In the third-to-last inning of Virginia Tech baseball’s series against No. 16 Wake Forest, it found itself in unfamiliar territory.
The Demon Deacons (20-9, 7-5 ACC) took their first lead all weekend after an RBI single from Luke Costello made Sunday’s contest 3-2 in the seventh inning. But in the ninth, bolstered by some unlikely heroes and contagious resilience, Tech (20-8, 7-5 ACC) creeped back for a 6-5 win in Winston-Salem, prolonging its statement stretch.
The series sweep marked the Hokies’ first against a ranked opponent since 2021 (No. 15 Pitt), their second straight ranked conference series victory and the eighth win in their last nine games.
Their perfect weekend moved them to fourth in the ACC, higher than four ranked teams — Wake Forest, No. 18 Louisville, No. 20 Stanford and No. 21 North Carolina — and lower than just No. 4 Florida State, No. 6 Clemson and No. 25 Georgia Tech.
Once again, unfamiliar territory — just not as nerve-wracking this time. Unless, of course, you’re in anticipation of the next D1Baseball ranking on Monday.
Tech’s top-25 case is strong, perhaps irrefutable, but it didn’t look quite as good after Sunday’s seventh inning.
Costello’s RBI knock was the second for Wake Forest that inning after Antonio Morales tripled to tie the game one at-bat before. They were the first two batters Hokies reliever Cameron LeJeune faced, but he steadied to retire four of his next six extending into the next inning.
But Tech flailed in the eighth as well, and all of a sudden, the sweep was in the hands of defense-first infielder Ethan Gibson, who was leading off the make-or-break ninth.
Just 5-for-21 on the year, his bat isn’t one Hokies head coach John Szefc typically trusts with innings on the line, much less games. But faced with Wake Forest lefty Zach Johnston — a linchpin relief arm who entered with a 2.08 ERA — and an exhaustion of usual pinch hitters, Gibson, a righty, subbed in for the left-handed David McCann.
Unfazed, the sophomore fit his second double of the year seamlessly into the left-center gap. A not-so-unfamiliar face as of late, Hudson Lutterman — who has 12 RBI in 33 at-bats, comfortably the best ratio on the team — brought Gibson around with a double of his own to even the score at three.
Then came David Lewis, whose struggles on both sides of the field led to Lutterman earning a consistent starting role at third base ahead of him. The senior pinch-hit for Jackson Cherry in the seventh and singled, then got a high-leverage chance in the ninth.
With Lutterman at second representing the go-ahead run, Lewis snuck an RBI single up the middle to bring him around — limiting the Demon Deacons’ time with the lead to just 1 ⅓ innings.
After a stint of small ball, Ben Watson singled to plate the soon-to-be winning run, and the Hokies entered the final side up 6-3. LeJeune struck out two of the first three batters before Cam Nelson (singled) and Matthew Scannell (tripled) combined to cut the deficit to one with a man looming at third.
Javar Williams was LeJeune’s final obstacle, and he sent him two quick strikes to force a flyout, ending an action-packed final two frames and sending the Hokies home with the win.
Can you believe the six innings before that featured some of the worst baseball either team had played all year?
Tech sent out a series of arms — Logan Eisenreich, Preston Crowl, Josh Berzonski, Mathieu Curtis and Luke Craytor — that weren’t bad, per se, but each had difficulty finding the strike zone. Combined, 53 percent of the pitches they threw were balls, resulting in a season-high 12 walks issued by Tech — blitzing the previous record of seven.
The win was the Hokies’ first with 12 or more walks delivered since March 5, 2023, a 12-4 victory over Charlotte. But as walk-heavy as the bullpen was, its situational pitching was largely flawless.
Wake Forest hit 0-for-14 with runners in scoring position before LeJeune entered the game. Before that, it had a single hit. The Demon Deacons’ star-studded one-through-six batters hit just 3-for-23 (.130).
The Hokies’ offense fared somewhat better before the ninth, but they were largely suffocated by Wake Forest starter Blake Morningstar. A sixth-inning solo homer from Watson (2-for-4, two RBI) was the only knot in the sophomore righty’s career-high 10-strikeout outing across seven innings.
The Hokies ended with 13 strikeouts, the same total they held on Saturday, meaning they won both games with a combined strikeout rate of 37 percent. Their last three RBI knocks on Sunday — the ones that cemented their first come-from-behind win in ACC play — all came in two-strike counts.
As dramatically as Tech bent, it seldom broke. Never enough to keep it from standing as a top team in the conference by Sunday evening, at least.
The Hokies return to Blacksburg for the second leg of a home-and-home with Radford on Tuesday (1 p.m., ACC Network Extra) before heading to South Bend for another road series against Notre Dame (14-11, 2-10 ACC) next weekend.
Box Score: Virginia Tech 6, No. 16 Wake Forest 5