Highs & Lows: Hokies Make History vs Wake, Fall to Radford

One moment you're the headlining story in the sport, the next you're losing to your local rival at home.

It's what makes college baseball so...perfectly imperfect. It truly can be any team on any day. The Hokies found themselves on both the good and bad side of that coin in a five day span. Sweeping Wake Forest at "The Couch' in Winston-Salem is about as rare as capturing Bigfoot on camera. It moved the Hokies to 7-5 in the ACC, good for 4th place in the conference. 

Coincidently, Radford then picked themselves off the mat after being swept themselves over the weekend and beat the Hokies in Blacksburg for the first time since in quite some time. It's the perfect encapsulation of why college baseball is so beloved, and so agaonizing at the same time.

You simply could not have dreamt a better first inning for the Hokes than what we saw on Friday. The Hokies were menaces at the plate, showing elite plate discipline and getting timely hits vs one of the ACC's best starters in Logan Lunceford. What started as a few walks snowballed into 9 runs, and the Hokies weren't done for the day. Freshman 3B Hudson Lutterman was the star of the weekend as he capped off a 3-5 night with a solo shot to left to give the Hokies enough of a lead to start thinking about a run-rule victory. Lutterman paced the Hokies in hits, but everyone on the lineup was able to either score or record an RBI.

On the mound, Brett Renfrow showed why he's the ace of this staff. Renfrow threw 6.0 innings of work with only 2 earned runs, striking out 5 in the process. For the second straight start, Renfrow has shown an ability to enforce weak contact. That's not something we saw last year from the heavy strikeout pitcher. You also feel great to get 18 outs from a pitcher against one of the best offenses in the ACC and only throw 99 pitches. Renfrow is 4th out of the 26 starters in the ACC in ERA among Friday starters with seven starts (2.19). All-ACC may be in his future. Following him up, Cameron LeJune was solid in 2.0 innings of work, not allowing a walk or run. 

The Hokies would get the run-rule victory via a Clay Grady grounder that scored Lutterman. It's the second time this season the Hokies have grabbed a road run-rule victory in ACC play. 

Saturday's game was more indicative of what we expected to see over the weekend: a bit of a shootout. The Demon Deacons had allowed over 8 runs a game in their last 5 contests before the Hokies came to town, and freshmen starters Jake Marciano and Logan Eisenreich have struggled to go very deep in outings (albeit due in part to pitch count) in recent weekends. Luckily for the Hokies, however, Wake Forest had to go to their bullpen early yet again after 3, 2, and 3 runs in the first three innings, respectively. 

Wake Forest responded in the bottom 3rd with a trio of 2-run homers, but the Tech offense just proved to be too much. The Hokies had baserunners almost all game, and they pounced on a couple mistakes by the Wake Forest battery to score on a wild pitch to go up 9-7 in the 5th. But the play of the game was in the 6th innings when Garrett Michel smoked a liner to dead center for a 2-run home run to put Tech up 11-7 and secure the series victory.

The Tech bullpen got roughed up a bit in the 3rd inning via the long ball, but for the most part they were able to get the big out when they needed it. It may not have been the most well pitched game for the Hokies, but both Andrew Sentlinger and Grant Manning seem to have put their early season struggled behind them. The pair combined for 6.1 innings and only allowed 2 earned runs. If Tech can get that kind of production from those two vets, this bullpen goes from a liability to an asset real quickly.

Despite the win, there were some less than stellar developments for the Hokies....

Andrew Sentlinger was pulled after feeling some discomfort in his arm. It's to be determined how long he will be kept out, but I wouldn't expect to see him in full capacity for a couple weeks. Garrett Michel, who missed most of last season with a broken arm, was injured sometime between his 2-run homer and the beginning of the next half inning. Michel trotted out to play first and went through the normal pre-inning routine, but when asked to jog down the line by the training staff he was unable to do so. Coach Szefc has, as usual, been quiet on the details, but things do not seem promising at the moment. Treyson Hughes, Jackson Cherry, and Cam Pittman will be players that need to step up both offensively and defensively for the Hokies in his absence. Also, expect to see a lot of Ethan Gibson playing different spots in the infield. 

