If you’re wondering why Virginia Tech baseball is an NCAA Regional team — by résumé or by mettle — look no further than Friday, when it entered the bottom of the ninth inning against Clemson trailing by a run.
The Hokies were reeling offensively — scoreless with no hits since the third inning and just two all game. It was a situation that traditionally has not gone well for recent Tech teams, be it baserunning errors, dejected at-bats or an offense that simply fails to mount anything late.
This time, Ethan Ball took the second pitch of the inning into the right-center gap for a leadoff double. Hudson Lutterman, essentially on one leg working back from a sprained ankle, followed with a deep drive to left field that required an over-the-shoulder catch by Clemson left fielder Jack Crighton.
Still, Ball advanced to third base, and came across as Nick Locurto flared a single into shallow right field to tie the game at one. Pete Daniel followed with a bouncing grounder to Tigers third baseman Tryston McCladdie, which he fumbled for an infield single. Sam Gates was up next with a chance to walk it off.
He didn’t need to. Clemson righty Hayden Simmerson threw a wild pitch, ushering Locurto to third base as Daniel took a delayed jump to second. Tigers catcher Nate Savoie saw an easy out and hurled the ball in the Belmont transfer’s direction. So, he stopped in his tracks and turned back to first base. The game-deciding pickle ensued.
Daniel galloped back toward first until Clemson shortstop Tyler Lichtenberger threw to first baseman Luke Gaffney. At third, Locurto carefully watched what felt like an everlasting rundown. Daniel again sprinted to second, then jerked back to first. This time, he let himself serve as the second out of the inning, ensuring he was tagged facing the outfield to make a throw home more difficult.
But the throw home was too late.
Gaffney turned around. Locurto was two-thirds of the way to home plate and comfortably slid in as the walk-off run. Virginia Tech beat Clemson 2-1, taking its fourth straight ACC series to go above .500 in conference play (15-14) for the first time this season. It has secured a minimum .500 ACC record and a résumé that will, in all likelihood, earn it an NCAA Tournament bid.
𝙊𝙉𝙀 𝙒𝙄𝙇𝘿 𝙁𝙄𝙉𝙄𝙎𝙃 😆
≫ Fifth walk-off win of 2026#Hokies 🦃⚾️ pic.twitter.com/GkF7R2FUEe— Virginia Tech Baseball (@HokiesBaseball) May 15, 2026
“They’ve developed into a bunch of winners,” Hokies head coach John Szefc said of his team. “It’s clear that they’re a bunch of winners. I don’t think you can argue that fact. They find ways to get stuff done. Sometimes it’s not pretty, but winners find ways to win.”
For a team with some players who claim they aren’t paying attention to postseason politics, projections and metrics, the Hokies’ postgame celebration sure looked like they knew what the win meant. Starting pitcher Logan Eisenreich, who tossed a career-high six innings with nine strikeouts against the Tigers (29-22, 15-14 ACC), made no such claim.
“For sure,” Eisenreich said, asked if he thought Tech clinched a spot in the NCAAs. “You’re always thinking about it, but the biggest thing was just focusing on the game today.
“When I saw Locurto going, I knew he was safe. I popped over the fence immediately. I knew it was over.”
Tech has executed similar baserunning plays multiple times this season. In that scenario, Szefc said, the defense must keep the runner off home plate, even if that means allowing the runner on first to take second. But it worked Friday for the same reason it has all year: It’s as fast-paced as baseball gets, forcing both sides to make rushed, yet perfect decisions. The Hokies (29-22, 15-14 ACC) came out on top again.
“Ball getting the leadoff guy on base — just great baseball, man,” Szefc said. “Lutterman is working on one-and-a-half legs there. He’s got a cast on, for Christ’s sake. Then Locurto is as gutsy as it gets.
“It’s kind of weird how it ended, but we actually practice that a lot. … I thought Pete did a great job of staying in the rundown as long as he did. That usually doesn't happen that way. It’s usually a quicker catch and tag, but obviously you got the game on the line there and [Clemson] didn’t really run through Daniel. It’s a hard play for them.”
Though Tech’s bats finally came through in the ninth inning, it was Eisenreich and Ethan Grim who kept it alive before that.
English Field was less windy than it has been lately, keeping a few balls in the park, but Eisenreich ultimately allowed one run and walked just two batters. More importantly, he repeatedly pitched himself out of trouble.
