Virginia Tech second baseman Eduardo Malinowski paused for a moment to admire the baseball that just left his bat in the bottom of the seventh inning – because at that point, who could blame him? The ball continued to climb and climb over the pitching lab in left field outside of English Field.
His bat, one that carried a three-game hitting streak coming into Sunday despite limited at-bats because of Christian Martin’s hot start to the season, did the damage against Donye Evans. Or it could have been Malinowski’s swing or his plate approach that he’s worked on in the past few weeks. Whatever it was and whatever produced the 422-foot blast was the loudest highlight in No. 11 Virginia Tech’s 12-4 victory over Charlotte (5-7).
The victory marked the first series sweep of the season for the Hokies, their sixth straight victory and bumped their record to 9-2.
“I was just really happy our guys came out and played a great game on Sunday,” Tech head coach John Szefc told Tech Sideline after the win. “Yesterday, we kind of only had a few guys play really well. … A lot of guys contributed, so there were a lot of pluses.”
Tech starter Anthony Arguelles threw three shutout innings before yielding a three-run homer with an out in the fourth inning. He was lifted in favor of Grant Umberger, who worked around some traffic before recording his second multi-inning outing of the season without allowing any 49ers to cross home plate.
He handed the baseball to Brady Kirtner for an out, who then gave it to Jonah Hurney for six outs. And finally, Tommy Szczepanski and Andrew Sentlinger combined for the final three. All six combined to yield just four hits.
“I thought that was probably our best game of the weekend as far as pitching and getting everybody in the game,” Szefc said.
But even through that, in normal Virginia Tech fashion, the Hokies tagged Charlotte’s starting pitcher for seven runs (six earned) in three innings. Aside from the first, Tech didn’t hang a crooked number up in each inning until the sixth, but added a run in the seventh on Malinowski’s homer for good measure.
“I’m feeling great,” Malinowski said, “I’m just trying to see the ball in a good zone and just trying to take advantage of my opportunities given to me.”
Carson Jones cleared the bases on a three-run double in the first inning as he’s begun to swing it a little bit better. Garrett Michel, who’s become an instant impact freshman, launched his second home run of the weekend in the third – good for a two-run shot.
Chris Cannizzaro added to his legend with an RBI double in the fourth. He only needed a home run to hit his second cycle in a week, and he’s 19 for his last 26. On top of that, Clay Grady added an RBI triple in his third career start in the fifth.
“[Grady] has a really good future, he just needs to play and be productive,” Szefc said. “It’s just tough [to play the freshmen] because we have a lot of veteran guys that are trying to get run, but you gotta get some of the young guys in there. But as the program grows that’s what happens – at times we want to put 12 guys in the lineup, and pitch a ton of guys, but you can’t, you can only put nine guys in at a time.”
And when all of that was added up, including Malinowski’s solo shot in the seventh, the Hokies sidestepped Jake Cunningham’s three-run homer in the fourth that brought Charlotte to within four runs, which was the closest it ever got. They are now 7-2 on the weekends against quality non-conference opponents that have a chance at making the NCAA tournament at the end of the season.
Arguelles gave Tech the start it needed – three shutout innings – before he yielded the home run in the fourth. His offense jumped out to a 7-0 lead in the third when Hurley was hit by a pitch in the first inning with the bases loaded and then Jones’s double cleared them. In the second, Cannizzaro reached on an error that scored Martin from third. And then Michel’s homer in the third blew the score open.
Even after Cunningham’s bomb, Tech remained unfazed. Once it got back into the dugout, Cannizzaro laced a double in the bottom half to grab one of those runs back. And in the fifth, after a shutout inning from Umberger, Tech scored three more runs when Jones stole third and then scored on a throwing error; when Grady tripled Michel home; and when Martin’s sacrifice fly drove in Martin.
Those runs made the final 12 outs just a bit easier for Umberger, Kirtner, Hurney, Szczepanski and Sentlinger.
“We’re just trying to stack up these wins and find a way to get better,” Malinowski said. “Szefc talked to us today and said, ‘We could do better, we could be better, we still need to get better and make adjustments and grow everyday.’ That’s what’s making us successful.”
“We got a gritty group of guys,” Grady added with a smile.
Box Score: No. 11 Virginia Tech 12, Charlotte 4
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One more time please … how do you pronounce Szefc ?
As always, thank you for the great baseball coverage, Chris. In your opinion, who is most likely to be the closer? Or will it done by committee?
“Tommy Szczepanski and Andrew Sentlinger combined for the final three” What role did Szczepanski play in that final 3? haha That appearance was the direct opposite of his first. Was watching/listening to it on my phone and was shocked they kept him in after the 3rd straight BB.