After Taking Game At Wake Forest, Hokies Turn Attention To Durham

Virginia Tech snapped its five-game losing streak on Saturday at No. 1 Wake Forest, upsetting the Demon Deacons 14-6. The Hokies dropped Thursday and Friday’s games 6-3 and 7-5, respectively.

Entering the weekend, Tech (30-21, 12-17) needed one win or a Louisville loss to get into the ACC tournament field, and it received both. While the Cardinals, once a preseason top-10 team, lost twice vs. Florida State, Tech snatched the third game of the series from the Demon Deacons (45-9, 22-7).

While the Hokies were solid in the first few innings on Thursday and Friday, they were overpowered by Wake Forest in the late stages.

They led 3-0 through the top of the fifth in Game 1 — thanks to an RBI and a home run from Chris Cannizzaro — before the Demon Deacons scored six unanswered runs, four of which came in the fourth. In Game 2, WF scored first, but Tech strung together five runs in the fourth and fifth innings — four courtesy of home runs from Brody Donay and Jack Hurley — to take a 5-2 lead. Yet, the best team in the country rallied, scoring five unanswered runs.

However, despite a disappointing start to the weekend, Virginia Tech played well on Saturday. It was a bullpen day — Drue Hackenberg (5.0 IP, 11 H, 5 ER, 1 K) and Anthony Arguelles (4.0 IP, 4 H, 4 ER, 5 K) started Game 1 and 2 — that featured eight arms, but it got the job done.

Jonah Hurney got the ball in the first and lasted an inning before Griffin Stieg entered in relief. He pitched two shutout innings. Andrew Sentlinger, Jacob Exum, Matthew Siverling, Brady Kirtner, Grant Umberger and Peter Sakellaris all contributed as well. Siverling had the longest stay (2 ⅔ innings) and struck out five.

While the staff took care of business and limited Wake Forest to just six runs on six hits, Tech’s bats went to work, starting in the second.

Carson DeMartini and Donay were hit by pitches to open the inning before a single from Christian Martin loaded the bases. Cannizzaro walked, scoring DeMartini, and Lucas Donlon sacrificed himself, scoring Donay. Then Garrett Michel — who is 9-for-25 (.360) in the leadoff spot in the last seven games — roped a two-RBI single to center, scoring Cannizzaro and Martin.

The Hokies didn’t stop there, though, scoring twice in the third. An RBI single from Martin scored DeMartini, and a double steal — Martin took second as Donay ran home — pushed the score to 6-0.

Martin, who was 3-for-3 on the day with three RBIs, homered to start the sixth. And Jones hit a grand slam later in the frame, pushing Tech’s lead to 11-3.

Wake Forest scored two in the seventh and one in the ninth, but it wasn’t enough to stop the Hokies, who pushed three more runs across in the eighth as the icing on the cake.

Now, Tech’s attention turns to the ACC tournament. John Szefc & Co. are the No. 10 seed and have No. 3 seed Clemson and No. 6 seed Boston College in their pool.

Pool play begins at 11 a.m. on Tuesday at Durham Bulls Athletic Park in Durham, N.C. The Hokies have the first game of the tournament against the No. 22 Eagles and will play the last game on Wednesday (7 p.m. ET) against the No. 6 Tigers.

Tech posted a 1-5 record against Boston College and Clemson in the regular season. It took the first game of the series against the Eagles back on March 10, winning 13-3 in Blacksburg. But the two sides played a doubleheader due to weather on Saturday and BC outscored VT 15-8 in two games. And just two weekends ago, the Tigers swept the Hokies at English Field by a combined score of 33-18 over three games.

Should Virginia Tech advance out of Pool C, it would play the Pool B winner — Virginia, North Carolina or Georgia Tech — at 5 p.m. ET on Saturday. All games are televised on the ACC Network.

For more information on the ACC baseball championship, click here.

Box Scores:

Game 1: Wake Forest 6, Virginia Tech 3 
Game 2: Wake Forest 7, Virginia Tech 5 
Game 3: Virginia Tech 14, Wake Forest 6