The Virginia Tech baseball team defeated Georgia Tech 6-2 on Sunday afternoon, after the Yellow Jackets won on Friday and Saturday. The Hokies, ranked #24 this past week in the Baseball American poll, are now 12-4 overall and 1-2 in the ACC. Georgia Tech is #14 in the same poll, and their record is 14-2 overall, and 2-1 in ACC play.
VT faced Buck Farmer on Friday night, who is a possible top 10 pick in June’s Major League Baseball Draft. Farmer allowed one run against the Hokies, and that was the first run he had allowed all season. Georgia Tech won that game 11-1, knocking starter Eddie Campbell out of the game early.
Friday night starts are reserved for senior lefty Joe Mantiply, but he was still out with arm discomfort. He returned during Sunday’s win, and pitched a scoreless ninth inning in relief. Hopefully he’ll be able to return to the starting rotation soon.
Saturday’s game was a slugfest, with Georgia Tech taking a 14-9 win. The Yellow Jackets scored six runs in the sixth inning, three of which were unearned. Starter Brad Markey, who began his career at Georgia Tech, allowed six earned runs in six innings, though he pitched better than his numbers indicated.
Heading into Sunday’s game, Georgia Tech had scored 10 runs or more in nine consecutive games. They have one of the most powerful lineups in college baseball, and they were on a roll. However, Virginia Tech Sunday starter Devin Burke pitched eight strong innings for the Hokies, allowing just two runs and six hits in eight innings of work. He is now 4-0 on the season with a 1.65 ERA. He is a r-junior and a transfer from Duke, and he’ll take on his old team in Durham next weekend.
The Hokies were swept by Duke last season, and that disappointing weekend ultimately kept them out of the ACC Tournament, and possibly out of the NCAA Tournament. The Blue Devils took two out of three games against Miami over the weekend.
Before the Hokies travel to Durham, they play two non-conference games in the state of North Carolina. Tech will face Charlotte on Tuesday and Elon on Wednesday.
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Great game hokies
Given that we are historically short of pitching winning one vs that line up without our best starter in the rotation(Mantiply) is about the best we could hope for.
I’ll be going to watch the game at Charlotte. It’s supposed to rain, though. Hope we pitch somebody decent.
Oh well, one is better than getting swept.
CC wrote going in that winning one was about to be expected. Getting swept would have been very disappointing, and winning two or three would have been real cause for celebration.
So, I wanted better, but I’ll take it.