This past Tuesday, the Hokies made the two hour trip north to Harrisonburg to take on JMU for the second of two games on the season. A few weeks ago, they beat JMU in Blacksburg by a score of 7-2. In this one, the Hokies pitching showed out again, winning a 5-4 battle. Let’s take a deeper dive in.
Chase Swift got his first career start for the Hokies, where he threw two scoreless innings and struck out three batters. Marcel Kulik came in to relieve the starter and had some trouble. A few weeks ago against the Dukes, Kulik had a masterful outing where he struck out five batters in three scoreless innings. This time the story was a bit different, Kulik gave up three earned runs in 1.1 innings before John Szefc made a call to the pen for Josh Berzonski. Berzonski pitched 2.2 scoreless innings where he struck out two batters and only allowed a single hit.
Following up Berzonski was Grant Manning, who has had a very difficult start to the 2025 season. He pitched an inning and a third and gave up a run before giving the ball to Matheiu Curtis. Curtis had a strong outing, throwing a scoreless inning. The last two outs went to Luke Jackman, who has spent a lot of his time at Virginia Tech injured. He is a redshirt sophomore in his fourth year of college. Jackman had a strong performance, closing the game cleanly and securing the win for the Hokies.
The bats for the Hokies were less effective than they would have liked to be, having just six hits in this one. Sam Tackett was impressive again, going 2-4 with a double and an RBI. Ben Watson was also able to find a way to get going, with a 1-4 day.
Watson has been great for the Hokies as of late. Since the start of the previous weekend series, Watson’s slash line is .333/.444/.667 with four extra base hits and four RBI.
Jared Davis got going with a 1-3 day with a double, two walks, and two stolen bases. The game's biggest moment definitely came on Henry Cooke’s sac fly that ultimately scored Ben Watson. That was the Hokies fifth and final run that gave them just enough insurance to hold on to the lead through the final four.
Pitching wise for JMU, they ended up throwing ten different pitchers. The two performances that really made the game was starter Tim Tyler, who gave up two runs in two innings, and reliever Alex Bingler, who gave up two runs without recording an out in the fifth inning. Jayden Barroqueiro also gave up a run in an inning of work. The other six scoreless innings were thrown by Luke McGrath (1.0), Holden McKinney (1.0), Tyler Muscar (1.0), Griffin Madden (1.0), Lane Duff (1.0), Adam Horvath (0.2), and Corey Costello (0.1).
The Dukes had a lot of trouble offensively, earning just six hits on the game. Two of those came from catcher Jack Cannizzaro, no direct relation to former Hokies outfielder Chris Cannizzaro, as far as I can tell. Jack Cannizzaro went 2-3 and scored one run. Maddux Fleck and Wyatt Peifer also both had a single hit and one RBI each.
My biggest takeaway from this one surrounds the emergence of Josh Berzonski. Berzonski was a guy that I had a lot of chips on coming into the season, as he was absolutely electric at DIII Penn State Harrisburg. I projected him to play a major role in the Hokies bullpen before getting injured prior to the season. Since returning from his injury, he has pitched 5.2 innings and allowed just one run in that time.
The Hokies have had issues with bullpen depth down the stretch and that will continue into ACC play if the Hokies cannot find another arm to step up and take on a bigger role. Josh Berzonski is somebody that I fully expect to be able to do that for the Hokies.
