Home Run Hammer Returns For No. 14 Virginia Tech In Series Win Over Charleston

You might remember the Air Hammer from last year’s Blacksburg Super Regional that replaced the usual sludgehammer in home run celebrations for Virginia Tech. Or the larger-than-life ‘Free The Hammer’ banner displayed on the railing of the suite seating at English Field before Game 3 of the same series.

Maybe, just maybe, you remember Carson DeMartini’s rant, where the then-freshman grabbed the microphone and spoke for the entire team. He called the NCAA’s rule that banned the hammer – which was last used a few days before it was outlawed in the Blacksburg Regional – “total crap.” 

Or if you think hard enough, you might be able to recall the “Free. The. Hammer!” chants at English Field during that same series. 

In Charleston on Sunday, the hammer was, once again, free after Eddie Eisert lifted a towering two-run blast over the right field wall in the top of the fourth inning. The homer, which extended the Hokies’ (2-1) lead to 6-1, was a rather small footnote in their 15-2 win over the College of Charleston (1-2) in the third game of the weekend series. But the moment immediately following the hammer was rather large.

“I’m glad we got to swing the hammer,” Tech head coach John Szefc told Tech Sideline  after the victory. “It’s kind of our identity.”

The concept of the hammer, which was born before the 2020 season began, was rather simple. Following a home run, a VT-stickered sledgehammer was thrown to the player that hit the homer and slammed into the ground just outside of Tech’s dugout. The Hokies were able to do that 120 or so times last year – before the NCAA site-rep banned the item prior to the Super Regional.

In the off-season, though, the NCAA’s Rules Committee approved a change to ban on-field props such as the hammer, Tennessee’s fur coat and mini-basketball hoops, among others. But there’s one stipulation in the rule. Teams are warned if they use an on-field prop the first time they do it in a series; the next offense results in an ejection.

So the Hokies used the loophole. Once Eisert crossed the plate and headed towards the dugout, he was tossed the hammer and slammed it into the turf. Tech was warned and the game went on.

Four hitters later, Jack Hurley smoked a two-run homer. This time, he was thrown his bat once he reached the entrance of the dugout as he sent his teammates into a frenzy with the game in hand, 9-1.

The idea, just like the hammer, was thought of by volunteer assistant Tyler Hanson, Hurley noted. But Szefc called the bat “awkward” to slam into the ground and thought that going back to the air hammer might work best.

The bat, which isn’t considered a prop by the rule classification, was slammed once more by Garrett Michel in the fifth inning after his first collegiate homer.

“It brings out the energy in our team,” Hurley said. “We obviously needed a supplement [when the NCAA banned the rule]. … It looked good, I guess. It was a little different.”

But the hammer clouded the excellent outing turned in by Anthony Arguelles in his first NCAA start. The graduate transfer from Miami pitched four innings of one-run ball where he grew into the game after opening with five-straight balls and yielding two singles in the first inning. 

“[Starting] was tough to get used to because I haven’t done it in a long time,” Arguelles said. “It’s the first time I’ve done that in a long time and [I’m] just starting to get accustomed to it.”

He struck out Cole Mathis to end the first frame, leaving two runners stranded. In the second, he fanned the first two hitters. And the next two innings went about the same way the second did as he racked up a career-high six strikeouts on 80 pitches.

He departed with a 10-1 lead in hand thanks to the top of the fourth inning where Tech scored seven runs thanks to Eisert’s and Hurley’s homers and four errors from the Cougars’ defense.

“Having an offense like that makes it a lot easier,” Arguelles said. “I can just go out and focus on my job.”

Michel added another run on his solo homer in the fifth, which gave Grant Umberger a nine-run lead to work with when he entered in the bottom of the inning. Umberger shoved from the fifth until the eighth, giving up three hits and striking out a pair.

“[Grant] might’ve been the biggest plus of the day,” Szefc said. “He got out there, had success and is starting to take that next step.”

Once Umberger departed, Tech had an 11-1 lead and Szefc called on Griffin Stieg to finish out the afternoon. Stieg, who had draft consideration this summer, was one of Tech’s top ranked signees. In the eighth, he gave up a run with two outs but bounced back with a strikeout to end the frame.

And in the ninth, he worked himself out of a jam with runners on the corners with one out when he struck out Trotter Harlan and got JT Marr to roll over to third to clinch the series for Virginia Tech.

“We were trying to get away from Blacksburg,” Szefc said. “Kind of get them out of their comfort zone. And there’s no better way to win on a weekend on the road after losing on Friday and then taking Saturday and Sunday.”

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