Virginia Tech baseball’s six-game losing streak dissipated on Sunday when it nabbed its first ACC and ranked win of the year off No. 5 Georgia Tech in 9-6 fashion.
Though the Hokies (8-7) lost the three-game set in Atlanta, Ga., their Game 3 win was much-needed in more ways than one.
For starters, it prevented a sweep, a seventh straight loss and will almost certainly serve as a Quadrant 1 win as the RPI gathers sample size.
The other reasons were more in principle. Virginia Tech broke through its season-long situational hitting and bullpen woes to claim a win over one of the best teams in the country — on a weekend where it was playing some of its best baseball.
The Hokies’ two through five hitters — Nick Locurto (2-for-3), Ethan Ball (2-for-5), Sam Grube (3-for-3) and Hudson Lutterman (1-for-3) — contributed eight RBI and all but one of the team’s six hits with runners in scoring position. The Hokies batted .500 in such scenarios and matched that mark with two outs on.
They also hit 6-for-9 in leadoff with an 11-for-23 rate against the Yellow Jackets’ right-handers, which made up a majority of their relief attack. However, they were just 3-for-23 off lefties Cooper Underwood, who started, and closer Kayden Campbell.
Locurto thrived at the plate regardless of the pitcher. The junior reached base five times in six plate appearances on Sunday with a pair of singles, as many walks and a hit by pitch, boosting his slash line to .323/.500/.452.
Virginia Tech speedsters Pete Daniel (2-for-4) and Sam Gates, who walked twice after pinch-hitting for Ethan Gibson in the sixth inning, added two runs each.
Reliever Preston Crowl came out of a two-hour weather delay in the seventh inning and shut the door on Georgia Tech, needing just nine batters in three innings to grab his second-career save.
The junior struggled in Friday’s 16-1 Hokies loss, surrendering two hits and two walks while recording just one out, though his 21-pitch total allowed for a Game 3 rebound.
He may not have been leaned on so heavily if not for the weather delay, with winning pitcher Luke Craytor sending the Yellow Jackets two quick strikeouts before the rain interrupted him. Upon the game’s return, though, Crowl tossed a 1-2-3 seventh inning with a pair of strikeouts.
To start the eighth, he fumbled a play at first base to give himself an error and Georgia Tech a leadoff baserunner, but Vahn Lackey flied out before Kent Schmidt sent shortstop Pete Daniel a double-play lineout. The Yellow Jackets were retired in order in the ninth, with Crowl capping his save with a four-pitch strikeout on catcher Drew Rodgers.
Griffin Stieg started in front of Craytor and Crowl and, though he allowed home runs to Lackey and Ryan Zuckerman, struck out five while allowing four earned runs over as many innings. The only run not accounted for in the homers came with Carson Kerce’s bases-loaded walk in the third inning, though Stieg’s subsequent strikeout stranded the bases loaded.
Kerce’s walk was brought about by a questionable top-corner 3-2 ball call that Stieg and the Hokies weren’t pleased with — even more so after Owen Petrich struck out looking on a debatable 2-2 call with the bases loaded in the previous side.
Though the walk handed the Yellow Jackets a 3-2 lead, Locurto punched back in the fourth with an RBI single that brought Pete Daniel around.
The Hokies initially held a 2-0 lead with sacrifice flies by Lutterman and Grube in the first, which came after Hughes, Locurto and Ball — the game’s first three batters — each got on base. Zuckerman’s two-run homer tied the game in the second.
Courtesy of Lackey’s solo bomb in the fourth inning, Georgia Tech grabbed its first lead just before the end of Stieg’s outing.
Up 4-3, the Yellow Jackets added two runs in the fifth frame with consecutive RBI singles by Drew Burress and Alex Hernandez off reliever Brendan Yagesh. They didn’t score again, though.
The Hokies, on the other hand, plated three runs in both the sixth and seventh innings. Locurto, Ball — with a two-run double — Grube and Lutterman knocked consecutive hits off Yellow Jackets right-handers Jake Lankie and Caden Spivey in the sixth.
The next inning began with a Petrich double, which took an awkward bounce after Georgia Tech left fielder Caleb Daniel couldn’t make a diving catch. Then, Pete Daniel and Gates walked to load the bases with no outs for Hughes. The redshirt senior chopped a sacrifice grounder for a 7-6 Hokies lead before Locurto was hit by a pitch, loading the bases once again.
Grube took advantage, ushering Pete Daniel and Gates home with a sharp double down the right-field line. Offense was difficult to come by for the rest of the game on both sides, which worked in the Hokies’ favor up 9-6.
Overall, the Yellow Jackets’ top-line offense was hindered on Sunday, with Burress, Hernandez and Zuckerman recording two-hit games and the rest of the lineup batting 2-for-22. Their 8-for-34 (.235) hitting mark was their second-worst of the season.
Virginia Tech has the week off before facing another high-profile opponent in Virginia, whose series win over No. 8 North Carolina this weekend means it will likely be ranked by the time the Hokies arrive in Charlottesville. The three-game Commonwealth Clash set begins Friday at 4 p.m. ET on ACC Network Extra.
Box Score: Virginia Tech 9, No. 5 Georgia Tech 6