Nearly 400 feet from where the baseball hit the grass under the scoreboard in right field and the 2,000 or so fans exploded was this resemblance of Virginia Tech left fielder Jack Hurley: his hands raised, his torso facing towards the home dugout as he rounded third base and a scream of excitement that only comes when you’ve hit your sixth home run in seven games.
Hurley couldn’t tell you what happened as he rounded the bases, how his helmet came off after touching home plate or how he turned towards the crowd to fire them up after slamming the hammer in the dugout after giving Tech a 7-6 lead.
But what he could tell you is that, maybe, just maybe, it was a season-changing swing for Virginia Tech in its 12-7 victory over No. 5 Virginia that clinched the weekend series in Blacksburg for the first time since 2015. With the win, the Hokies have won two consecutive series over UVa — after winning the Friday and Sunday games last season — for the first time since 1999-2000. On top of that, it marked their first ACC series of the season. They won because the bullpen pieced together a winning formula and the offense clicked again for the second time in as many days.
“This weekend is kind of a microcosm of how our season is going,” Tech head coach John Szefc said. “It’s April 2, and I almost feel like this weekend was like the second beginning of our season because we’re still trying to figure things out, we’re trying to get arms healthy.”
“We just beat the No. 5 team in the nation, so that could give us some serious momentum going forward,” Hurley added. “It kind of shows you what we can be.”
Hurley’s home run mirrored the same situation the Hokies faced last season at Virginia in the third game of the series. Needing a win to clinch the weekend, they came back after being down 4-0, tying the score before Gavin Cross — the programs’ highest draft pick — homered in the top of the seventh to give Tech its first lead of that afternoon in a 7-5 victory.
Only this time, it was the bottom of the sixth and the Hokies (17-10, 4-8 ACC) were down a run after Carson Jones singled and stole second base with one out. And then, with two outs, Hurley lifted a no-doubter to right field — in the same direction Cross hit his go-ahead homer in 2022.
And similar to last season, Virginia Tech had to come back from a multi-run deficit of 3-0 in the first inning. Then it had to muster enough runs after trailing 5-4 and 6-5.
Virginia (24-4, 8-4 ACC) struck first with a lot of hard contact when Griff O’Ferrall led off the afternoon with a single that snuck under Clay Grady’s glove. Then Ethan O’Donnell walked and was erased on Jake Gelof’s fielder’s choice. Soon after came Kyle Teel’s RBI single and then Ethan Anderson followed with a double that drove in both Gelof and Teel to put Tech down by three just minutes into the afternoon.
But the Hokies, as they did yesterday, calmly responded. In the next frame, they took advantage of the free bases given to them. Carson Jones led off with a walk, Clay Grady followed one of his own. Next, Hurley reached on an error while Carson DeMartini lofted an opposite field triple that fell inside the left field line that tied the game up at three apiece. And finally, Brody Donay grounded out to third to score DeMartini to cap off a four-run first.
In the second, Virginia traded another blow with Virginia Tech. Henry Godbout led off the inning with a single through the left side before he stole second with two outs. And though the Cavaliers generated a lot of hard contact early, it was O’Donnell’s fly ball that dropped in between Jones, Grady and Christian Martin that scored Godbout, tying the game back up — this time at four.
With two outs in the third, UVa scored another run to take the lead for the second time of the afternoon, 5-4. With an out, Ethan Anderson singled to center and then advanced to second on a wild pitch before Casey Saucke drove him home with a single back up the middle.
The Hokies got back on the board with Chris Cannizzaro’s bases-loaded sacrifice line out to left field that scored Donay to knot the score back up at five, but Virginia scored another in the fourth when Teel doubled home Gelof on his second knock of the day to give UVa the lead back, 6-5.
“I wish I could’ve been out there for every inning this weekend,” Cannizzaro, who dealt with a ‘bad bone bruise,’ said. “… I texted [associate head coach] Kurt Elbin last night and I told him I was ready to go, I want to play today. Thankfully I did.”
And that’s where the score held for the next few innings, but not without some drama. Griffin Stieg loaded the bases in the same inning UVa took the lead but got Saucke to go down swinging to end the frame. Then in the fifth, Grant Umberger hit Godbout with a pitch and O’Ferrall with an out. The pair moved up a base each before Kiernan Higgins, who was called on to face Gelof, got him to fly out to center field to end the threat.
And that all set the stage for Hurley’s sixth inning homer that gave Tech its first lead since the opening inning. After Donay and Garrett Michel walked in the seventh, Cannizzaro crushed a three-run homer that smashed off of the batter’s eye in center field that, essentially, clinched the series for Virginia Tech.
“That was probably the biggest home run I’ve ever hit,” Cannizzaro said.
Virginia brought the score to within three runs with Anthony Stephan’s two-out double in the top of the eighth, but Tech got that run back and added another when Hurley hit his second homer of the day — he has seven in his last seven games — and Donay hit his fifth home run of the season. And, in turn, Jonah Hurney cruised through the final five outs, yielding a hit and a walk on 32 pitches in arguably his best outing of the season.
“A big part of this weekend is, I think, when you look at a guy like Hurney finishing out two games,” Szefc said, “and we weren’t getting that two weeks ago from him or Higgins, and those guys go out there and do it.”
As O’Ferrall struck out to end the afternoon, Hurley sprinted in from left field to greet his teammates after a potentially season-changing victory. He cast his eyes into the crowd that had come out to support him and signed as many autographs as he could. The feeling of appreciation between Hurley and his supporters was mutual. And maybe, just maybe, that support could be what turns Tech’s season around.
Box Score: Virginia Tech 12, No. 5 Virginia 7
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Great story, Chris!
“On top of that, it marked their first ACC series of the season. ”
Did this mean to say “first ACC series win of the season”?
Each weekend is a series. We won 2 of 3 games against UVA. We have won games but not a series vs ACC opponents until now
Great series win! The rest of the schedule sets up nicely with winnable series against Duke, GT, FSU and Clemson. Tech is third in the ACC in batting average and in runs scored. We also have the highest fielding percentage. Hopefully we see our 12th ranked pitching improve.
That was a great game yesterday and I do wonder if we are starting to turn things around. So much talent and so much young talent.
I was very impressed with Clay Grady. That ss knows how to ball.
Grady’s Nansemond River HS must have been really good last year. He’s starting at ss for Tech and Grayson Fitzwater is starting for VMI at first base. Both are very talented players.
The Pride of Boalsburg PA