Hokies Battle UNC, Grind Past VCU

That's the best way to describe the budding baseball rivalry between the Hokies and North Carolina. For no the first time in recent year, the Hokies and Heels were at each other's throats in a hard fought series that saw the Hokies drop their second consecutive ACC weekend at the hands of a team that seems destined for a shot at Omaha. The Hokies were able to grab a win on Saturday, however, marking maybe their biggest win of the season on the backs of a quintessential home run barrage vs the ACC's best pitcher, Aidan Haugh. But in the end, the Hokies pitching staff struggled to keep the Heels off the base paths as they dropped the series 1-2 to fall to 10-11 in ACC play. 

Time to worry? Not quite. In fact, the Hokies are looking pretty good with 9 conference games left to play. More on that later.

In what has become an unfortunately common occurrence this season, the Hokies got a solid start from Brett Renfrow, but were unable to come away with the win. 

The UNC offense did a good job at creating some traffic on the base paths to get out to a 1-0 lead early, but Sam Tackett answered in the 3rd with his first of two homers on the weekend. Carolina would extend their lead to 5-1 heading into the bottom sixth, ultimately knocking Renfrow out of the game in the process. It felt like if the Hokies could've survived the 6th inning without giving up a run, they could've taken some momentum and kept Renfrow on the bump, but the Hokies just couldn't get the clutch outs.

Freshman 3B Hudson Lutterman continues to swing the bat well for the Hokies, hitting a 2-run homer that pulled the Hokies close. But Carolina was feeling it at the plate, and ultimately their bullpen held on just enough. It was a tough loss to take on a Friday that had a packed crowd at English Field, considering that many Hokies had pretty solid nights. 

If you could conjure up a perfect start to a game for the Hokies this would be it. 

Facing the ACC's ERA leader, Aidan Haugh, the Hokies put on a show that won't be forgotten any time soon. The Hokies raked 5 hits, 3 of them home runs, in the first inning to get out to a 5-0 lead. And they never looked back. In the second inning, Ben Watson hit a towering drive to center field to put 2 more on the board. The Tech offense would quiet down until the seventh, when a Tackett single drove in Henry Cooke via an unearned run. But the drama came in the next inning...

So here's what happened: Jared Davis came in to pinch his for Cam Pittman with 2 outs and Clay Grady on 1st in an 8-6 game. Jared Davis hit a rocket to deep left, and made sure everyone in Carolina Blue knew about it. Both team were jawing all game...mostly Hokies. And it should be noted that UNC as a program is known to not be big fans of bat flips, celebrations, things of that nature. Ya know...fun! But at a point, it gets to be a bit much, and the ump made the choice to toss Jared Davis. The umps, truthfully, were ready to eject someone at this point. The issue came next at-bat when a pitch was throw up and behind Anderson French (oddly enough hitting his bat and resulting in a ground ball out). John Szefc didn't like seeing his guy get thrown at, whether on purpose or not, and UNC players and coaches were pretty ready to see that game end anyways so had no issues clearing their dugout after the inning. It ended with both coaches being tossed. All in all, UNC didn't like the Hokies playing with some swagger after hitting dinger after dinger which only encouraged the Hokies more.

This isn't the first time these two sides have had words, and it won't be the last. UVA is the arch rival...but UNC is a very very close second on the baseball diamond.

Sunday's game was not the close out game the Hokies were looking for. Freshman starter Logan Eisenreich was able to keep the Heels off the board, but 4 walks led to an early pitching change. But the issue for the Hokies wasn't pitching, it was fielding. The Hokies had 3 errors, a hit by pitch, a balk, and 9 walks to give the Heels 5 unearned runs in the game. Almost impossible to win when that happens.

It was a real let down for the Hokies, as the offense was able to get out to a 2-0 lead at the end of the 3rd. But inopportune mistakes plagued the Hokies for the second Sunday game in a row, and Tech feel 7-4 in a game that they, literally, let slip through their fingers.

Getting a chance to play in front of a big crowd of Hokies on the road must have felt pretty good after Sunday's loss. The Hokies bats might not have showed up, but the fans certainly did on a beautiful night in Richmond. 

VCU has not been a very good team this season, but they do have some solid players that were able to get hard contact against the Hokie bullpen. Weekday starter Chase Swift had his strikeout pitch working, but VCU was able to hit an early homer and got a couple ground ball singles to plate 4 in the first couple innings. After that, the Tech bullpen was sensational. They allowed just 3 hits over 7.1 innings of work and no earned runs. Josh Berzonski had maybe his best outing of the season with 3.0 scoreless innings with the game on the line.

At the plate, the Hokies could not buy a hit. VCU made some solid defensive plays in the field, but the long ball was non existent. VCU pitching was not good, but it was effectively wild. Everyone at The Diamond was genuinely surprised when a strike was called...including the Tech hitters. There just wasn't a lot to hit, and when their was the Rams made the play in the field. Tech only had 3 hits in the game but drew 9 walks, was hit by a pitch 3 times, and were able to steal 3 bases. The game was won when Sam Tackett stepped in as a pinch hitter in the 8th and hit a double to the left field wall to score the speedy Clay Grady. It was an ugly, long, laborious game that the Hokies needed to win. 

Midweek college baseball. A game of survival.

Things are getting to the nitty gritty in the ACC, and the Hokies remain in the middle of the pack. Two straight series losses has left the Hokies under .500 in league play, but there's 9 games left to make up some ground. Here's how I have the league power ranked, with movement vs last week included:

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

The Hokies have series @ Duke, @ Pittsburgh, and vs Virginia left on the schedule. All of those are winnable. The Hokies will need to go 5-4 or better to finish with a .500+ ACC win %.  In terms of NCAA Regional projections, the Hokies are actually fine. Saturday's win vs UNC was their best win of the year in terms of RPI, and the strength of schedule currently sits at #12 in the nation. Continuing to take care of midweek games is really helping, but Tech does need to have a good showing in Durham if they want to climb up the seeding ranks. As of now, the Hokies are in danger of sliding to a 3 seed. However, they could climb as high as top 20 national seed if they take care of business.  

The Hokies drive down to Durham to face a good, but up & down Duke team. The Blue Devils are not as talented as they have been in the last few seasons. They still have guys who can hit the ball a country mile, and pitching will always be a strength of their's. But this is not a team that will match the MLB pipeline factories of UNC and Florida State. The Hokies will hopefully be rested and ready to roll on Friday. Getting some run-support early in that game may be the key to the whole weekend. 

After that, Tech will host Liberty on Tuesday at 6pm. It will be another chance for Tech to add to their growingly impressive non-conference resume.