This past weekend, the Virginia Tech Hokies invited the Mercer Bears to Blacksburg for a two-game series. Coming off of a six game losing streak, the Hokies needed to turn things around against a beatable Mercer team, and that they did.
"It wasn't the sexiest win, but it's a win nonetheless," said Virginia Tech outfielder Jackson Cherry after the 2-0 victory over Mercer in game one of the series.
That feels a fitting description for a tight series where the Hokies just needed to win, and did. With that in mind, let's dive into how the Hokies picked up a
Game One: Virginia Tech 2, Mercer 0
In the weekend's opening game, Virginia Tech gave the ball to Brett Renfrow in their 2-0 victory.
Renfrow threw 16 pitches in two perfect innings of work before he was pulled due to the schedule condensing, as Renfrow will have to start two games in the next 10 days following the start against Mercer.
"We're just trying to get him some work and get him out," Hokies head coach John Szefc said. "He's got a short week."
After Renfrow's quick outing, Preston Crowl was the first arm out of the pen, and he was nothing short of spectacular. He loaded the bases in his first inning, but settled in after that, throwing three scoreless innings.
After Crowl was LeJeune, who was equally as good, if not better than Crowl was. He threw 3.1 scoreless innings and only allowed four baserunners and recording the win in the process.
Grant Manning was the last man out, he recorded a two out save.
Offensively, Virginia Tech continued to struggle, being radio silent for the entire game excluding a sixth-inning, two-run homer from Jared Davis that put the Hokies on top.
"I just got up there looking for an off-speed pitch, hit it out," Davis said.
For Mercer, their pitching was also nothing short of phenomenal, as Cosper and Ackerman both threw four innings and allowed two combined runs. Both of those runs were credited to Ackerman.
At the plate, they put up just four hits against Virginia Tech pitching, with none of them going for extra bases. Ely Brown had the best game for them, he went 1-2 and walked twice.
Game Two: Virginia Tech 6, Mercer 5
In the second game, the Hokies gave the ball to Jake Marciano, who threw three scoreless innings in his start.
Much like Renfrow, Marciano was pulled due to the need to manage his pitch count due to the short week.
Following him was the Hokies midweek starter Chase Swift. This is his second consecutive Sunday where he was thrown, so I think it may be time to assume that he has upgraded his midweek starter role and has now earned trust out of the bullpen.
Grant Manning got the ball and struggled, throwing two innings where he struck out three batters and gave up at many runs before being pulled.
Before and after Manning was Mathieu Curtis and Logan Eisenreich, who both faced only two batters. Curtis gave up two runs.
Brendan Yagesh and Luke Craytor then finished up the game, combining to throw the last two scoreless innings.
Offensively for the Hokies, things were much better than Saturday, scoring six runs.
The Hokies only had one multi-hit game coming from Clay Grady, who was 2-2 with a RBI and a walk.
"He's played pretty well in the last three weeks, that's why we've kind of hit him up in the lineup," Szefc said, referring to Grady's recent play. "He typically utilizes one of his great tools, which is his ability to run. That's kind of what's been going on with him as of late, especially with two strikes."
David McCann also hit a home run, continuing his hot stretch where he has hit .385 since the end of the Duke series.
For Mercer, they were unable to provide enough pitching for their offense, and that ultimately fell on issuing seven free passes in the game.
Jackson Gaspard got the start, throwing four innings of one run ball before he was relieved by Braydon Kersey who had a poor outing, giving up three runs in just an inning of work.
After that, Craig Kalkbreener threw an inning of work where he surrendered an unearned run. Terry Busse and Caden Alvey got the last six outs, but Busse gave up the winning run in the process.
Takeaways
It can be hard to take anything out of a series like this against a mid-major opponent. Mercer is talented, though and will likely win their conference.
It was huge for the Hokies to be able to turn things around on the back of a six-game losing streak as they head into the last regular season week of the series, where they will play Marshall and then a red-hot UVA team that is coming off of sweeping Miami.
That series against UVA could prove to be an elimination series with both teams currently on the wrong side of the bubble.
