Ethan Ball's walk-off home run sent English Field into a frenzy on Saturday night. (Virginia Tech athletics)

Heading into the bottom of Saturday’s 10th inning, Virginia Tech baseball had three outs to wipe a three-run lead earned by Rutgers in the bottom side. 

Things looked unlikely, but they had all day. Sophomore catcher Anderson French knew that, so to him, his mission was obvious. He stood as close as he could to the batter’s circle — unmoving, since his superstitions said that if he moved, Tech would lose — and delivered a crucial message to every Hokies batter that stepped to the plate. 

“Be the ‘guy,’” French told them. “Be the next ‘guy.’ Start talking to yourself and say: ‘I’m going to win this game.’”

Hudson Lutterman, Sam Grube and Ethan Ball internalized his words, and each hit home runs in the 10th inning to beat Rutgers 9-8 at English Field to force a Sunday rubber match.

“I do a lot of seeing and speaking is believing,” French said. “I was telling all the guys, I knew we were gonna win that game one way or another in that 10th inning.”

If there could only be one “guy,” however, it would certainly be Ball, who cracked a walk-off two-RBI home run 423 feet to center to cement the comeback victory for Tech (5-1).

The freshman out of McLean High School was 0-for-4 coming into his clutch at-bat, and, in a universe not-so-far, wouldn’t even have taken it. 

Ball approached hitting coach Kurt Elbin after his third strikeout of the game in the seventh inning. He told Elbin that he simply wasn’t seeing the ball well, to which Elbin and head coach John Szefc agreed. They heavily considered taking him out of the game — but did not. 

“It really just starts with not getting frustrated with how your previous at-bats go,” Ball said. “You’re gonna have rough days, but it’s about the next one. In that moment I was able to step up and make it happen.”

Earlier in the 10th, with Tech down 8-5, Lutterman skied a one-out home run to left field on the first pitch of his at-bat. Grube stepped to the plate next, and took a ball before following Lutterman’s lead — this time 407 feet to right-center. Rutgers (4-2) pitcher Tyler Kane gave up both homers and a 3-2 walk to Locurto before the Scarlet Knights pivoted to Jordan Savinon, a breaking ball-only arm. 

Ball stepped to the plate after and played to get on base, but couldn’t lay off an attractive 3-2 pitch. 

“After [Lutterman’s] nuke, I thought, all right, we’ve got a chance here if I get on,” Grube said. “I didn't expect to hit a homer but I saw the ball really well, got under it. Then a great at-bat by Locurto and, man, that’s Ethan Ball, man. He’s one of the most mature freshmen I’ve ever seen. … He’s got light-tower power and he’s one of the hottest bats on this team.”

As is Grube, who hit 4-for-5 with two homers, crossed home plate four times and participated in each of Tech’s three distinct comebacks on Saturday. The second-most important one came in the ninth with Tech down 5-3. 

At the time, the Hokies didn’t have a multi-hit inning since a two-run first frame. Poised to change that, Grube cracked a one-out double into the right-center gap, ending Rutgers pitcher Vincent Borghese’s day, who terrorized Tech with eight K’s and just two hits allowed. With him gone, things opened up.

New arm Jason Masick quickly surrendered a deep single to Owen Petrich (2-for-5, RBI), which scored Grube. Ball, Sam Gates and French walked after to bring the tying run home and force extras. 

“That’s usually how you lose games,” Szefc said. “By giving free passes like that.”

The Hokies struggled with runners in scoring position once again on Saturday, hitting 2-for-10, but had enough big swings to win. The first was Grube’s first home run in the fifth, which put Tech in position for its late comeback. 

The second was French’s handiwork: a two-RBI single in the first inning to tie the game at two. The Lewisberry, Pa., native was hitting 1-for-7 on the season entering Saturday, but rebounded with a 2-for-3, two-walk, three-RBI performance. 

“Elbin said something to me yesterday that I’ll never forget,” French said postgame. “He said, ‘This is our home park. When we’ve got the bases loaded, two outs, one out, runners in scoring position, whatever it is, the other team is on the ropes. Not us.’”

But though they left victors, the Hokies’ backs were against the wall for much of the game. Chase Swift was their only commanding arm, striking out six of his 10 batters — he’s punched out 14 of 22 this season — in the fifth through seventh innings. Even he allowed a home run to Rutgers first baseman Ryan Jaros, though, which put the visitors up 5-3 in the sixth.

Griffin Stieg started and surrendered seven hits and three earned runs through 4 ⅓ innings. He gave up three singles in his first three batters, which, combined with a costly Pete Daniel error — he collided with Petrich at third to cause a routine fly ball to drop — put the Hokies down 2-0. They’ve allowed at least one first-inning run in three of their last four games. 

Rutgers third baseman Charlie Meglio, who was 4-for-5 with two homers on Friday, hit a leadoff double in the third off Stieg and came around when Trey Wells hit one of his own. Wells put Rutgers ahead 4-2 when Yomar Carrerras plated him in sacrifice that same inning.  

The top of the Scarlet Knights’ order — Peyton Bonds (3-for-5), Chase Krewson (2-for-6), Meglio (1-for-4) and Wells (3-for-5) — didn’t give Tech as much trouble as it did in Game 1, but was still effective.

Rutgers had a quick response to the Hokies’ ninth-inning comeback, scoring three times in the 10th. Logan Eisenreich, after pitching well in the ninth frame, gave up two singles in the 10th before being removed for Aiden Robertson, who walked two batters, one of which forced in a run. 

Tech removed Robertson for Brendan Yagesh in fear of the deficit ballooning, but he yielded a third straight walk — in four pitches — to make it 7-5. A subsequent wild pitch added an eighth run, so Yagesh’s offense was dealing with a tall task in the bottom side. But not too tall. 

“They’ve got to get three outs and we’ve got to get three outs in extra innings,” Szefc said. “We got three and they didn’t. Bottom line, you’ve got to get all of them. The top of that 10th was ugly, right? The bottom of that 10th was ugly for them, but at the same time, we earned our runs. We earned them with big swings.”

The series will be decided on Sunday at noon ET, barring any weather-related changes.

Box Score: Virginia Tech 9, Rutgers 8 (10 innings)