Chris Cannizzaro remembered everything about the end, though it was a little hazy – how the ball flew over the left field wall, his fist raised as he was halfway between first and second base, and how he got to slam the home run hammer into home plate for the No. 11 Hokies. His teammates surrounded him and he lept into a pile of them before slamming the hammer into the turf.
The celebration came after Cannizzaro rescued Virginia Tech (7-2) from what would have been its most demoralizing loss yet into a 13-11 victory in 10 innings over Charlotte.
The Hokies went down 3-0 in the top of the first but turned that into a 11-7 lead, yet coughed up a game-tying three-run homer in the top of the eighth. Then, in the most dramatic way, they won their first Friday game of the year when Cannizzaro blasted a walk-off two-run homer with two outs in the bottom of the 10th.
“I’ve never done that before,” Cannizzaro told Tech Sideline minutes after his walk-off blast. “That was crazy.”
Crazy indeed. Tech snapped its three-game Friday losing streak that dated back to the 2022 NCAA Super Regional only after Charlotte’s Cam Fisher tied the game at 11 with a three-run home run in the eighth. The Hokies took the lead three separate times from the third inning until the final pitch was thrown in 40-degree, rainy and windy weather at English Field on Friday evening.
“That’s actually kind of an indirectly good way for our guys to win,” Tech head coach John Szefc said. “They had to come back, they had to fight through some [stuff] here. And with the way the game went, and the way the weather went, and every other thing, it was actually probably better to win that way.”
Virginia Tech won its fourth-straight game after the ugly weather and some bad defensive luck chased Griffin Green from the game in the fourth inning. It salvaged another great offensive day from Cannizzaro (4-for-6), Jack Hurley (two doubles, home run), and Garrett Michel (double, home run). The victory, though, mattered more to Cannizzaro and Hurley than the way Cannizzaro crushed Evan Michelson’s last pitch of the game.
“I told [Director of Player Development Kyle] Sarazin that Chris was going to somehow end it,” Hurley said with a laugh. “I thought it was going to be a single with [Christian] Martin on second, but I’ll take the homer.”
Tech could’ve been in a hole for the rest of the weekend like the previous two series. And it would’ve hurt more knowing that the team had already come back from deficits of 3-0 and 4-3, respectively. But the burden was lifted.
In the bottom of the first with the bases-loaded, Eddie Eisert singled home a pair to cut the margin to one. Then in the second, David Bryant grounded out to second, scoring Michel, to tie the game at three. Charlotte took the lead back in the third, but Michel gave Tech its first lead of the day with a three-run opposite field homer in the bottom half.
“It was early on, but it was pretty big,” Michel said. “It was just kind of like a momentum shift – it turned the tables.”
Charlotte tied the score again in the fourth on a two-run homer from Kaden Hopson that drove Green from the game. Yet, a Carson DeMartini sac fly scored Bryant. Hurley followed up with a three-run homer to give the Hokies some breathing room, 10-6.
Kiernan Higgins shut the door from the fifth until he departed in the seventh while Charlotte’s Andrew Spolyar did the same. The Hokies and 49ers each added another run in the seventh to drive the score to 11-7. In the eighth, Charlotte picked up another via a bases-loaded sacrifice fly with no outs. Then came Fisher’s game-tying homer off of Henry Weycker.
“It was definitely to help the team and I wanted to keep us in the game as long as we could,” Higgins said of his outing. “With this offense, we know that we can explode at any moment. So, it’s really just keeping it where it’s at.”
Griffin Steig recorded an important seven outs for Tech from the top of the eighth to the 10th until Szefc turned to Tyler Dean for the final out in the inning. He threw four pitches – three fastballs – before blowing a 94-mile-an-hour one by Fisher to send the game to the bottom half still tied.
“I trust Dean in those situations,” Szefc said. “That’s how the program is going to grow – you’re going to need different guys having success like that.”
All of that led up to Cannizzaro’s biggest swing of the season. After Michel struck out to open the inning, Martin reached on an infield single. Two batters later, after Bryant also struck out, Cannizzaro drove a 385-foot blast over the left field wall on the first pitch he saw – one-upping his cycle from Sunday afternoon. He’s 12-for-16 since.
“We all know we’re really good players,” Cannizzaro said. “We all trust each other.”
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Do we need a pitcher or a belly itcher?
Nice win in bad conditions. Come May and June everybody hits and the differentiator is pitching. Hopefully VT’s staff develops over the course of the season.
The bats again bail out another spotty pitching performance. Talking heads keep saying these are quality non-conference opponents and I know baseball can be like this; but, I’ve said it before, man the pitching has GOT to improve.
Great game to watch…I had a feeling right before the big hammer.
Way to go Hokies!