Blacksburg Bombers Grab Top 20 Series Win, Dominate Sharkey's Classic

The Hokies had found themselves on the wrong side of 50/50 games in back to back ACC series. To be fair, they put themselves in those situations, but it did feel like the ball just wasn't bouncing Tech's way. 

It felt like all that angst and frustration was unleashed last weekend as the Hokies picked up a massive 2-1 series win over the #16 Louisville Cardinals in Blacksburg. It was their first top 20 series win in over a year, and the first ACC series win of the season for the Hokies. It brings Tech to 4-5 in the ACC, in the thick of a crowded and competitive conference that looks to put a double digit number of teams in the NCAA Regionals.

Brett Renfrow has been an excellent pitcher for the Hokies this season. But unfortunately, it hadn't resulted in the Hokies winning a Friday night ACC game yet. That changed last week, as Renfrow gutted his way through a viscous Louisville lineup for seven innings of no run work. The Cardinals were able to get 9 hits on Renfrow, but none left the park and, maybe most importantly, none came in consecutive fashion. A usual strikeout machine, Renfrow managed to get a lot of weak contact from the Cardinals while his defense behind him was steady for his whole outing. We know Renfrow can really pitch, but it was still a good sign to see him work out of a few scary innings and head to the dugout unscathed.

On offense, the Hokies came out swinging with 2 runs in the 1st inning. Of course, it was Sam Tackett who got the party started with a 2-run homer to left that scored himself and Cam Pittman. That was the only runs the Hokies could muster until the 6th inning when, you guessed it, Tackett got up again hit another 2-run blast. On the season, Tackett is now hitting .458 with an .880 slugging percentage. He has 15 extra base hits (10 homers, 5 doubles) and has also been walked 15 times...put a pin in that.

Things did get pretty hairy in the 9th, however, as the Hokies continue to struggle with their bullpen late in games. The Cardinals grabbed an unearned run in the 8th innings to make it 5-1, then mustered 4 runs in the 9th inning with the help of 3 walks and 2 infield singles. The two infield hits were unfortunate for the Hokies, and on most days are routine groundouts to workman shortstop, Clay Grady. But when it rains it pours with this bullpen, and Friday looked like another disaster. But Cameron LeJune was able to grab back to back strikeouts with the bases loaded (albeit after his walked his first batter) to win it for the Hokies. It was a sigh of relief as much of a celebration from the Tech fans inside AUBP at English Field. Great win, but goodness gracious the Hokies need to be able to close out games with a little more gusto.

If there's a style of the game the Hokies cannot win, it's a weekend bullpen battle. Saturday's 12-8 loss was another example of the Hokies holding a lead in the back half of the game, only to give up a handful of runs late and falter offensively down the stretch. To be fair to the bats, 8 runs should be enough to win you a game. 

It was the first time this season that we saw freshman starter Jake Marciano get hit with some power. He had been solid up until Saturday's start, but the Cardinals were teeing off in the 2nd inning, and Marciano, a heavy strike thrower, just couldn't avoid bats. That happens with a young arm, and you'd have to imagine he'll be better next weekend. The bullpen was actually able to get through 3 innings of work unscathed thanks to Jacob Exum and Mathieu Curtis, but too many changes led to too many missed pitches, and the Cardinals are not a team to play around with.

All in all, this looked very similar to games against NC State and Georgia Tech from previous weekend. The Hokies have lost 5 ACC games. They have been tied or had the lead after the 4th innings in all 5 of those games.

If last week's Sunday win vs the Wolfpack was 'cathartic', then this week's Sunday win vs the Cardinals was simply: refreshing.

Not from the standpoint of it was a particularly clean game of baseball, but the Hokies finally were put in positions to capitalize on an opponent's mistakes. That's what this Hokies team does better than any team in the John Szefc era. Stolen bases, small ball, drawing walks, avoiding strikeouts, this Hokies lineup will absolutely ruin a pitching staff that isn't on their A game. And Louisville was, uncharacteristically, not on their A game on the mound. The Hokies drew 12 walks in the contest, were hit by a pitch 3 times, and saw 3 wild pitches bounce to the backstop. Mix all that in with a Jared Davis homer and two stolen bags, and you have an offensive output that blitzed the Cardinals in the 2nd and 5th innings. 

