Saturday’s eighth inning was sliced in two by a nearly two-hour weather delay.
Virginia Tech baseball entered the break down by a run, but upon the game’s renewal, NC State amassed five runs in the penultimate frame to pull away for a series-tying win.
The Wolfpack added a ninth-inning home run as the Hokies’ bats remained silent — they hit 1-for-15 across the final five innings — creating the final 14-7 score.
However, most of the game’s 5:37 runtime was made up of nine lead changes or ties, an earlier weather delay and a horde of runs for both teams before Tech unraveled.
“It’s a long day, but it’s a long day for them, too,” Hokies head coach John Szefc said. “You can’t give up 14 runs and expect to even have a chance.”
Ethan Grim was at the tail end of a four-inning, four-earned-run relief outing when the delay concluded it in the eighth. Before he walked off the mound, however, he surrendered a 3-2 walk to left fielder Rett Johnson and a single to second baseman Luke Nixon.
That made for a difficult two-on scenario for Aiden Robertson upon the game’s return, and he did not do himself any favors escaping it.
Shortstop Mikey Ryan singled, loading the bases before center fielder Ty Head drew a hit by pitch to extend NC State’s lead to 9-7. First baseman Chris McHugh’s sacrifice fly plated another run — both attributed to Grim — before Robertson struck out outfielder Sherman Johnson for the first out of the inning.
Szefc and Co. pivoted to Josh Berzonski, hoping to play the left-lefty matchup against designated hitter Dalton Bargo, who homered earlier in the game and had three RBI. Berzonski plunked him, though, loading the bases for the subsequent run-scoring wild pitch and catcher Drew Lanphere’s two-RBI single that put the visitors up 13-7. Nixon homered off Danny Lazaro in the ninth for the Wolfpack’s 14th run.
On the other side, top NC State bullpen arms Ryan Garino and Anderson Nance mowed the Hokies down between the fifth and ninth innings. Both righties, Garino blanked Tech across the nine outs — with strikeouts accounting for seven of them — before the eighth-inning weather delay. Nance allowed one hit in the final two innings.
“Garino has just got really long [arms] — it’s a lot of extension and carry,’ Szefc said. “I’m honestly kind of surprised that Nance threw the last two innings, when the game wasn’t close. Those are their two best relievers and they both threw today.”
Three of Garino’s seven strikeouts came looking, which is indicative of both his high-movement inside fastball but also a generous strike zone from home plate umpire Dylan Bradley, which the English Field crowd bemoaned numerous times on Saturday. Szefc acknowledged the wide strike zone postgame, as did Nick Locurto after striking out looking in the seventh — an inning in which Garino punched out the side — seen uncharacteristically questioning the umpire after a 2-2 fastball.
NC State received a less impressive outing from left-handed starter Cooper Consigliano, who allowed all of the Hokies’ seven runs in the first four innings, all earned.
Hudson Lutterman ended the junior’s outing with a solo home run in the fifth to tie the game at seven, and two innings before that, Owen Petrich knocked an RBI single to give his team a 6-5 lead. In the first, Henry Cooke ran into a pickle to distract the defense from Ethan Gibson gunning for home and getting Tech on the board first.
Offensively, the Hokies’ day was highlighted by their four-run fourth inning, which they entered down 2-1. Lutterman (2-for-4) and Locurto (three walks) led off with a single and a walk, respectively, before Pete Daniel (1-for-2), Sam Gates (2-for-3) and Gibson strung together three RBI in Tech’s next five batters, making it 5-2.
Gibson extended his hitting streak to 12 games with his 2-for-5, two RBI performance against the Wolfpack.
“Gibson had a really big knock, like Gibson’s the king of big hits again,” Szefc said. “But then we gave them three back right away. So it was great for about 10 minutes, then it wasn’t that great anymore.”
That was because Hokies right-handed arm Logan Eisenreich struggled in his second start of the season. He surrendered Bargo’s two-run homer in the second and allowed NC State to tie the game at five in the top of the third.
As rain started to fall, Ryan (doubled) and Head (bunt singled) registered hits with no outs. Then, McHugh laced a double into right field to score both of them. Bargo returned later that inning for a sacrifice fly, giving Eisenreich his final stat line: four earned runs on six hits and three walks through three innings.
“He’s got good tools — his velocity is good, his movement’s good, but [he needs to] get closer to getting ahead in the count, where he’s not behind,” Szefc said of Eisenreich. “It’s hard when you’re pitching behind in the count to a good lineup. They’re not going to swing — I wouldn’t swing. That has hurt him in his last couple of outings.”
The game’s first weather delay came later that frame as Consigliano began to lose his grip, walking Locurto and ushering him to second on a wild pitch. Szefc was vexed by the delay, arguing to the umpires that his team played through the rain when they surrendered a three-spot in the top half.
“Our guys were out there in the rain, pitching and playing defense, and then their guys go out in the rain and they suspend it,” Szefc said. “That’s not the way it should be.”
Non-safety-related delays are at the discretion of the officiating crew, which Szefc felt suspended the game after receiving input only from NC State head coach Elliott Avent and Consigliano.
The rationale that the officiating crew provided, according to Szefc:
“They said it was raining hard,” Szefc said. “I know it’s raining hard. … It was raining hard when we were out there, too.”
Grim took the losing decision (1-4), pitching out of the first weather delay up until the second one. Head bounced back from an 0-2 count to slam a two-run homer off the freshman in the fourth, putting the Wolfpack ahead 7-6. Ryan’s sacrifice fly in the sixth plated an unearned run, though Robertson allowed two runs attributed to Grim in the eighth.
Opting to keep Griffin Stieg in reserve for Sunday and with a host of main relief arms available, Szefc is confident heading into the Sunday rubber match — especially as NC State is missing two rotation pieces in Ryan Marohn and Jacob Dudan. Game 3’s first pitch comes at 1 p.m. ET on ACC Network Extra.
Box Score: NC State 14, Virginia Tech 7