After a nice start on a beautiful Friday afternoon at English Field, Virginia Tech couldn’t hang with No. 16 Clemson, allowing 14 unanswered runs in the 15-4 loss.
“They got 20 hits,” Tech head coach John Szefc told reporters afterwards. “You’re not going to ever come close to winning if you give up 20 hits.”
After leading 4-1 through four innings, the Hokies (29-17, 11-13 ACC) yielded eight runs in the fifth on nine hits as the Tigers (33-17, 15-10 ACC) blew the game open. Blake Wright started the rally with a leadoff single and the explosion didn’t stop until Benjamin Blackwell singled home Wright after Clemson hit through the lineup.
With usual Friday starter Anthony Arguelles out with a stomach bug, Drue Hackenberg (5-6, 5.54 ERA) stepped up. He pitched well through four frames — his one hiccup was a solo home run to Will Taylor with two outs in the first. But the Tigers got the best of him in the fifth.
Wright and Blackwell roped back-to-back singles. After a sacrifice bunt advanced the runners, Cam Cannarella smacked a two-RBI double. Cooper Ingle grounded out to second, but Clemson recorded six-straight two out knocks after that.
Taylor, Caden Grice, Wright and Blackwell singled. In between, Billy Amick and Riley Bertram doubled. And the Hokies had no answer. They finally got out of the inning when Jacob Exum replaced Hackenberg and struck out Jack Crighton.
“We didn’t make pitches, we didn’t play defense,” Szefc said. “They had like nine hits [in a row], I’ve never seen that before. But give them credit, that’s a really good team. They are what they are for a reason.”
From there, the Tigers cruised. Cannarella hit a solo shot in the sixth, they scored three in the seventh — two via an error at first — and two in the eighth.
Meanwhile, the Hokies struggled to push runs across. Despite rattling Clemson starter Ethan Darden early — he lasted five outs — they struggled against the rest of the staff. Tech had bases loaded twice — in the second and sixth — and left 11 runners on over the course of nine innings.
“[It was a] big energy game,” shortstop Clay Grady said. “A big part of baseball is about energy. I felt like we lost some energy, they started stringing together some hits and we started making some smaller, mental mistakes and the energy kind of went down.”
Garrett Michel looked good in the lead off role for the second straight game. One of two Tech players with multiple hits on Friday along with Grady, the first baseman got on base four different times. He walked in the first — Carson Jones pushed him across with a home run to left — and second, singled in the fourth and walked in the sixth.
The freshman from Denver, N.C. spent most of the year in the middle of the lineup. But Szefc moved him to the front for Tech’s midweek win over Liberty — after a 3-for-5 day vs. Bowling Green on Sunday — and he responded with a 2-for-4 outing with five RBIs.
“His on-base percentage is good,” Szefc said. “… That’s kind of what you want out of that spot, to have someone on base when guys like Jones and [Jack] Hurley and [Carson] DeMartini come up. Give him credit, he did a really good job offensively.”
On a day he should’ve been walking across the stage and picking up his diploma in Lane Stadium, Jones was productive. The junior from Glen Allen, Va., who first burst onto the stage at the end of 2022, cranked a 369-foot home run in the first inning to put the Hokies up 2-1. He set the table for what was a hopeful Game 1 against Clemson.
In his last five games, he’s 10-for-16 with four home runs and eight RBIs. Like last season, he’s a different hitter once classes let out. In his career, he’s 22-for-57 (.368) in the month of May. Szefc described him as a “feared hitter for opposing pitchers.”
“I’m just trying to do my job,” Jones said. “Move the bat, help out the next guy and just have quality at-bats if I’m up there, making sure I’m swinging at pitches that I’m able to hit and just having a good approach, that’s all I can do. And I think I feel comfortable. I’m just trying to do that every time I’m up there.”
On a positive note, Virginia Tech saved its bullpen for the rest of the weekend. After Exum followed Hackenberg (4 ⅔ innings) and lasted five outs, allowing three runs, Grant Umberger threw the last 2 ⅔, yielding three hits and three runs — two earned.
The Hokies, who entered the weekend on the bubble, need to put the pieces together on Saturday and Sunday to make a final push for the NCAA tournament.
“Losing on Friday isn’t always the best, obviously,” Grady said. “But there are two more games. We’ve gotta win them, they’re really important games. And we’ve been playing good baseball the past couple of weekends, so that’s what’s going to keep us going.”
Box Score: No. 16 Clemson 15, Virginia Tech 4
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This team is a textbook definition of inconsistent. Too much dependence on the long ball. Either score 12 or more runs or can’t push across more than 2 or 3 when they need to. Combine that with inconsistent pitching and you get what this team is, world beaters one day, awful the next. Oh well, enjoy the few games when they are world beaters and turn off the TV when they are awful. Disappointing year. Way over rated at the beginning of the year.
Who is still injured? Our pitching is very suspect. We have young pitchers who hopefully will mature and become pitchers with more than 2 pitches.
I know we have injuries but this is a below average team.
Agreed. Have been all year……last year was a fluke, back to being barely avg