The Hokies had a lot going against them on Sunday. The Demon Deacons had one of the best arms on the mound in Blake Morningstar while the Hokies were working with what was a de facto bullpen game. The Hokies were also without Garrett Michel who was one of their hotter bats and better defensive players. And then there's the feeling that Wake Forest, who is rarely swept at home, was due to break out. 

But the Hokies hung tough, battling to get a run in both the 3rd and 6th innings to go up 2-1 heading to the 7th. Wake was able to get a couple runs to take the lead in the 7th, however, and the Hokies found themselves down to their last 3 outs in the 9th. 

Stepping up to the plate was Ethan Gibson, a defensive specialist more known for his role as a utility player. But as coach Szefc said after Saturday's game, these Hokies "are a tough nut to crack." Gibson doubled, followed by another double from Hudson Lutterman that tied the game at 3-3. David Lewis was able to keep the rally going with a single up the middle to take the lead. Henry Cooke grabbed a QAB with a grounder that advanced Lewis to 3rd before a Jared Davis deep line drive scored pinch runner Cam Pittman. All of a sudden, the Hokies were up 6-3 after a Ben Watson single and just 3 outs away from a historic sweep.

Of course, it wouldn't come without more drama. After a pair of strikeouts and a walk by closer Cameron LeJune, the Demon Deacons put on some rally caps of their own with a single and a 2-run triple down the left field line. But LeJune stood tough, and didn't put anything over the heart of the plate leading to a game winning fly ball to left.

It was one of the more intense 9th innings over the past few seasons of Hokie baseball. A team that had lost a few 9th innings games this season, the Hokies put it all together in an inning that will be remebered around the program for a long time. 

If the weekend was the peak, Tuesday afternoon was the valley. 

There's not too much to say about this 8-1 loss to the Highlanders, except that it was equal parts shocking and totally predictable. The Hokies hit a bunch of deep line drives and fly balls, all caught at the warning track or right to a Radford glove. Starting pitcher Chase Swift conitnued to look really solid, but a small-ball fueled 7th inning for the Highlanders offense put the game relatively out of reach. In many ways, this game was reminiscent of the Friday game the Hokies had at NC State. Ton of hard hit balls that just kept finding outfield gloves. It's baseball, it happens.

It wasn't the most energetic Hokies team we've ever seen, which was evident from the beginning. Third base coach Kurt Elbin even had a little powwow with his guys after the 3rd inning to rally the troops, but it became clear pretty early that this just wasn't Tech's day. Credit to Radford, they played good defense, threw a bunch of strikes, and advanced runners when they had the chance.

It's only the second real blemish on the season for the Hokies, and the first midweek loss. It certainly will hurt the RPI metrics, but all-in-all this is just one game that will be covered up by many more. It happens to even the best teams in the country, that's why college baseball is so awesome. You have to embrace the weirdness of the sport as a fan, even though sometimes it may not go in your team's favor.

The Hokies made a huge leap in the ACC standings with a sweep over the weekend. Now they're in good position heading into the meat of the season. After another weekend of action, here are my updated power rankings, with. movement vs last week:

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

As a bonus, D1Baseball came out with their mid-season Regionals projections. The Hokies grabbed the lowest #2 seed (#32 overall seed), pitting them against overall #1 seed, Tennessee in Knoxville. That would be a...tough draw against the reigning national champs. Nevertheless, the Hokies have great opportunities to find themselves much higher on the seeding lines, even hosting at this rate! The ACC is tied with the SEC with 11 teams in the field. At current rate, I'd expect the top 10 ACC teams should feel safely in the Regionals, while the top 4 should feel good about hosting a Regional. 

The Hokies are heading up to South Bend for weekend series vs the Irish of Notre Dame. The Irish have had a tough start to the season, but did take a game off of ACC favorite Florida State over the weekend. They can hit for power, but don't expect a consistent offensive output over a 3 game stretch. The Irish are just 2-10 in the ACC this season, and have lost every Saturday matchup so far. In the midweek, they lost to Western Michigan 5-4 in South Bend. It's fair to say this is a "can't lose" series for the Hokies if they want to climb up both the ACC standings and the national seeding lists.

In the midweek, the Hokies a very tough task when Troy comes to town. The Trojans are a fringe top 25 team, and will almost certainly be in the Regionals when the time comes.