The Hokies also saw Logan Eisenreich as the starter for the second straight weekend. He still seems to be on a pitch count and his command isn't what it was at the beginning of the season. However, he seems poised to go for more than a few innings next weekend and prove why the Hokies were so high on him in February. From the bullpen, Andrew Sentlinger had maybe his best outing as a Hokie. He threw 4.2 innings only allowing 2 hits and 1 run. If Tech can get that kind of pitching out of Sentlinger, this team could really take a step forward.

An interesting note from this game was the actions by Louisville to nullify Sam Tackett. Tackett received the Barry Bonds treatment and was intentionally walked a staggering 3 times in Sunday's game. That put him in elite company in the world of college baseball. If teams are giving the Hokies a free base, then by all means do so. But there may not be a better case made for ACC Player of the Year than being given first base a trio of times in a Sunday ACC rubber match.

It was also a massive day in the career of head coach John Szefc, who managed his 600th win in his career. 

In what has always been a fun matchup in Southwest Virginia, the Hokies were looking to remain perfect in midweek contests. Spoiler alert: they did.

Freshman arm Chase Swift was masterful in the opener role. He threw 4.0 innings of 1 hit pitching. His style is a mix between former Hokie bullpen arms Jonah Hurney and Shane Connolly. There's nothing super extraordinary about his pitches (although his changeup has been nasty at times), but he throws a high rate of strikes and locates on the corners very well. You'd have to imaginge he gets some more run in weekend series as a middle innings reliever as the season progresses.

Offensively, the Hokies weren't very loud on Tuesday, but did manage to do enough to keep the game at an arm's length. Henry Cooke continued his dominance of left handed pitchers with an RBI single up the middle, and Jared Davis remains maybe the hottest batter not named Sam Tackett. The best hitter of the night for the Hokies was in fact not a starter. David McCann came off the bench and cranked an RBI double followed by a home run to put the game out of reach. 

The Highlanders are playing much better baseball this season, and will compete towards the top of the SoCon. This may not be a marquee RPI booster for the Hokies, but it certainly proves their depth and consistency at the plate the Hokies have. Moving to 7-0 in midweeks is not the norm even amongst the best teams in the country. When it comes time to fill out the NCAA Regional slots, I'd expect midweek performance to be a decent plus for Tech's resume.

After three weeks of ACC play, the conference has yet to see much separation between the top 13 teams. Truly anyone can win a series on any given weekend. Florida State remains the national favorites, especially after their walk-off win over Florida on Tuesday night. But very talented teams like Duke, Virginia, and Miami have struggled out the gate and should find their stride in the coming weeks. Here are my current power rankings (how well each team is playing so far, regardless of preseason expectations) with movement from last week's rankings:

1. Florida State (-)
2. Clemson (+1)
3. Georgia Tech (+4)
4. Wake Forest (-2)
5. North Carolina (-1)
6. NC State (+2)
7. Virginia Tech (+3)
8. Louisville (-2)
9. Stanford (-4)
10. California (+3)
11. Duke (+5)
12. Virginia (-3)
13. Boston College (-2)
14. Miami (+1)
15. Pittsburgh (-1)
16. Notre Dame (-4)

The Hokies will travel to "The Couch" in Winston-Salem to face another top 20 foe, Wake Forest. The Demon Deacons have a potent offense, but had given up over 8 runs a game in their last 5 outings vs Miami (1), Liberty (1), and Clemson (3) going 2-3 in those contests. The Hokies will need their starters to eat up 6+ innings if they're to hold down the fort long enough for the offense to do it's thing.

In the midweek, the Hokies will welcome Radford to town for the second installment of the Sharkey's Classic. The game is slated for 1pm on Tuesday , the weather should be nice, and the beer is cheap!