No. 25 Virginia Tech baseball’s bats were hushed by No. 9 Florida State and pitcher Joey Volini in Game 1 of Saturday’s doubleheader. It was a discouraging slog that featured just four Hokies hits and five innings with no more than three batters.
Now, imagine having to do it all over again that same day — this time against the consensus top pitcher in July’s MLB draft.
That was Tech’s reality in its doubleheader loss to the Seminoles (26-7, 9-4 ACC) at a brisk English Field on Saturday. It fell 3-1 in Game 1, then 12-1 in the second leg for its first ACC-series loss since March 15.
“What do you want me to say? We got a pretty solid ass whooping right there,” Tech coach John Szefc said. “Gotta move on from it. [FSU] was way better than us today, no doubt about it. Just gotta rebound from it. This league can be cruel at times, and it’s a cruel day. You got some pretty good days and some pretty bad days. This is one of the bad days.”
The Hokies (23-12, 9-8) totaled just four hits against Arnold across his seven-inning stint in Game 2, which was just as many home runs as Tech starter Jake Marciano surrendered that same game.
Don’t misunderstand — Marciano was solid outside of leaving a few costly pitches hanging. He notched eight strikeouts and held the ACC’s best home-run hitting team to a manageable four runs. And in Game 1, Brett Renfrow delivered one of his best outings of the year — considering the opponent — with eight knockouts in his first 15 batters. He held FSU to, again, a reasonable three runs. Preston Crowl backed him with no earned runs allowed and five strikeouts over three innings. Pitching wasn’t the problem.
Rather, it was that Tech managed just eight hits, five of which belonged to Ben Watson and Anderson French. With Watson (3-for-6 across doubleheader) notching all of his hits in the first game and French (2-for-5) finding all of his in the second, there was no hope of pulling each other in. Henry Cooke — with a fielder’s choice single in Game 1 and a Game 2 double — was responsible for both of Tech’s RBI.
The Hokies finished 8-for-59 across the doubleader. Jared Davis (0-for-7), Hudson Lutterman (0-for-7), Jackson Cherry (0-for-4), Ethan Gibson (0-for-4), David Lewis (0-for-2) and Sam Tackett (0-for-7) each failed to record a hit.
There were 12 strikeouts between them, six of which belonged to Tackett. The graduate student’s recent at-bats have been defined by poor judgement and whiffs, a trend which spiraled on Saturday. He was once the ACC’s top batter; he’s now tied for the league lead in strikeouts in conference-only play.
“He’s struggling, man. Just struggling,” Szefc said. “Good player, good hitter. Just not in a good place right now. Hopefully he can right the ship.”
Watson, who was knee-deep into a slump of his own during Tackett’s early-season success, believes it’s a matter of confidence.
“He’s on the down part of the roller coaster right now, but we know he’ll get back up,” Watson said. “He just needs to get some more confidence back.”
The only Tech batter to hit off Volini in Game 1 was Watson, who managed to do so twice but never made it past second base. In fact, only two runners did so across either game, even with FSU walking seven batters. The Hokies’ offense was simply stunned by the best pitching they’d seen all year.
“It’s just a unique look,” Watson said of Arnold. “Just coming from the slot that he comes at, and his fastball, no one really has a fastball like he does. Everyone was talking, everyone thought they could see his stuff pretty well. He was just a good arm and executed his pitches.”
“Arnold’s a million-dollar arm,” Szefc said. “You gotta be really good to execute plans against that. Volini throws a ton of strikes, he might be the best arm in the league. They’re both pretty good. We scored two runs in two games, so I don’t know what to say.”
The first inning of Game 1 was an early sign of what was to come. Renfrow allowed a walk and a hit, but ultimately got out of the inning with a pair of strikeouts. Tech answered by going down in three batters. Renfrow struck out the next side and tallied two more the next, but the bats behind him went nowhere despite being issued a pair of walks.
Renfrow cooled after his eighth strikeout in the fourth inning, giving up three free bases — including hitting two batters — to walk in the first run. The Hokies responded with their own next inning, but FSU mustered two more in the top of the fifth, taking further advantage of the end of Renfrow’s line.
With Volini (two hits, five Ks in seven innings) still going strong and Crowl (three hits allowed, five Ks) tossing three shutdown frames, the score stalled at 3-1 the rest of the way.
Game 2 was messier, and much more disheartening for Tech. Arnold saw just nine batters in the first three innings, routinely making the Hokies take foolish swings and puzzling them with his odd, low-angle rising fastball and wide slider.
They gradually found more contact until French broke through with their first hit in the third. Cooke followed with an RBI double in the fourth to make it 3-1 — their second and final run of the day. By the time Marciano was pulled in the sixth, Florida State’s three solo home runs became four.
Mathieu Curtis held Florida State off for an inning and a third, but relievers Luke Craytor (three earned runs), Luke Jackman (one), Brandon Cowen (two) and Parker Sweeney let the deficit get out of hand.
Though he allowed three runs — earned by Cowen and Jackman — Sweeney put Tech out of its proverbial misery with two strikeouts in the ninth, giving way to one last three-and-out side.
With a day of rest and reset, Tech hopes to avoid a sweep to the Seminoles on Sunday. First pitch comes at noon ET on ACC Network Extra.
“Everyone’s gonna lose,” Watson said. “It sucks, but it’s about how you respond. Tomorrow is a really big day for us. 1-2 on a weekend is a lot better than 0-3. When you go back and look at the end of season, just responding [is what’s important]. Everyone’s gonna lose; it’s just how you bounce back from it.”
Game 1 Box Score: No. 9 Florida State 3, No. 25 Virginia Tech 1
Game 2 Box Score: No. 9 Florida State 12, No. 25 Virginia Tech 1