Lightning struck at 4:23 p.m. in Durham on Saturday. The crack of its thunder forced Virginia Tech baseball off the field along with Duke, who held a 6-0 lead with two outs in the bottom of the third and seemed primed to take Game 2 with ease.
Seventy-five minutes later, when the Hokies returned to Jack Coombs Field and the Blue Devils stepped back onto the bases they’d already loaded, reliever Luke Jackman promptly walked in another run to put Duke up 7-0.
At that point, it would’ve taken a historic bounce back to avoid dropping their third straight ACC series. And though it took 11 innings to secure — this matchup’s fourth extra-innings affair in its last five games — that’s exactly what they did.
Behind an increasingly rare surge of offense and an incandescent nine-strikeout, 4 ⅔-inning finish by Grant Manning, Tech pulled off its biggest ACC-play comeback in program history, winning 9-8 in the series’ second consecutive 11-frame contest.
On Friday, Blue Devils (29-15, 13-10 ACC) outfielder AJ Gracia walked off the series opener with an 11th-inning home run, punishing a Hokies (27-16, 11-12) offense that, even with a slew of chances handed to it by stout pitching, failed to produce late.
Even though Tech managed an 8-7 lead over Duke with Henry Cooke’s second home run of the game in the sixth after roaring back with eight unanswered runs, it seemed like Saturday would end on a similar note. Between the end of that frame and the beginning of the 10th, 11 Tech batters were retired in a row. On the other side, it allowed the second and final hit of Manning’s outing — a Ben Miller RBI single in the eighth — to tie the game at eight and force extras.
In the 10th, the Hokies placed two runners in scoring position but stranded both. Manning struck out the entirety of the bottom side, making eight retired batters in his last nine. His performance opened yet another window for his offense, which finally stepped up in the 11th.
Clay Grady took Duke reliever James Tallon’s second pitch of the inning through the left side for a leadoff single before reaching second off a passed ball. Jared Davis, batting 0-for-4 to that point, fouled two tosses off before smacking one down the right-field line for a double, advancing Grady to third in the process.
Cooke (3-for-6, five RBI) had been instrumental to that point, but flubbed a groundout to the shortstop to keep the runners in place. Then up came the ever-reliable Ben Watson, who plotted the game-winning knock with Tech coach John Szefc before executing it seamlessly. He simply lifted the ball to deep-center field and watched Grady speed home. Now up 9-8, Tech was one more Manning push away from victory.
Duke’s leadoff man, Jake Hyde, dueled with the graduate student, going up 3-1 before becoming Manning’s second backwards K in the last two innings. Tyler Albright lasted one pitch, which he grounded off for out two. Finally, Ben Rounds flied out off Manning’s 73rd pitch, cementing Tech’s biggest conference comeback win in program history. That record was previously recorded in a 24-9 win at Florida State on April 21, 2023, in which the Hokies were down 5-0 at one point.
Tech was behind 6-0 before the end of Saturday’s first inning. Freshman arm Jake Marciano lacked control and movement, which led to four first-frame hits, two walks and two hit batters. Hyde made it 2-0 with a double before Macon Winslow and Jake Berger added an RBI apiece. Wallace Clark doubled down the left field line, putting six runs on the board before the Hokies — who went three up, three down the top side — even reached base.
Tech hit off Duke starter Andrew Healy twice in the next two innings but didn’t score in either. The Blue Devils’ offense — now faced with Hokies reliever Jacob Exum — cooled off in the second before reigniting in the third against Brendan Yagesh. The Mount St. Mary’s transfer surrendered subsequent singles and a walk around two outs, warranting a move to Jackman before the weather delay.
He walked in Rounds before retiring the next seven Duke batters. Curtis outed three of six before Manning took over midway through the seventh. By then, it was tied. Tech’s offense finally came alive in the fifth.
Hudson Lutterman and Nick Locurto — making his second career start — cracked a single and double, respectively, to lead off the frame and fill second and third for Grady. He delivered a well-placed grounder to the left, scoring Lutterman in sacrifice. Then Davis walked, meaning Cooke’s subsequent center-field homer scored three to make it 7-4.
Duke reliever Ryan Calvert, who started the inning and managed a single out, was pulled for Gabe Nard. He fared better, but not by much. His first two batters were Sam Tackett (walked) and Ben Watson (singled), who both got on base. David McCann grounded out next, advancing both of them and putting Watson in position to score on a wild pitch. David Lewis struck out to end the five-run inning, stranding Tackett in the process.
Nard returned to face Lutterman and Cooke in the sixth, both of whom homered. The junior catcher’s second of the game plated himself and Locurto after the sophomore was hit by a pitch.
Cooke doubled his home run count in ACC play on Saturday and now has seven on the season. He belted two long balls on March 12 against Marist last year, but the win over Duke marked his first career multi-homer game in league play. His .316 average this year trails only Watson (.383) and Tackett (.333) in conference competition.
Although it didn’t seem like a rubber match would be necessary before Saturday’s weather break, a rubber match there will be. The Hokies and Blue Devils face off for the series at 1 p.m. ET on Sunday.
Box Score: Virginia Tech 9, Duke 8 (11 innings)