After springing back from a three-run deficit with heavy-hitting offense, the Hokies’ bullpen played No. 16 Louisville right back into the game and then some, culminating in a 12-8 loss at English Field.
Virginia Tech (15-8, 3-5 ACC) peppered in runs across the game’s first six innings while the Cardinals (18-4, 3-2 ACC) struck pivotal rallies in the third and seventh, taking advantage of a lackluster day for the home pitching staff to tie the series.
“We played poorly the last three, four innings, we really pitched poorly,” Hokies head coach John Szefc said. “You have a 7-5 lead and give up seven straight, that’s bad. … Our guys hung in there pretty well over the course of a miserable four-and-a-half-hour game, but it wasn’t enough. You can’t give up twelve runs and expect to win, basically.”
Tech used nine pitchers on Saturday but none held Louisville at bay for long. Five of those arms — Jake Marciano, Grant Manning, Preston Crowl, Chase Swift and Luke Jackman — allowed at least one earned run. Two of the other four — Josh Berzonski and Luke Craytor — let someone else’s earned run cross home plate.
Jacob Exum and Mathieu Curtis fared well as the first relievers out of the bullpen, keeping the Cardinals scoreless through 10 batters between the third and fifth. They both saw quick removals, though, limiting their impact on Louisville’s 53-batter day.
Altogether, Tech pitching surrendered 18 hits and eight walks, two of which forced in runs, making for four walk-ins across the series’ first two games.
In a back-to-earth start, Marciano surrendered five earned runs, three of which came in the third frame as five of six Cardinals batters hit off him before Exum took over.
“He’ll respond,” Tech first baseman Garrett Michel said of Marciano. “It’s like what coach said when he went to take him out: ‘Look, like there’s gonna be times we don't have the best outings,’ and that’s true. It’s the same for us hitters.
“But he’s a dog, he’s gonna get back to work. It’s gonna make him hungry, so I’m actually really excited to see how he pitches next week and the following week, just because of how much that’s probably gonna piss him off in a good way.”
Another blight on the arms, according to Szefc, was underutilized slide stepping (shorter strides towards home plate during a pitcher’s throw), which he thought to be imperative against a speedy team like the Cardinals, who had eight stolen bases on Saturday — the most allowed all season by Tech. Center fielder Lucas Moore, who’s 11-for-13 on steal attempts this year, had three of them.
All 10 Cardinals with an official at-bat notched at least one hit, while four had multiple. Moore (4-for-6, three RBI) and catcher Tagger Tyson (4-for-6, two RBI) gave Tech marked trouble. Jake Munroe (2-for-5, RBI) and Eddie King Jr. (1-for-5, RBI) recorded homers.
The Hokies had the superior offense for much of the game but lost steam as the Cardinals utilized their linchpin relief arms. Home runs by Michel, Sam Tackett and Jared Davis evened the game at five, marking Tech’s three-run comeback.
Michel (3-for-5) put the Hokies up 7-5 with a two-run double in the sixth, making for a breakout four-RBI game for the junior. He was hitting .125 in ACC play coming into Game 2 but struck an offensive rhythm that he hadn’t found all year, including his first homer of the season.
“I spent a lot of time praying last night and I think that is the only answer [for my performance],” Michel said. “I’ve struggled to start the season, and I felt like I’ve been working hard, and I’ve been putting in good swings at BP. Just hasn’t gone to the game. But it was just a matter of time.”
Michel’s knock produced Tech’s last score until Hudson Lutterman drove in an ineffectual eighth run in the ninth inning, though it trailed 12-8 at that point. Offensive opportunity wasn’t uncommon at the tail end of the game, but execution was.
Just like Friday, the Hokies squandered a bases-loaded opportunity late in the sixth inning as Tackett uncharacteristically struck out to end the frame.
Down 9-7 two innings later, Tackett walked and stole second to — along with Treyson Hughes at third — hand Jackson Cherry another prime chance. He struck out, too.
Anderson French, pinch hitting for Ethan Gibson, wasted one more opportunity in a last-ditch ninth inning, flying out with runners on the corners to end the game. Tech ended 4-for-14 with runners in scoring position. Just two of its eight runs had come from second or third base.
French and Gibson were at the tail end of a long line of Hokies substitutions and position changes. Szefc wanted to get different looks with Game 3 and beyond in mind, and included in those was the return of Hughes, an outfielder who’d been out with a hip injury since March 5. Henry Cooke and David Lewis also made appearances after being benched to start.
The series rubber match will come Sunday at 1 p.m. ET on ACC Network Extra. Tech’s pitching room was thinned by its nine-arm Saturday, but Szefc doesn’t expect that to jeopardize his team in Game 3.
“Guys will have to come back and suck it up and be ready to get 27 outs like always,” he said. “We’ll be fine.”
Box Score: Louisville 12, Virginia Tech 8