Virginia Tech baseball coasted to a 14-1 win over James Madison on Tuesday, making for the kind of clean midweek performance that flows well between a series win over NC State and a crucial weekend at Cal.
“It’s important to be consistent,” Tech head coach John Szefc said. “You’ve got to show up to play. We did that last Tuesday at VCU, and we obviously did it tonight. … If we’re going to be a quality team down the stretch — we are in that stretch — we’ve got to be able to be consistent with our performances, and we’re getting there.”
Ten Hokies (23-20) batters registered a hit and five — Sam Grube, Ethan Gibson, Nick Locurto, Pete Daniel and Owen Petrich — had multiple. Ethan Ball launched a three-run home run in the second inning, while Locurto (3-for-5) matched his three RBI.
The Dukes (18-25) threw just 35 of their first 77 pitches for strikes, resulting in five early Tech walks that combined with seven hits for a 7-0 lead by the end of the second inning. That frame was particularly productive, beginning with a Petrich double and Treyson Hughes walk.
Grube singled in Petrich, putting the Hokies up 3-0 before Gibson walked and Cooke drove in Hughes with a groundout. JMU pivoted away from right-hander Griffin Madden into its third pitcher of the game, righty Sam Pearne, whose 2-2 changeup was blasted 423 feet onto the English Field batter’s eye by Ball.
The McLean native has three home runs in his last four games and 11 on the year. He managed just one in March but has six in April — an increase Szefc attributes to the freshman’s continued maturation at the plate.
“I think he’s laying off more changeups,” Szefc said. “He’s become a better two-strike hitter, taking good swings with two strikes that maybe he wasn’t making a whole lot early on.
“A good changeup is still gonna hogtie anybody, but a right-handed changeup has given him problems down in the zone and a couple of good swings he had this past weekend were off changeups, as was that one tonight … so he’s starting to recognize that pitch better.”
Up 7-0 with just one out in the second frame, Tech reloaded the bases with Locurto, Willie Hurt and Daniel singles, though Pearne struck out Petrich and grounded out Hughes to stop the bleeding. In the first inning, the Hokies loaded the bases with Grube, Cooke and Ball walks — two of which were on four pitches — before Locurto snuck a single through the left side of the infield, giving his team a 2-0 lead.
“Hitting is contagious with our team,” Locurto said. “When people put up good at-bats, it just continues to roll through. In the beginning of the game, we took really good at-bats, took our walks and got big hits when it mattered.”
Left-hander Madden Clement made his fourth straight midweek start — no other Tech arm has made more than two — and allowed four hits over 3 ⅔ innings, including an Ike Schmidly RBI single in the third for JMU’s sole run. Clement, still following throwing protocol after returning from a partial UCL tear three weeks ago, was removed after 57 pitches for Brody Roe at the end of the fourth frame.
Roe allowed one baserunner through 1 ⅓ innings to pick up his fourth win of the year (4-1). Brendan Yagesh, Luke Craytor and Danny Lazaro finished the final two innings, allowing just one hit and one walk.
The Hokies put runs on the board in every frame besides the third, resuming with a two-run fourth. With Daniel on third and Petrich on first, Hughes bunted a dribbler to JMU pitcher Luke McGrath that, with his momentum going forward, he could only glove toss to home — just not in time to keep Daniel from reaching safely. Gibson added a sacrifice fly later that inning.
McGrath is one of the Dukes’ premier bullpen arms, sporting a 1.68 WHIP and team-high 20 appearances coming into Tuesday’s game. He pitched two innings on Tuesday — no other JMU arm pitched more than one — and gave up four hits and two walks for two earned runs.
“That’s an ACC-type arm right there,” Szefc said. “I felt like that was a telling point in the game. … Good arm, pitches 94-95 [mph] and we put some good at-bats and scored on him.”
Hudson Lutterman did not start the game but pinch-hit for Hurt in the fifth, quickly knocking an RBI single that Daniel mirrored for the run-rule 11-1 deficit. The final three runs came on a Petrich sacrifice fly at the tail end of the fifth, as well as a Locurto RBI single and a score off a JMU errant throw in the sixth.
That run was Mycah Jordan’s, who initially walked as Tech emptied its bench in its final inning at the plate. Catchers Anderson French and CJ Oxendine also received at-bats but went 0-for-1. Tech still finished 16-for-32 with runs on all but one of JMU’s eight pitchers.
“It wasn’t like we were having production up and down based off who we were facing,” Szefc said. “We scored every inning except one and 10 different guys hit, which is pretty rare to see. Just a good overall night. That’s what’s supposed to happen before you go on this five-day road trip to California to play three games.”
The Hokies’ series at Cal this weekend — the program’s longest road trip since playing in the Fullerton Regional in 2000 — is crucial as they push for an NCAA Regional bid. They leave from Charlotte Douglas International Airport at 7:45 a.m. on Wednesday, an early trip meant to help the team adjust to a new time zone — which they may need with Friday’s series opener set for 9 p.m. ET. (ACCNX).
Szefc said Tech will hold a mini practice on Wednesday before a full one on Thursday. The team returns to Blacksburg on Sunday night after the series finale, which starts at 4 p.m. ET.
“It’s a long trip to play three games,” Szefc said. “You feel like you’re going out there to play six games or something like that, but it’s three. But that’s what it is now in today’s world of modern college athletics.”