Virginia Tech’s recent struggles on the diamond continued this week as the Hokies dropped two of three games at Duke this past weekend. Here’s my breakdown of how it all went down.
Game One: Duke 6, Virginia Tech 3 (11 innings)
As per usual, Brett Renfrow got the ball on the mound and pitched a solid game, got in trouble early, giving Duke two runs in the second before he was able to settle in. At the end, the tall righty threw six innings where he allowed three runs and struck out six batters. After that, the bullpen shined.
Preston Crowl was the first man out of the pen, and he was able to put together a 1-2-3 inning, but the third batter was able to reach on error. He was then pulled after an intentional walk of Ben Miller. The next man out of the pen was Cameron LeJeune.
LeJeune had arguably his best game in a Hokie uniform, throwing four scoreless innings before he eventually gave up a three run homer that lost the game. His final line ended up being four innings where he gave up three runs and unfortunately recorded the loss.
Even with the loss, LeJeune’s outing was huge for the Hokies, his four inning outing will rid the Hokies of one of their best bullpen arms for the weekend, but being able to avoid having to go to other strong arms and save them for later in the series will set the Hokies up for solid chance to force a game three rubber match.
Offensively for the Hokies, they had a lot of trouble against the two best arms that Duke has to offer. Owen Proksch gave the Blue Devils a fantastic start, throwing 6.2 innings where he allowed three runs and struck out 10 Hokies.
The Hokies were able to get three runs across on him, one of which came on a sac bunt from Jared Davis in the third. The other one came from David Lewis, who had an incredible game, going 2-4 with a game tying homer in the seventh. David McCann also had a good game as a pinch hitter, going 1-1 with a double in extra innings.
The second Blue Devil out of the pen was the last, Reid Easterly had an absolutely fantastic game, throwing 4.1 scoreless innings on his way to his seventh win of the season. He will be out for the rest of the series since he threw so many pitches, which will be big for the Hokies down the stretch. Nonetheless, he was incredible for Duke.
This one was a tough loss for the Hokies. Brett Renfrow gave another solid start after working through early trouble. The bullpen, led by a gritty four-inning effort from Cameron LeJeune, kept the Hokies alive deep into extra innings. Although LeJeune took the loss after a late three-run homer, his extended outing saved key bullpen arms for the rest of the series.
Game Two: Virginia Tech 9, Duke 8 (11 innings)
In game two, the Hokies gave the ball to Jake Marciano. He had a lot of trouble getting settled in, as Duke scored six first inning runs before he got pulled after throwing just 0.2 innings. Jacob Exum got the Hokies out of the inning before being pulled for Brendan Yagesh.
Yagesh had a great outing for the Hokies, throwing 1.2 innings where he surrendered a run. Luke Jackman was the next pitcher out, but he threw two pitches before the game was put on pause for a rain delay.
Out of the rain delay, Jackman walked a batter that allowed the sole run credited to Yagesh. After that, he had his career best outing, throwing 2.1 scoreless outings and doing a fantastic job at stabilizing the bullpen and giving the Hokies a chance to get back in it.
Following him was Matheiu Curtis, who mowed down a couple of batters, throwing 1.1 innings, before his day was over in favor of the ace of the bullpen, Grant Manning.
Manning absolutely dealt for the Hokies, throwing 4.2 innings where he allowed just one run and struck out nine batters. He has been absolutely nails for the Hokies as of late, especially in his longer relief outings. Across six outings that have gone at least 3 innings, he has the following statline:
24.1 innings
3.73 ERA
1.04 WHIP
35 K’s
5 BB’s
While I may sound like a broken record, Grant Manning’s emergence out of the bullpen has been invaluable to the Hokies. To have a guy that can go out and throw 3-5 innings of good baseball has been a massive boost to the Hokies bullpen. It has provided stability for the weekend. His outing allowed the Hokies to keep the rest of their bullpen relatively fresh in its 11 inning affair with the Blue Devils.
Game Three: Duke 14, Virginia Tech 0 (7 innings)
In the game three rubber match, the Hokies gave the ball to Logan Eisenreich, who they needed a good start out of. Unfortunately for the Hokies, Eisenreich pitched 2.1 innings and left the bases loaded, which ended up turning into a Grand Slam allowed by Preston Crowl.
Crowl was unable to recover from the difficult start, giving up three runs in just 0.2 innings of work before the page was turned to Jacob Exum. Exum started his outing decently, throwing 1.1 scoreless innings prior to loading the bases and giving up a grand slam to conclude his outing.
The following batter out of the pen was Luke Craytor, who faced two batters and sat them both down quietly to end his outing. Craytor has now had a solid reemergence out of the pen for the Hokies, having three outings his the last two weeks where he has faced a total of nine batters and allowed just three baserunners, none of which have scored.
Following that, the Hokies opted to preserve their bullpen and throw some of the guys from the back end. Marcel Kulik was the first out, he pitched 0.2 innings and gave up three runs. After that, he was replaced by Brendan Cowen, who faced three batters before getting the final out of the inning.
Offensively for the Hokies, they were stifled. Just two hits in seven innings that resulted in zero runs. The hits came from Ben Watson and Jared Davis, coming in the first and fifth respectively. David Lewis was the only batter able to work a walk as well.
Duke started Henry Zatkowski on the mound, and he was absolutely spectacular for Duke, throwing 4.2 scoreless innings before Duke turned to the bullpen, giving the nod to Mark Hindy and Reid Easterly to conclude the game.
Offensively for Duke, there is a lot to talk about, but I’ll shorten it to this. 11 hits and nine walks contributed to Duke’s 14 runs. They had two grand slams as well, coming from Aj Gracia and Sam Harris. Ben Miller also had a great day, goin 2-3 with a double, homer, and three RBI in his Sunday performance.
This a third consecutive series loss for the Hokies puts them in a very sticky situation. While they will still be in the field by projections this week, they still have three weeks of baseball left, and they are flat out of momentum. They will have another chance at a potential Q1 win if they can beat Liberty on the road on May 8th. I think this coming week will be a telltale sign of how the rest of this season is going to go for Virginia Tech.
The Hokies RPI has dropped to a still serviceable 34th in the nation. They have some solid opportunities in that field with two games against Liberty and a road series against Pitt looming in this coming week.
