The game of baseball reared its ugly head for Virginia Tech in its 8-1 loss to Radford on Tuesday. For a team two days removed from a ranked sweep — and its fingers crossed for a D1Baseball ranking — it was, to say the least, detrimental.
But the Hokies (20-9, 7-5 ACC) hope to keep the midweek out of mind in their upcoming series against Notre Dame this weekend. The Fighting Irish (14-12, 2-10) have struggled in conference play, but their true identity may be veiled in what’s been a gauntlet conference schedule thus far.
Game 1 of the series comes Friday at 4:30 p.m. ET, followed by a 2 p.m. start on Saturday and a 1 p.m. first pitch on Sunday, all on ACC Network Extra.
Thus far, Notre Dame has played Wake Forest — recently unranked, courtesy of Tech — No. 6 Clemson, No. 25 Georgia Tech and No. 4 Florida State, in that order. While not a top-10 team, the Hokies are tied for fourth place in the ACC and aren’t much of a break for the Fighting Irish.
They’re 12-2 in non-conference play with three top-100 Massey Ratings wins: Iowa (No. 42), Stetson (No. 75) and Michigan State (No. 91). What’s more impressive, though, is that they managed to take a game off Clemson and Florida State, the latter a 16-9 win at home last Friday.
In that game, Notre Dame took advantage of a markedly bad day for FSU’s bullpen — a key for the Hokies two weekends down the line — en route to its best win of the year. Still, its Friday starter, Jack Radel, surrendered four earned runs before reliever Ricky Reeth did the same behind him.
Radel (7.36 ERA), a 6-foot-5 right-handed sophomore, is 1-3 this year. He relies on a mix of pitches to keep hitters off balance and force them to chase, similar to the strategy Radford employed on Tuesday. Still, offense hasn’t been much of an issue for the Hokies lately, who hold a top five OPS (.882) in conference play despite dropping their first two series.
Notre Dame’s Saturday duties have recently been handled by Rory Fox (3.51 ERA), a righty who held Clemson to one earned run over four innings three starts ago, though he was starting on Sundays then. Since, he’s allowed three hits, four earned runs, 11 strikeouts and seven walks across five- and six-inning outings against Georgia Tech and Florida State, respectively. He earned a rather undeserved loss in the latter, since his offense plated just two runs in both games.
If this weekend echoes the last, righty Dylan Heine (7.66 ERA) will go on Sunday. In his first ACC start of the season against the Seminoles, he allowed eight earned runs and as many hits before recording his sixth out.
With that in mind, the Fighting Irish may pivot back to Jackson Dennies (6.41 ERA), another righty who started their first three ACC series — and took the loss in all three. He’s allowed 19 hits in his last 5 ⅔ innings.
Despite its struggles, an all-right-handed starting staff may be advantageous against Tech, whose lineup is righty-heavy. The loss of left-handed first baseman Garrett Michel — there remains no update on him from Tech head coach John Szefc — last weekend doesn’t help. It also begs questions about how the Hokies’ lineup will look this weekend.
Here’s an estimation based off handedness, recent performance and Tech’s look last Sunday — its first full game without Michel, which was played against a righty starter:
2B Jared Davis (right-handed)
LF Ben Watson (left-handed)
CF Sam Tackett (right-handed)
C Henry Cooke (right-handed)
DH David McCann (left-handed)
3B Hudson Lutterman (right-handed)
1B Treyson Hughes (left-handed)
RF Jackson Cherry (left-handed)
SS Clay Grady (right-handed)
Szefc tried infielder David Lewis at first base on Sunday, who tacked on his sixth error of the year, so he’s unlikely to take over for Michel.
Hughes started at first on Sunday and replaced Michel after his injury on Saturday. He’s a speedy weapon in center field where he typically plays, though, and switching Tackett — who’s been stout in right field — into center may be suboptimal. Another possibility is Hughes playing center field, Lutterman sliding to first base and infielder Ethan Gibson — who notched doubles in his last two games — getting a shot at third.
Whatever Szefc decides, Tech’s defensive look is likely to vary depending on scores and matchups. It walloped the Demon Deacons last Friday, then proceeded to shuffle things around on Saturday.
If precedence is to be considered, though, the Hokies’ offense should blitz that of the Fighting Irish no matter how they look. Tech is top-six in the ACC in runs, doubles, home runs, RBI, slugging and on-base percentage. Notre Dame is last in batting average and bottom-seven in the remainder of the above categories, except home runs — its 19 is just one behind Tech.
That’s largely in part to Fighting Irish sluggers Bino Watters (.319 batting average) and Estevan Moreno (.215), who have six home runs each this season. But their most efficient batter, Parker Brzustewicz, has none. Instead, he’s hit .341 en route to 31 hits — not numbers that stand atop the ACC, but are still impressive. Against ACC competition, he’s batting at a similar clip (.326).
The optics of the Hokies’ upcoming series are certainly encouraging, but as they learned Tuesday, treating every opponent like a threat is vital. The sting of their midweek disaster against Radford may find relief if they can maintain their recent conference success this weekend.