Behind Drue Hackenberg, No. 14 Virginia Tech Outduels Bryant

More than 24 hours after the offense fell quiet, No. 14 Virginia Tech pieced together another reusable winning formula – one that it used to score 42 runs across three games prior to Friday afternoon.

Tech needed it after striking out 16 times on Friday. And it turned the weekend mood around. It resulted in a 4-1 victory over Bryant, which bumped the team’s record to 4-2 on Saturday at English Field. This one was kickstarted by Drue Hackenberg’s seven strong innings and then preserved by Henry Weycker.

“[Bryant] has a pretty good team, it’s a good test for us,” Tech head coach John Szefc told reporters after the win. “We’ve got a lot of guys kind of trying to figure it out, trying to find it. … We’ve got guys going through some struggles, but you’ve got arms to cover it up, so it’s really helpful.”

Saturday was a chance for the Hokies to push the reset button after the loss to Bryant the previous afternoon. And it came with a few firsts. Szefc chose to shake up the lineup, giving Clay Grady his first career start at DH. Garrett Michel got his first appearance in the field, and Christian Martin was bumped up from the bottom of the lineup to the cleanup spot for the first time.

Bryant starter Ken Turner yielded four hits and all four runs as the Hokies chased him early after 74 pitches in 3 ⅔ innings. Gehrig Ebel and Eddie Eisert tagged him for a pair of homers that went over the left-center field wall. Tech scratched two more runs across in the fourth when Martin – who’s hitting .571 in 14 at-bats – singled home a run. Michel drove Martin home on a fielder’s choice soon after.

“The bats are getting more competitive,” Szefc said. “We have a lot of guys I believe in. … A lot of guys I have confidence in [to figure it out].”

On the homers, Tech was asked to celebrate in the cutout next to the dugout by the ACC’s umpire assignor, Troy Fullwood, according to Szefc. It did just that with the air hammer – even though Ebel had hit the first homer of the series.

All of those timely hits from Ebel, Eisert, Martin and Michel, matched with a strong start and a bullpen that didn’t cave, is sometimes all a team needs. 

“A lot of our guys stayed after [Friday’s game] to get some work on the [hitting] machines,” Eisert said. “We worked on some things we weren’t seeing, and I think that translated pretty well.”

Fans trickled in through the drizzly February rain because the Hokies have been exciting outside of their loss on Friday night. They homered their way to victory last Sunday and on Tuesday vs. ETSU. And still, even in 40-degree weather, the fans showed up. 

And it almost felt like a new beginning for Tech. It turned to Hackenberg for stability and a needed breath to get back on track. A year ago to the day, he wasn’t a well-known arm. This year, after an All-ACC season and a Team USA stint over the summer, Hackenberg came with some well-received hype.

In his first start of 2023 against Charleston, he yielded one earned run in 4 ⅔ innings as he found his groove late in his outing. Hackenberg rode that same wave to a career-high 10 strikeouts on Saturday. He shoved, and then shoved some more, mixing his sinker, slider and four-seam fastball almost perfectly all afternoon. He also didn’t allow the lead-off batter in any inning to reach base.

“That was the thing that usually happened last year,” Hackenberg said of allowing the lead-off man to reach. “You can definitely see the change and how it affects your momentum and flow in the game.”

Hackenberg started off strong with a 16-pitch first inning that resulted in two groundouts and his first punch outs, which ended the frame. Then set down the next two hitters on fly outs before surrendering a base hit, but bounced back with another strikeout to end the second.

In the third, after punching out Zach DeMattio, Hackenberg yielded another single, but thanks to the team’s PitchCom – which let the pitcher, catcher and the infielders know which pitch was coming next – a well-positioned David Bryant turned a 6-3 double play on a hard-hit ground ball that finished the inning.

The Hokies used PitchCom for the first time in program history on Saturday night. It’s worn as a wristband and allows the catcher to request pitches without using visible signals. Multiple professional teams and some college teams have hopped on the trend since the technology debuted in the low levels of the Minor Leagues in 2021.

“We were like, ‘Screw it, let’s try and use [PitchCom] today,’” Hackenberg said. “Some of the infielders were wearing it. It’s very simple, very easy.”

Once Hackenberg finished off the top of the third, Tech struck for the first of its two runs, both coming off solo homers from Ebel and Eisert. In the fourth and fifth, Hackenberg continued to shove by setting the side down in order like this: fly out, strike out, strike out, strike out, strike out, strike out.

“I missed the fastball I wanted to hit the pitch before, but I got lucky enough that he handed me a breaking ball and I hit it pretty well,” Ebel said. “It might have just gotten me out of my slump – happy to get back in the hit tally.”

Sandwiched in between, Martin and Michel drove the Hokies’ other two runs to extend their lead to 4-0.

The only trouble Hackenberg ran into was in the sixth when Bryant overthrew Michel at first base with one out in the inning, allowing Caden Dunlin to reach and then eventually score on a Jake Gustin single with two outs. In the next at-bat, though, Hackenberg struck out Brian Schaub to end the sixth.

Hackenberg went out and fired one more inning, stranding two runners on base to end the seventh. He was vintage Hackenberg, the one college baseball saw dominate each one of his regular season starts in 2022.

Weycker polished off the final two innings, which became a win Virginia Tech felt good about from start to finish, from the starter, to the bullpen, to the lineup. A nice change from Friday afternoon. 

“When Hackenberg is pitching like that, … it makes it a lot easier to win games,” Szefc said.

Box Score: Link