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Orange Evens Series in Virginia Tech's Fall World Series

Sam Fragale 1
Matthew Atkins | @mattkins21
Writer
As fall practice winds down, the Virginia Tech baseball coaching staff is getting its last looks at this year’s team during the Maroon vs. Orange Fall World Series. The Orange squad evened the series at one game apiece Monday night, defeating the Maroon squad 10-2 at English Field. The Orange team also got redemption for its 11-3 loss in Game 1. Team Orange wasted no time getting on the board, scoring two runs in the top of the first inning. They added four more in the second and two runs in the third to make it 8-0. After a three up, three down fourth inning, Sam Fragale scored on a sacrifice fly by Andrew Webb in the fifth to make it 9-0 Orange. The Maroon team got two runs on the board in the bottom of the fifth as JD Mundy and Mitchell Clarke each came around to score. Andrew Webb scored one more for Team Orange in the top of the seventh to make the score 10-2. Nick Owens was the clear standout of Game 2, going 2-for-6 with five RBIs and scoring a run for Team Orange. All of Owens’ RBIs came in his first three at-bats. He drove in a run in the first inning on a ground ball to second base. His next two at-bats each resulted in two-RBI singles with two outs. A couple of other players stood out, among them redshirt senior Sam Fragale, who started all 55 games for the Hokies last season. Fragale played third base for the Orange squad, a position he hasn’t played since the 2016 season. Fragale had seven assists at third base on Monday, including a terrific play on a bunt in the bottom of the third inning. Offensively, he went 1-for-4 and scored a game-high three runs. The Maroon team showed discipline at the plate, drawing six walks on the night. Freshman Darion Jacoby walked twice, but his hesitance to swing would hurt him, however, as he struck out looking for the first out of the seventh inning. JD Mundy went 1-for-2 with a single and three walks on the night. Mundy only reached second base once, becoming the victim of a 5-4 put-out in the sixth and seventh innings. Jackson Odenwelder was one of only three Maroon players to reach base multiple times in the game, the others being Jacoby and Mundy. Odenwelder went 2-for-4 with an RBI for Team Maroon. Junior Nick Menken showed his speed on the basepaths as a pinch-runner for Tom Stoffel, stealing two bases and coming across the plate twice in the game. Menken is in his first year at Tech after spending the last two seasons at Iowa Western Community College, where he hit .317 and led his team with 48 runs during the 2017 season. The Orange pitchers only allowed six hits from the Maroon squad. Paul Hall, Jr. started the game for Team Orange, giving up one hit and striking out two batters. Kyle Transue came in to pitch in the third and lasted two hitless innings, walking two and striking out one. Connor Yoder got the start for the Maroon team, tossing one inning and giving up two runs on one hit. Zach Brzykcy had the best pitching performance for Team Maroon, lasting two innings while giving up one run on one hit and striking out a batter. With the series even at 1-1, the two squads will play a winner-take-all Game 3 on Friday at English Field. The first pitch for Friday’s game is scheduled for 4:30 p.m.

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