After shaking No. 16 Louisville early, Virginia Tech rode a wave of momentum to win 11-4 and notch some key benchmarks on Sunday: First ACC series win, first victory over a ranked opponent and head coach John Szefc’s 600th career win.
The Hokies (16-8, 4-5 ACC) have taken three of their last four conference games, outscoring opponents 44-28 across that stretch. They won on Friday, then relinquished an early lead to the Cardinals (18-5, 3-3) to lose on Saturday. But in Game 3, Tech got back on track early to claim the series at home.
“It was a big weekend for us,” Szefc said. “If we’re going to start to make a little bit of a name for ourselves this year, if these guys are going to make an identity, so to speak, I think that you’ve got to win your home series, and you’re playing a really good opponent. … We played really well and got out to a good start in the second inning.”
By the end of that frame, the Cardinals — namely starter Peter Michael, though TJ Schlageter relieved him by the inning’s tail end — had surrendered three hits, eight free bases and six runs to the Hokies.
“He didn’t have his good stuff,” Szefc said of Michael, who’s been a top ACC arm this season. “He couldn’t throw his fastball for a strike and his slider, we hit it. That wasn’t the guy that’s been mowing people down.
“The comparison I’d make is yesterday, [Jake] Marciano wasn’t [at his best] but he’s gonna have a ton of success. You have two really good pitchers right there. Neither one of those guys was really at their best.”
Tech’s offensive blitz continued with seemingly unending Louisville mistakes, eventually capping at 10 unanswered runs in the fifth inning.
Ultimately, the Hokies reached first base off walks, hit batters or catcher’s interference 15 times, roughly half of their 31-free base affair. They recorded 11 hits, tying their second-most in ACC play thus far, including a home run from Jared Davis (3-for-4), who took Michael’s second pitch of the game 408 feet over the left-field wall.
He and Clay Grady — who had a breakout 3-for-3 game that included a bases-loaded double in the second — had a pair of RBI. Sam Tackett, Ben Watson, David Lewis, Treyson Hughes and Henry Cooke had one. By all means, Tech’s offense thrived.
If you ask Szefc, though, that wasn’t the story of his team’s marquee win. To him, it was penned by reliever Andrew Sentlinger, who stonewalled the Cardinals after Logan Eisenreich’s quick removal, who threw 18 balls in 31 pitches as he eased back from injury.
Sentlinger inherited two of Eisenreich’s three walks, then dispelled the threat in eight pitches. He saw just four more baserunners across the rest of his 4 ⅔-inning day, with two walks and as many hits. By his removal in the seventh inning, the Cardinals were scoreless, and the Hokies were in run-rule range — an invaluable performance coming off Tech’s nine-pitcher Saturday.
“Six straight [no-run innings], that’s really impressive stuff,” Szefc said. “After a long day, that’s what you need to win the series. He was outstanding. … If that guy can throw strikes with upper 90s and carry, he’s gonna get a lot of guys out. And that’s exactly what he did.”
The Charlotte, N.C., native entered the game with a 6.92 ERA and an 0-3 record. He said his performance encouraged him to some degree, but he still approaches every game with the same reserved confidence, which aligned with Grady’s assessment of him:
“He’s awesome. Sent, he doesn’t say much. He just gets to business. It’s exciting to see him get on the mound and do what he’s good at.”
Tackett’s storybook season continued despite a quieter day than usual for the fifth-year senior. In the third inning, he was intentionally walked for the first time in his career. He was permitted to bat his next time up, knocking an RBI single and convincing Louisville coach Dan McDonnell to intentionally walk him in his final two at-bats.
“That was very cool,” Davis said of Tackett’s walks. “Only thing I [thought about] that was, that’s like Barry Bonds. He had to feel like Barry Bonds by the end.”
According to D1Baseball, batters were intentionally walked three times in a game on nine occasions last season, with Jac Caglianone accounting for four of them. He was drafted sixth overall by the Kansas City Royals in the 2024 MLB Draft.Health was another key for Tech this weekend. Hughes, an outfielder, made his first start Sunday after a brief appearance Saturday and three weeks recovering from a pinched nerve in his hip. With reliever Cameron LeJeune also back in full swing, the Hokies are emerging from an early-season injury slog that has hampered them at times.
Next up, Tech heads to Radford for the first leg of a home-and-home with the Highlanders on Tuesday at 6 p.m. ET on ACC Network Extra. Next weekend, the Hokies go south to Winston-Salem to play No. 11 Wake Forest.
Box Score: Virginia Tech 11, No. 16 Louisville 4