The cheers were loud, and for a pretty good reason, when Virginia Tech head coach John Szefc took the baseball from Drue Hackenberg with an out in the sixth inning.
It was his seventh trek back to the dugout on Saturday afternoon, and like he had in each of his eight home starts this season, he exited at the center of a standing ovation from a scattered crowd at English Field.
Hokies’ fans appreciated his effort – two runs in 6 ⅓ innings – but also recognized its continued significance for his team. When Hackenberg pitches well, and in games where it needs him most, No. 5 Virginia Tech (35-11, 15-9 ACC) has a true stopper on the mound. That matters when the Hokies drop a series-opener game – a rare occurrence, but it’s happened a handful of times this year, including this Friday.
And that will matter once the NCAA Tournament rolls around and Tech hopes to be one of the top-eight national seeds with home-field advantage through the Super Regional round.
Hackenberg didn’t throw a pitch in the fall and Szefc wasn’t sure he’d be ready to start games. That was until he shoved in his very first start against UNC Asheville back in mid-February in Tech’s first series of the year.
“I remember that we were saying we were going to use an opener for him,” Szefc said. “We were trying to protect him a little bit. I give [assistant coaches Kurt] Elbin and [Ryan] Fecteau a lot of credit. They said, ‘he trends as a starter and we’re going to run him out as a starter.’”
Since, all he’s done is turn in a 2.54 ERA in 12 starts (13 appearances) in 78 innings to give counter-evidence to Szefc’s opener suggestion. And a 4-3 win over No. 7 Louisville (34-14-1, 16-9-1 ACC) on Saturday – Tech’s first head-to-head win in eight tries over the Cardinals since they joined the ACC in 2013 – provided even more.
“I go back to … that stretch of five games,” Szefc said, alluding to Tech’s five-game losing streak in March. “On two different occasions, we lost two Friday games [to Georgia Tech and Pitt]. I think our guys have gotten good at going one stanza at a time and not look too far beyond, and that’s kind of where we’re at.”
It wasn’t his longest start of the year, and yes, he needed help from the bullpen to finish another masterpiece, but it was arguably one of the best starts he turned in all year. His sinker dove a little more, his slider bit a little more, and it was the key to success in generating more swings and misses than he did in previous starts.
That culminated in all those cheers he received once Henry Weycker trekked in from the bullpen to complete the final 2 ⅔ innings.
Weycker has been nails coming out of the bullpen all year, but especially in the last three series the Hokies have played. He yielded two runs in 4 ⅔ against Boston College on April 24, but it was enough to pick up Jordan Geber and complete the only conference sweep Tech has to date.
Since then, he’s tossed nine innings across three appearances – 4 ⅔ at No. 14 Virginia, 1 ⅔ against Villanova and 2 ⅔ against Louisville – and hasn’t allowed an earned run in his last 11 innings.
“As a lefty, he’s so tough to hit,” Tech left fielder Jack Hurley said. “His fastball has so much run and his slider runs so far away.”
But how Tech got to the finish line was against its recent trend, a little unconventional for the Hokies in recent weeks. They haven’t had the luxury of playing with a lead – all five of their wins since they beat UVa on April 30 have been come-from-behind.
That changed on Saturday when Gavin Cross smoked a two-run home run in the bottom of the third. And after VT loaded the bases later in the inning, Eduardo Malinowski’s sacrifice fly drove Hurley in, good enough for a 3-0 lead.
“[Cross’s homer] kind of got the monkey off our back,” Szefc said.
Louisville struck back with a run in the fifth when Hackenberg yielded a lead-off single to Cameron Masterman and then a one-out walk to Logan Beard, which put runners on first and second. Brandon Anderson singled up the middle on a 1-1 pitch to drive Masterman home and put runners on the corners. But Hackenberg battled back after striking out Ben Bianco and forced Ben Metzinger to foul out to end the fifth.
The real drama, however, didn’t start until the seventh inning when Hackenberg surrendered a one-out single to Issac Humphrey. That’s when Humphrey moved up to second on a wild pitch and Beard singled him home, which cut the deficit to one run.
Hackenberg departed to the cheers and then Weycker turned in a one-pitch 6-3 ground ball double play to end the inning and the Cardinals’ threat.
The drama died down soon after and then rose again in the bottom of the eighth when Carson DeMartini singled Brennan Reback home with two outs – an insurance run the Hokies would need for the ninth inning.
With Tech up by two, 4-2, entering the ninth, Weycker had little trouble recording the first out on a three-pitch strikeout. But that’s when Masterman singled to second and then was able to move up to second after Malinowski fired a throw into the Louisville dugout. Then he advanced to third with one out when Weycker’s plant foot slipped on the wet dirt in the middle of his motion, which was ruled a balk.
A pitch later, Weycker hit Humphrey, which gave way to Beard’s RBI single on a 1-2 pitch, bringing the Cardinals to within a run.
But Weycker didn’t back down. Rather, he got Anderson to foul out to left field – an effort in which Hurley said he was ready to dive over the wall and onto the concrete path that leads to the bullpen – and he struck out Drake Westcott on three pitches to end the afternoon, earning his first career save in the process.
The Hokies haven’t been in this exact position to take an ACC series since they dropped the series-opener to Pitt in their second conference series this season. Nevertheless, they’ll be ready to win their eighth-straight ACC series once first pitch rolls around Sunday morning.
“We’ll be ready,” Hurley said. “We’ll just need to pitch well and bring our bats with us.”
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Final score for this game was 4-3.
What was the final, 4-2? I probably missed it.
Nice article but I to read all of it to try and deduce the final score. The score of the game should be in the first line of the article.
That tends to be his style. I believe that has been requested of Chris before.
Chris, don’t assume all of us know the final score, that should come very early in your recap.
And good job! Your getting valuable experience!
That was a BIG TIME win in a pressure situation……congrats and Great job Hokies!!!!