As if there weren’t a day between the Hokies’ 6-5 win at VCU on Tuesday and their loss to North Carolina on Sunday, they looked exhausted and disoriented in Richmond.
But behind just three hits, Virginia Tech left with its second win over the Rams (12-28) this season anyways — at their final-ever meeting at The Diamond, no less. VCU will move to the all-new CarMax Park next year.
Tech (26-15) didn’t play much better than in its weaker games against top-ranked foes over the last two weekends, but against a struggling team like the Rams — who rank No. 238 in RPI — mistakes arose to take advantage of. The Hokies were issued nine walks and twice swung crucial hits to plate them.
Planning to rest in the midweek, star right fielder Sam Tackett sat out the first seven innings but pinch-hit for Cam Pittman (0-for-4) in the eighth with the game tied at five. There were two outs and a man on first after Clay Grady’s full-count walk.
He found what the rest of the lineup couldn’t, slapping Tech’s first and only extra-base hit of the night down the left-field line. As it rolled, Grady charged through the bases and made it around to take a late, maybe undeserved 6-5 lead.
Six innings earlier, David Lewis stepped to the plate with two outs and two on, hoping to erase the 1-0 lead VCU took with Nick Flores’ leadoff homer in the first.
Henry Cooke and Hudson Lutterman were both issued free bases to get on, and each made it home with Lewis’ subsequent single. Cooke was plated naturally, but an error by VCU shortstop Nick April-Gath ushered Lutterman home from third.
That was the extent for RBI knocks for Tech, but it scraped together two more runs courtesy of Rams mishaps.
After his two-run — technically one-RBI — hit, Lewis made it to third off April-Gath’s error. Then Grady was hit by a pitch to put runners on the corners and set up a first-and-third trick play. Without hesitation, VCU catcher Jacob Lee threw to second as Cooke barreled towards home to put the Hokies ahead 3-1.
However, they found themselves down again the next inning. Rams pitcher Michael Walsh, hoping to help his team retain the lead, issued two four-pitch walks to start the third. Max Moore relieved him, striking out Ben Watson before surrendering yet another walk to Henry Cooke. It was a prime opportunity for the Hokies, but they managed only to tie the game at four with catcher David McCann’s sacrifice groundout.
Moore tossed until the fifth inning, when Joe Gomez took over and issued two walks and hit McCann to set up Lewis’ second RBI: A full-count walk to — again — tie the game, this time at five.
Jacob Exum and Josh Berzonski — and a five-pitch appearance from Luke Craytor where he hit his only batter — combined to render the Rams scoreless the rest of the way. Before them, though, Chase Swift stumbled in his return to starting since suffering an upper-back injury on April 9.
His first pitch of the game was taken beyond the left-field wall by Flores but he steadied through the rest of the opening frame. In the second, though, he surrendered three more runs off four hits. He finished with four strikeouts in 11 batters, but the Rams generally had good eyes on his pound-the-zone strategy — especially Flores.
He smacked a two-run double which shortened Swift’s leash, giving way to reliever Mathieu Curtis down 3-1. The USC Upstate transfer allowed a double before retiring six of his next seven batters, though he walked Seth Werchan, who came around courtesy of a steal, a McCann error on the throw to second and a sacrifice fly.
Berzonski closed the last three innings with Tech’s most spirited performance of the night, celebrating through every strikeout and visibly psyching himself up after the few mistakes he did make.
He got out of the seventh and eighth innings in just four batters. He saw five in the ninth, but only because Tech opted to intentionally walk Adrian Jiminez to give Berzonski a lefty-lefty matchup with Will Henson. Berzonski notched his third strikeout in just four pitches, ending the game with a celebratory roar off the mound. He moved to 4-0 on the year with his runless 41-pitch outing.
After scraping out their 10th midweek win in 11 tries, the Hokies get a couple days to rest before facing Duke (28-14, 12-9 ACC) in Durham this weekend. The series begins Friday at 6 p.m. ET on ACC Network Extra.
Box Score: Virginia Tech 6, VCU 5