Virginia Tech baseball fended off Mercer 6-5 on Sunday to sweep the weekend's two-game set.
It's the first time the Hokies have won back-to-back contests in over a month — since they beat Notre Dame and then-No. 20 Troy on April 6 and April 9, respectively. They rode a six-game losing streak into this series but won 2-0 on Saturday.
Tech (29-22) jumped out to a 4-0 lead in Blacksburg before the Bears (31-22) responded and knotted things up at five. In the end, Sam Tackett's run in the eighth inning, courtesy of a Henry Cooke sacrifice fly, was the difference.
After both squads went down in order in the opening frame, Tech drew first blood when David McCann blasted a home run to right field in the bottom of the second. It was the 11th bomb of the year for the sophomore and the third in the month of May. He had two last weekend at Pitt.
At the same time, Jake Marciano started on the mound for the Hokies and struck out four while throwing three scoreless innings. He yielded a walk to Michael Griziano in the second and a single to David Falloon in the third but didn't concede a run despite the latter advancing all the way to third base. Of his 56 pitches, 39 were for strikes. The freshman also won 10- and eight-pitch battles with Mercer's Brant Baughcum.
With Tech playing five games over the next week — a midweek vs. Marshall (Tuesday), three vs. Virginia at English Field (Thursday-Saturday) and an ACC Tournament game (next Tuesday) — it used a committee approach on Sunday to limit pitch counts, similar to Saturday's contest that featured four arms.
After Marciano was solid early, Chase Swift relieved him and found similar success. The first batter he faced to begin the fourth, Bradley Frye, nearly went yard to right field but was robbed by Tackett. After Titan Kamaka flew out to Tackett on the next at-bat, Swift allowed a two-out double to Ty Dalley and walked Griziano. Yet, he struck out Parker Lester looking to end the frame. The fifth was a three-up, three-down inning for him with one strikeout.
Tech's offense put more runs on the board in the fifth after Mercer made a pitching change, replacing starter Jackson Gaspard with Braydon Kersey. The Hokies teed off on him immediately, starting with Clay Grady's leadoff single up the middle.
After Anderson French drew a four-pitch walk, Hudson Lutterman bunted to move the runs over, but Baughcum, the Bears' third baseman, overthrew third. That allowed Grady and French to score while Lutterman advanced to second. Then Jared Davis singled to right, which scored Lutterman, before Ben Watson grounded into a double play to end the inning.
Watson had a quiet 1-for-4 day, though he got on the board in the fourth with a deep single to the shortstop, which extended his hitting streak to 16 games.
The Hokies led 4-0 after five innings but the Bears struck back. Baughcum smacked a leadoff single to left that Frye followed up with a single up the middle. Then Swift walked Kamaka to load the bases — his last action of the afternoon.
Tech head coach John Szefc replaced Swift with Grant Manning, a veteran who did an OK job handling the jam. He struck out Dalley but Graziano reached on a fielder's choice after French committed an error at first. Though Lester's sac fly to center scored Frye to make it 4-2 and Manning walked the next batter in Falloon, he got Drew Johnson — pinch-hitting for Cade Norton in the nine hole — to flyout to end the frame.
The Hokies tacked on another run in the sixth after Tackett reached on a leadoff walk, advanced to second on a passed ball and stole third. A sacrifice fly from Grady brought him home to make it 5-2.
Things really shifted in the top of the seventh, though. Ely Brown, Mercer's leadoff man, singled and was safe on a bang-bang play that Tech challenged but was not overturned. Later in the inning, a two-out walk to Kamaka put runners on the corners, setting up a perfect situation for Dalley, who smashed a three-run homer to right field to tie the game at five.
An All-SoCon first-team performer, the junior broke Mercer's home run record with that knock, the 57th of his career. He has 18 on the season after posting 21 last year.
Neither team registered a hit after that, though both had baserunners. Lester and Falloon each walked to start the eighth for the Bears off Logan Eisenreich, who came in for Manning, before Brendan Yagesh entered in relief. He did his job, registering two outs before being replaced by Luke Craytor for a righty-righty matchup with Baughcum, which ended in a groundout.
Tech plated the winning run in following side. Tackett led off the bottom of the eighth with a walk and moved to second off McCann's sacrifice bunt. Then he advanced to third on a wild pitch before scoring off of Cooke's sacrifice fly.
Craytor, who earned the win for the Hokies, got the final three outs with ease to seal the victory.
Tech is back in action on Tuesday vs. Marshall at 6 p.m. ET before closing the regular season with the Commonwealth Clash vs. UVa, which runs Thursday-Saturday at English Field. The Cavaliers have won six in a row and swept Miami this weekend in Charlottesville.
Box Score: Virginia Tech 6, Mercer 5