Virginia Tech baseball plunged in its ACC-opening series at No. 5 Georgia Tech this weekend, losing 14-5 in Game 2 and 16-1 in Game 1.
The Hokies (7-7, 0-2 ACC) seemed to turn a corner in Game 2’s fifth inning on Saturday, when they strung together six hits and five runs for a 5-2 lead over the Yellow Jackets (14-1, 2-0). Brett Renfrow, in his first-career Saturday start, had kept one of the nation’s top offenses at bay to that point, but his bullpen suffered behind him.
The kicker was an eight-run, eight-hit and four-home-run seventh inning for Georgia Tech. It came just after reliever Logan Eisenreich followed Renfrow’s five-frame outing by pitching a clean sixth inning.
Chase Swift, Peyton Smith and Aiden Robertson didn’t have the same luck in the seventh, with the Yellow Jackets’ entire lineup — outside of Alex Hernandez — reaching base at least once and Vahn Lackey, Ryan Zuckerman, Will Baker and Caleb Daniel mashing homers. Lackey and Kent Schmidt added late RBI singles.
Daniel (2-for-5, two RBI) homered in the eighth to cement the final 14-5 score while Lackey (3-for-4, five RBI), Zuckerman (1-for-4, three RBI) and Hernandez (2-for-4), who also homered, had RBI knocks earlier in the game.
The Hokies’ offense was shallow outside of the fifth, recording just five hits and three walks, making the aforementioned inning something of a diamond in the rough — on Saturday and across their season.
Henry Cooke started the rally with a one-out solo home run crushed deep to left field, helping him finish 2-for-3 with a walk in his best game all season. Ethan Gibson, Treyson Hughes, Ethan Ball and Sam Grube knocked near consecutive base hits after him — Nick Locurto flied out between Hughes and Ball — to plate three more runs and put the Hokies up 4-2. Hudson Lutterman brought Grube around with a two-RBI double pushed to left field.
Yellow Jackets starter Dylan Loy’s season had been flawless before that inning — which featured six hits and five earned runs — but his team’s relievers shut the Hokies down after he departed. Reliever Jackson Blakely allowed Lutterman’s double, but he, Caden Gaudette, Brett Barfield and Jamie Vicens combined for no earned runs.
Conversely, Swift — who tacked on the loss — and Robertson surrendered nine. Renfrow held the Yellow Jackets to two runs until they tied the game at five at the end of his outing in the fifth.
Game 1
If Saturday’s five-run frame was a glimmer of hope for a floundering Virginia Tech offense, Friday had no such thing. Georgia Tech starter Tate McKee, along with relievers Carson Ballard and Kayden Campbell, pulverized the Hokies’ batters in a grueling, near five-hour affair that saw multiple weather delays. Only six-and-a-half innings were played.
Hughes, Locurto, Ball, Anderson French and Gibson notched a hit each to keep the Hokies from a completely fruitless foray. However, their only score came with French’s double in the second inning, which plated Sam Gates after a leadoff walk.
On the other hand, Georgia Tech doused the Hokies in runs. Righty Ethan Grim started over Renfrow — who’s started every Friday for Tech since his freshman year — and failed to get two outs before GT’s fifth run. The Yellow Jackets tacked seven earned runs onto the freshman’s outing, three of which were ushered in by Preston Crowl, who managed only the second out of the first before being removed for Josh Berzonski. VT left the first inning down 8-0.
Berzonski kept Georgia Tech somewhat quiet until the end of the third inning, when he walked Zuckerman to force in a run and Baker followed with a bases-clearing single — which was assisted by a Locurto throwing error in right field. The score was already 12-1, but it became 13-1 with a Carson Kerce RBI single off freshman Jake Wise before the third inning concluded.
St. Johns River State College (JUCO) transfer Danny Lazaro held the Yellow Jackets to three more runs over 2 ⅔ innings, putting them ahead 16-1 before freshman Tyler Stone pitched the last out of the game for the Hokies.
The last defensive out, that is. The Hokies went down hitless in the top of the seventh, which they’ve done in seven other innings so far this weekend.
Virginia Tech has lost six straight games by a combined score of 71-19. Its competition has been grisly, though that makes a 13-4 loss to Marshall last Tuesday appear all the worse.
The Hokies get one more chance to nab a game from Georgia Tech on Sunday at 1 p.m. (ET, ACCNX).
Game 1: No. 5 Georgia Tech 16, Virginia Tech 1 (7 innings)
Game 2: No. 5 Georgia Tech 14, Virginia Tech 5