Unpacking what happened during the bottom of the third and seventh innings at English Field between Virginia Tech and NC State wouldn’t take a ton of digging.
With the rain coming down steadily and the wind blowing out to center field all night, it was a battle that never felt fair, and an offensive onslaught that was backed by solid pitching never put the final score into question.
Griffin Green labored through some early struggles, allowing four runs to cross in his seven innings of work, but limited a powerful lineup that included the likes of designated hitter Tommy White.
Once he settled in, Virginia Tech (19-7, 6-5 ACC) cruised from there as Green struck out five batters in the Hokies’ 21-10 win over No. 21 NC State (18-10, 6-6 ACC). It wasn’t the prettiest of starts, but it got the job done once Tech jumped out to its 8-2 lead in the bottom of the third.
“Once the offense gets going, it’s important to put up quick, efficient innings,” Green said. “I made an adjustment after the fourth inning – I pitched them more inside, especially to the righties to get weak contact.”
Virginia Tech crushed three home runs in the inning – via the bats of Conor Hartigan, Carson DeMartini and Gavin Cross – for the second time this season (the other instance came in the sixth inning of a 22-6 rout of Pitt back on March 19). It’s a lineup that’s become accustomed to launching so many big flies through the course of a game – it’s second in the nation in home runs per game, trailing only No. 1 Tennessee.
And as all three batters trotted around first base, each had a smile on their faces. DeMartini’s was the latest to appear, though, because of the 47.8-degree launch angle on his big fly that just snuck over the left field wall.
“If you look at the video, you’ll probably see me drop the bat and run with my head down because I thought I had gotten under it,” DeMartini said with a laugh.
First, it was Hartigan’s three-run no-doubt homer to left field — set up by an Eduardo Malinowski triple and a Cade Hunter walk — that broke a 2-2 tie. Then Nick Holesa singled for DeMartini’s two-run blast, while Cross’s opposite field solo shot put icing on the cake.
“It was good to see Hartigan get it going again,” Tech head coach John Szefc said. “Give him credit for that three-run jack.”
Green didn’t get the shutdown inning the Hokies needed right away in the top of the fourth – those came later – as NC State added two runs on a Noah Soles single.
Before that, though, the Wolfpack scored on a solo home run from left fielder Dominic Pilolli in the first inning, tying the score at one. Then, after Tech added another run on a Gavin Cross single, Josh Hood tied the game again with a groundout to DeMartini at third.
But after Soles’s two-run knock in the fourth brought the Pack to within four runs, Green settled in and the offense took over once more. Hunter smoked a home run to center field that smacked off the batter’s eye above the camera well – good for Tech’s longest home run of the season (467-feet) – in the bottom of the fourth inning.
Jack Hurley then doubled to lead-off the sixth inning, extending his season-opening hit-streak to 25 games, a new program ACC-era record. He only trails Tim Buheller’s program record set in 1985 by seven games.
Cross added another RBI single, scoring Nick Holesa in the fifth, and hit his second solo home run, this one off the right field scoreboard in the seventh. Sandwiched in between was Nick Biddison’s two-RBI single two batter’s prior.
Following that, the floodgates opened and emotions ran high. It became an 11-run seventh inning that saw DeMartini, Cross and Hunter hit their second home runs.
It included six hits, six walks, two hit-by-pitches, two pitching changes and two ejections. The bottom of the seventh lasted for more than 45 minutes from the first pitch to the time Gherig Ebel flew out to end the inning.
“In all my years of college baseball, I don’t know if I’ve ever seen an 11-run inning,” Szefc said.
All told, if the 10-4 lead entering the inning wasn’t in doubt, then the 21-4 mark at the end of it pretty much solidified the win as 17 different Virginia Tech players appeared in the inning.
The plan was for Green to head back out to the bump for the eighth inning. However, after his long sit, Szefc decided it was best to work Christian Worley, Peter Sakellaris and Jackson Ritchey in the final two innings. Worley surrendered two runs in the eighth, while Sakellaris yielded three in the ninth and Ritchey gave up the last run.
And finally, when Ritchey struck Soles out, those in the crowd that stuck around through the rainy, cold early April weather gave the Hokies a standing ovation. Virginia Tech earned every single one of those claps Friday night.
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That photo of Demartini is awesome. You don’t need a caption at all to know that ball has left the building!
Wonder why the coach and pitcher were ejected? Wonder what the NC State Coach said to the VT Coaches during the post game handshakes? Wonder what the NC State Coach said in the post game interviews? Wonder what will be said at today’s lineup card exchange before the game?
I bet ‘hurler’ knows. 🙂
Did the NC State coach and pitcher really go back on the bus once they got ejected?
Do we not have a visitor’s locker room/clubhouse?