Virginia Tech Baseball Uses New Life To Its Advantage, Sweeps Georgia Tech

When Virginia Tech was in the midst of an early season slide, where it lost eight of its first 10 ACC games, you could break down its struggles to its simplest form: All the Hokies needed were some timely hits on days the pitching excelled, and a way to keep runners from crossing the plate on days when the timely hits were abundant.

In seven of the Hokies’ last eight conference games, they’ve gotten a healthy mixture of that, which was evident in a Saturday and Sunday series victory over Virginia, a doubleheader split against Duke last weekend and a sweep of Georgia Tech this weekend. 

Five big flies were enough for the Hokies (21-12, 8-9 ACC) for the third-straight day in a 9-2 victory over the Yellow Jackets (20-16, 7-11 ACC) on Sunday at English Field. For the first time in program history, Virginia Tech swept Georgia Tech.

“It’s hard sweeping an ACC team, I don’t care where it is,” Szefc said. “You need three good starts this weekend, and we got them.”

On Sunday, the focal point was David Bryant, who started at third for Carson DeMartini while he slid to the DH role after injuring his shoulder on a dive into second base on Friday. He homered twice in the second and fourth innings. In between was a bomb from Jack Hurley in the third. It was home run No. 11 in his last 13 games; over that stretch, he’s hitting .421 (24-of-57).

“[Bryant] is a good player, like I’ve watched him for four years now,” Tech head coach Szefc said. “… Some guys take a little longer [to get adjusted to ACC pitching].”

On the mound, Drue Hackenberg was the third Tech pitcher this weekend that didn’t let another offensive outburst go to waste, completing six innings of one-run baseball. He continued his mid-season resurgence since a four-game stretch in March against Boston College, Miami, Pitt and Virginia left him with 24 earned runs in 21 ⅔ innings. 

Last Sunday, he spun eight innings of one-run (zero earned) ball at Duke. In his last 14 innings of work, he’s allowed just one earned run.

“It was kind of learning from those [rough outings], really what I am again as a pitcher, and I figured that out,” Hackenberg said. “… Going back to being a two-seam fastball pitcher.”

Consider this: The home runs, timely hits and pitching for Virginia Tech have shown why baseball is a unique sport. A season that showed promise with a 11-2 start in non-conference play was met with the 2-8 conference record that turned into a red-hot stretch.

The Hokies are playing complete baseball again, even if it took them a while to find their stride – and to get healthy.

“We pitched phenomenally this weekend, [it] really sucks that we lost [Griffin Green],” Hackenberg said. “Really, it was about pitching well and hitting well this entire weekend. If we continue to do that, we’ll be good for the rest of the season.”

The bullpen, held together by prayers and duct tape during the Miami and Pitt series with injuries to some of its top arms, regained its footing once Kiernan Higgins and Henry Weycker returned during the Virginia series. The bats were consistent against Virginia and Georgia Tech — a seven-day layoff was part of the reason Tech didn’t swing it well during Game 1 at Duke.

But the Hokies are firing on all cylinders and have the remaining schedule in their favor. They have Florida State (4-13 ACC) on the road next weekend and North Carolina (9-8) at home the following week. After their open week in ACC play, they’ll have Clemson (5-9) at English Field before finishing the season off on the road at Wake Forest (14-2).

The weekend captured exactly what the Hokies knew they could be coming into the season. One that pitches with confidence, mashes baseballs over the wall and could blow average teams, like Georgia Tech, out. One that could contend for a higher seed in the NCAA tournament, too.

“We didn’t play bad, we didn’t play great, we’ve kind of been in the middle,” Szefc said of the team’s start to the season. “Over the past couple of weekends, we played a lot more to our capability, especially this week and working through some injuries.”

And perhaps no one embodies the turnaround as well as Hackenberg. He scattered eight hits and two walks — keeping the ball mostly down which effectively allowed him to navigate with runners on base. He ran into trouble in the fourth when Jaydn Jackson singled home a run with two outs, but he stranded two in the fifth and one more in the sixth.

The five homers — Bryant’s pair, Hurley’s and one each from Garrett Michel and Brody Donay — set the tone in Game 3 vs. Georgia Tech. In a flash, the lead grew to 4-0, and a three-run sixth all but sealed the deal. On top of that, Hurley is now one homer away from tying the conference lead (16).

Virginia Tech was off and running on Sunday afternoon, slamming the sledgehammer many times, a trend that continues to mold a winning formula. 

“It’s all confidence for me, kind of like, ‘I’m the better player, I’m better than the pitcher,’” Hurley said.

“I’ve just tried to stay locked in during batting practice, all of that extra stuff to stay locked in,” Bryant said after playing all nine innings for the first time since March 24. “Just wait it out, and then it happened.”

Two weeks ago against Virginia, the Hokies received new life. Since, they’ve made good use of it.

Box Score: Virginia Tech 9, Georgia Tech 2