Virginia Tech baseball was throttled at the Amegy Bank College Baseball Series for a second straight day on Saturday, falling to No. 4 Mississippi State 15-8.
The Bulldogs (11-0), with former UVa coach Brian O’Connor in his first year at the helm, shut the Hokies’ offense down until the game was far out of reach, earning their second win in Arlington, Texas, while VT fell to 0-2 on the weekend.
Tech (7-3) poured in six runs in the final two innings — Anderson French, Hudson Lutterman and Sam Gates homered in a row in the ninth — while Mississippi State added 10 in the last three.
The Hokies managed just two runs before that — including an Ethan Ball home run to extend his hitting streak to 10 games — which kept the game close as reliever Brendan Yagesh delivered four innings of stellar two-hit ball. Starter Griffin Stieg allowed four earned runs in the first two innings before Aiden Robertson surrendered as many — without recording an out — post-Yagesh.
UVa transfer and former All-ACC freshman Tomas Valincius handed Tech seven strikeouts across his 5 ⅓-inning start. The lefty struck out five of his first seven batters and didn’t allow a hit until Lutterman tripled in the third — his first career three-base hit — and came home with an Ethan Gibson sacrifice fly.
That only made it 4-1 Bulldogs, however, since Stieg allowed five hits in the first two innings. First baseman Reed Stallman doubled home Virginia transfer Aidan Teel in the first to make it 1-0 following the latter’s leadoff single. Teel came around the next inning, too.
He singled after left fielder Bryce Chance’s double, and both crossed home plate with third baseman Ace Reese’s 400-foot homer on a 3-2 hanging cutter from Stieg. That entire sequence occurred with two outs, so Stieg picked up one more, a Gehrig Frei flyout, to finish his outing.
Yagesh entered to begin the third for Tech and retired seven of his first eight batters, including striking Teel out looking. The only blip on the senior lefty’s Saturday was hitting Chance to force a run home in the fifth inning, though he limited damage thereafter. That was the first of three occasions Saturday that Tech pitchers hit a batter with the bases loaded to force in a run — and it happened once Friday against Texas A&M, too.
After Yagesh saw just three batters to brush by the sixth, junior Aiden Robertson (9.95 ERA) started the seventh. Mississippi State found a Frei double, a walk by catcher Andrew Raymond and a single from shortstop Ryder Woodson to load the bases without an out.
Robertson’s day was done after hitting right fielder James Nunnallee to force in another run, making it 6-2. Texas A&M transfer Peyton Smith replaced Robertson and allowed two singles and a sacrifice fly — each plating one run besides a Chance single, which scored two — to put the Bulldogs ahead 10-2 after the seventh inning.
With the game out of reach, both teams made substitutions en masse. Hokies lefty Danny Lazaro entered in the eighth and surrendered a three-run home run to pinch hitter Jacob Parker, but Tech — primarily its bench — punched back throughout the rest of the game.
Outfielder Nick Locurto and freshman catcher CJ Oxendine knocked singles in the bottom of the eighth, and both players eventually came around. Oxendine did so on a wild pitch, and Locurto with freshman Aimon Chandler’s first career hit: a three-run shot to left-center.
That sequence left the Hokies down 13-5, which was 15-5 by the bottom of the ninth. Tech reliever Jacob Exum made his season debut but quickly left the bases loaded for Josh Berzonski, who hit catcher Chone James to force in a run before yielding an RBI single to shortstop Drew Wyers.
French, Lutterman and Gates homered off Bulldogs pitcher Braden Booth in the next inning, though they were the last Hokies batters before O’Connor opted to bring in a more established reliever in Jack Gleason. Oxendine, Locurto and Berzonski — yes, the pitcher — struck out in order to end the game.
Teel (3-for-5, three RBI), Reese (2-for-5, three RBI), Frei (2-for-5), Woodson (3-for-5) and Chance (2-for-3 two RBI) gave the Hokies marked trouble, though the Bulldogs’ entire team was 15-for-39 with 10 walks.
Tech’s last chance to leave Arlington with a win comes Sunday at 11:30 a.m. ET when it plays No. 20 Tennessee on FloSports. The Volunteers (7-3) beat Arizona State 5-3 on Saturday but fell to No. 1 UCLA 12-5 on Friday.
Box Score: No. 4 Mississippi State 15, Virginia Tech 8