounding from a 6-2 deficit in the seventh — behind five scoreless relief innings and Ben Watson’s 2-for-4, three-RBI return to form — the Hokies gave up two ninth-inning runs and squandered late opportunities. They were 0-for-3 in their final at-bats with runners in scoring position.
Watson’s first home run of the year, a two-run shot over left field to plate a Sam Tackett (2-for-4, RBI) double, put the Hokies within a run in the third inning. He tied the game at six with an RBI single four frames later.
“The first [home run] of the season felt great,” said Watson, who had a bounce-back series against the Yellow Jackets (4-for-11, three RBI) after entering with the ACC’s worst slashing line. “I just went back to my roots and tried to hit the ball the other way. Early in the season, I was getting unlucky and then got in my head a little bit. I just hit the reset button and got back to what I’m good at.”
But in a ninth-inning bullpen performance all-too similar to Friday’s, Andrew Sentlinger and Luke Craytor combined to lose the tie Watson found.
On Friday, Craytor issued a pair of walks that Sentlinger couldn’t keep from home plate, turning a 3-2 Hokies lead into a 4-3 loss. It was Sentlinger who passed Craytor a walk two days later. The Lafayette transfer surrendered his own free base, then a Caleb Daniel double and Carson Kerce sacrifice fly to — again — plate a pair of runs that decided the weekend this time.
“When you walk guys in this league, teams usually make you pay,” Watson said.
But he thought the problem truly lied in a sputtering final inning for the offense. “We’re putting up zeros in the bottom of the ninth,” Watson said. “[Pitching] doesn’t really matter if we put up zeros.”
That side ended in four batters. Garrett Michel struck out on three pitches for a leadoff out, then Sam Tackett kept the Hokies breathing with a single. Three tosses and a pitching change later — Georgia Tech wanted Henry Cooke to face a righty-righty matchup — the game was over. Watson and Cooke cracked flyouts that were hardly threatening.
“We showed a good fight,” Watson said. “We need to get better at finishing the fight.”
“Gotta throw strikes, gotta play defense. Didn’t throw strikes, didn’t play defense,” said Hokies head coach John Szefc. “We didn’t have big at-bats. Need to give [Georgia Tech] credit. They did a really good job. They just kept running one arm after another.”
After both teams combined for 11 runs in the first three innings and Georgia Tech led 6-5, control shifted from the plate to the mound. Hokies reliever Preston Crowl (one hit in 2 ⅓ IP) and the Yellow Jackets’ Jaylen Paden (two hits in 3 ⅔ IP) kept frames four through six hitless.
Sentlinger (two hits, four walks and one earned run in three innings) replaced Crowl after his sixth-inning leadoff walk and continued the trend of scoreless baseball until Paden gave way to Watson’s tying two-out knock in the seventh. Tackett, who was hit by a pitch, made it to third base courtesy of Watson but was stranded as Cooke only managed a routine flyout.
Georgia Tech was stifled by Sentlinger through most of his outing — even failing to capitalize on loaded bases after a two-out rally in the eighth. The junior forced an Alex Hernandez flyout to end that frame, opening another window for the Hokies’ offense. Yet, they again stranded a runner at third and one more at second.
“They had some good arms,” Michel said. “I think we got ourselves out at times, though. I don’t know necessarily if they had better arms or we had [worse] at-bats, but we’ll learn from it and just be better in the long run.”
Those arms were backed by Georgia Tech’s six through nine hitters — Vahn Lackey, Parker Brosius, Daniel and Kerce — who combined for 7-for-14 and five RBI. Kyle Lodise (3-for-6, two RBI) was the only other Yellow Jacket to hit above .200.
Hokies pitcher Grant Manning continued a streak of troubled starts in lieu of would-be starter Logan Eisenreich’s flexor tendon injury. The graduate student pitched a clean first inning, but was quickly removed in the second after surrendering consecutive singles — one of which led to a Watson throwing error and a Yellow Jackets run — and a free base.
Manning’s relief, USC Upstate transfer Mathieu Curtis, gave up Lodise’s second hit of the game to make it 3-1, erasing a lead Michel’s RBI knock claimed the prior side. Curtis yielded two more runs before Crowl replaced him in the third.
Sunday’s barnburner was the Hokies’ longest nine-inning ACC affair since April 16, 2021 — a 15-11 loss to Georgia Tech that lasted 4:36. This season’s rendition wasn’t as high scoring, but it featured two unusual delays.
In the second inning, a batter’s interference was called on Jared Davis — he was too close to the plate during a throw that caught Clay Grady stealing second.
Both Davis and Grady were declared out, but after lengthy deliberation and a called flip of the side, the officials brought both teams back out to continue Davis’ at-bat. In an anticlimactic but amusing twist, Davis emerged from the 10-minute delay with a one-pitch strikeout.
The official explanation Szefc received:
“It was the home plate umpire, called interference, so the runner should be out, which he was. The reason why they corrected it was because it wasn’t the third strike. So, [Davis] shouldn’t have been out, which they called. And they ran it back up there with two strikes and threw a slider and struck him out. They made an initial mistake, and then they got it right.”
Play was paused again in the sixth inning as home plate umpire Jon Merry took a Cooke foul tip to the neck area and was removed following a delay to evaluate him. One umpire short, the game eventually carried on.
The Hokies hit the road next, traveling to James Madison (5-10) for a second midweek matchup against the Dukes on Wednesday, March 11, at 4 p.m. ET. ACC play resumes against NC State (11-5) next weekend.
“The loss motivates us,” Michel said. “We’re all pretty hungry for a win. It’ll motivate us to get one.”
Box Score: Georgia Tech 8, Virginia Tech 6