The South Riding native has not always done that this year. He’s blown saves against Stanford and Pitt, feeling the pressure of runners on second and/or third base.
However, he stranded at least one runner in scoring position in five of the six innings he finished on Friday. In three of those, one was left on third.
“He has electric stuff,” Szefc said of Eisenreich. “He’s throwing more strikes when he needs to.”
The right-hander has cemented a role as Tech’s third starter during its four-series ACC winning streak. When his high-movement pitch mix is landing in the zone — on Friday, primarily his horizontally absurd slider — offenses are frozen by him.
Counting his last conference start at Cal, Eisenreich has 17 strikeouts in his last 11 ACC innings while allowing just two earned runs. Yielding a mere three walks over that span has been just as crucial.
One of the two walks he allowed to the Tigers resulted in their lone run. Savoie worked a 3-2 walk before coming around courtesy of Jacob Jarell’s RBI single. Eisenreich followed by retiring nine of his next 10 batters.
After the sophomore surrendered a single to right fielder Jackson Moore to start the seventh, Grim took over. The freshman right-hander immediately forced a double play, then struck out Savoie two at-bats later. He allowed just one more hit in the final two innings while leaving three runners on base, later moving to 4-4 with the winning decision.
Earlier this week, it was reported that Clemson head coach Erik Bakich might limit or rest his rotation this weekend in preparation for a last-ditch ACC Tournament run.
The team’s ace, left-hander Michael Sharman, did just that, facing four batters in the first inning before exiting for right-handers Drew Titsworth and Ariston Veasey. They held the Hokies to one hit — Ethan Gibson’s, who hit off Sharman and Titsworth for Tech’s only two hits before the ninth — over six combined innings, rendering any advantage they received with Sharman’s absence moot. Titsworth recorded five strikeouts while Veasey notched three.
Simmerson pitched a three-up, three-down eighth inning before Ball turned the tide in the ninth, starting the rally that may be the reason Szefc travels to a regional for the first time as head coach of the Hokies.
Of course, his 2022 team hosted both a regional and super regional at English Field, but the program hasn’t played beyond the ACC Tournament since then. Why will that likely change this season?
The Hokies are locked into a .500-or-better ACC record, own the nation’s 14th-hardest strength of schedule and sit No. 36 in RPI (though the last two marks are subject to marginal change with Game 3 against Clemson and the ACC Tournament).
Four of the last five ACC teams to go .500 in the league made the NCAAs. Notre Dame in 2023 was the last that did not, but it finished No. 58 in RPI and 45th in strength of schedule. Barring the NCAA Tournament committee veering completely off precedence, the Hokies will play postseason baseball.
They can erase any doubt on Saturday, though, as Griffin Stieg — who is as much a reason for the Hokies’ postseason pedigree as anyone — takes the English Field mound one more time this season. Like Brett Renfrow on Thursday, it may be his last time ever doing so.
The Hokies and Stieg have a chance to finish the regular season with their first sweep. Coming off a pair of games in which they allowed two combined runs and with Stieg in tow, Szefc likes their chances. The redshirt junior’s first pitch comes at 1 p.m. ET on ACC Network Extra.
“The beauty of this whole thing is we’ve never needed help from anybody to maybe get in [to the NCAA Tournament],” Szefc said. “We still don't need help. We come back, we’ve gotta take care of our business tomorrow. We feel good about having Stieg on the mound in a Game 3.”
On an ACC Tournament note, the Hokies could earn as high as the No. 5 seed but as low as the No. 8 seed after Saturday’s action. They’ve clinched a first-round bye regardless, but can’t break into double-bye territory because the first four seeds are decided.
Saturday would need to look like this for Tech to be the fifth seed: a win over Clemson, a Florida State victory over Miami and a Duke win against Wake Forest.
That would bring Tech to 16-14 in the ACC, Miami to 15-15 — necessary because it has a head-to-head tiebreaker over VT — and Wake Forest to 16-14. The Hokies own the tiebreaker over the Demon Deacons because they beat Georgia Tech once, while Wake Forest was swept by the Yellow Jackets. If Tech sweeps Clemson, it can finish no lower than the seventh seed.
If the Tigers salvage Saturday’s game, the Hokies are locked into the eighth or ninth seed, which both still provide first-round byes.
Box Score: Virginia Tech 2, Clemson 1