PHOENIX, Ariz. — It was a tough Saturday in the desert for the No. 17/21 Hokies as they suffered consecutive losses in the Littlewood Classic, losing their first game of the season in extra innings to Cal in the morning before a run-rule defeat to host Grand Canyon in the afternoon.
“We got beat by two potential regional teams today,” Virginia Tech head coach Pete D’Amour told Tech Sideline after the game. “I still think we have the potential to be a very good team. We’ll try hard playing a ‘cleaner’ game tomorrow.”
Cal 6, Virginia Tech 5 (8 innings)
In the first game of the day, the Golden Bears (9-1) and Hokies (6-2-1) went back and forth in a contest that took an extra inning to decide.
Cal jumped on Tech starter Lyndsey Grein early, plating two runs in the first with a walk, a double and a single. But the Hokies jumped in front in the third with the help of another Rachel Castine grand slam that followed an Emma Ritter single and walks to Cameron Fagan and Addy Greene.
BOOM!!! Rachel Castine with ANOTHER grand slam!!! Hokies lead Cal 4-2. pic.twitter.com/yimFFNUs6t
— Chip Grubb (@Hokiechip) February 17, 2024
It was the third grand slam of the year for Castine, who hit two on opening day last weekend against Illinois and Auburn. For the season, Castine is batting a team-leading .526 with five home runs and 18 RBI.
The Tech lead was short-lived, however, as Cal tied the game in the fourth when Elon Butler hit a two-run blast of her own. After Grein faced the Cal lineup twice, D’Amour summoned Emma Mazzarone to the circle. The freshman left-hander did a good job, holding the Bears scoreless and hitless until the extra frame.
Meanwhile, the Hokies were able to get on base in the fourth, fifth, and sixth innings, though baserunning snafus prevented additional scoring.
In the eighth inning, the International tiebreaker came into play which calls for each team to start each inning with a runner on second base. It looked like Mazzarone would continue her scoreless streak when she retired the first two Cal batters on groundouts. However, Butler was able to drop a ball just behind first base for a double to score Mika Lee and then a dropped third strike led to another Bears run when the throw to first sailed wide.
Virginia Tech responded in the bottom of the frame with a groundout and a sacrifice fly by Castine that plated one run, but that was all the Hokies could manage, and the Bears registered a 6-5 win.
Grand Canyon 11, Virginia Tech 2 (6 innings)
The second game of the day for the Hokies got off to an ominous start when Castine was hit on the wrist by a pitch in the first inning and had to leave the game. Freshman Annika Rohs replaced her and registered two singles, but the Hokies couldn’t string together much of an offense throughout the game against the Antelopes (6-2).
Virginia Tech received solo home runs from Michelle Chatfield, her fourth of the year, and Greene, her second. Outside of that, though, it had just six hits in 24 at-bats.
Meanwhile, Grand Canyon exploded for seven runs in the third inning off of Hokies starter Emma Lemley and reliever Cassie Grizzard. Makaiya Gomez got the scoring started with a massive home run to right-center field which seemed to rattle the Hokies. That was followed by two walks, two singles and an infield error that produced three more runs before a three-run homer by Ramsay Lopez capped the scoring in the inning. GCU led 7-0 after three.
The Antelopes added additional runs in the fourth and the sixth before a two-run shot by Kristen Fifield pushed the margin to 11-2 in the sixth and above the run-rule threshold.
The Hokies return to the Arizona State campus on Sunday for an 11:30 a.m. ET matchup with Illinois State before returning to Blacksburg on Wednesday for their home opener against Elon at 4 p.m. ET.
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Keep in mind, some of these announcers do that on purpose to make a supposed “unintentional” mistake. It is usually planned.
I get that all the time: people I work with here in Michigan know I went to VT but when they refer to my school they say you went to West Virginia right? No got dang it! VIRGINIA Tech. SMH.
Tell them: Yeah, and didn’t you go to Michigan State or was that Ohio State?
It’s a long season. Lots of learning and fine-tuning going on.
The pregame did not start good when the announcer said it was the Lopes against West Virginia Tech. It is early in the season. Good teams have let downs. That is just the way the ball bounces sometimes. They will bounce back.
Way back long ago for one of the first televised football games I distinctly remember Curt Gowdy opening the pre-game with “Good afternoon from Blacksburg, West Virginia.”