Ed. Note: Tripper Henson from the Virginia Tech club baseball team agreed to give us some first-hand posts from the team's trip to the National Club Baseball Association World Series in Fort Myers, Fla.
The team arrived down in Fort Myers, Fla., throughout the day yesterday. A day full of battling long layovers, delays, and 16 hour drives for some of us was all made worth it after the come-from-behind win we had just a few hours ago.
Arizona was a tough opponent. Their starter pitched into the ninth with a live fastball and breaking balls that he could consistently throw for strikes. Every batter had quality at-bats and seemed to have a knack for hitting it just out of our infielders reach. In the end the Hokies proved to be the better team and we now get a day off and play the winner of the Colorado State-Georgia game.
Brandon Mackey threw 4 innings giving up 3 earned runs and Will Rand came in afterwards to close it out and get the win. Rand was terrific throwing 5 innings, with only 1 earned run and 6 hits. Will missed the first half of the Spring this year recovering from Tommy John surgery but has proven he's got his endurance back. He'll probably run 4 miles on the treadmill upstairs by the time any of you read this.
Arizona had a 7-5 lead going into the top of the ninth and needed only 3 outs to win, but we got on a roll. Sean MacDonald lead off the inning with a base knock right back up the box and Randy Buonviri followed with another single, this time to right field. Then Ian Smith probably made the biggest play of the game by beating out a slow roller to the shortstop to load the bases.
Next, Max Hilbert knocked in a run with a single, followed by a walk by CJ Degurahian to tie the game up. No one was slowing us down. Aaron Sweger, cold from not playing all game, walked up to the plate as a pinch hitter and smoked a single down the right field line to put us ahead. Tyler Atkins then walked again, Brendan Daley had an RBI single and MacDonald hit a sac fly to put us up 12-7.
Rand finished off the bottom of the ninth in order throwing only nine pitches.
Atkins was great, going 3-4 with three runs scored and two stolen bases. Smith and MacDonald also added three hits and two RBI's each. Dergurahian had two RBI's as well. Smith will also compete in the Demarini Longball Challenge tomorrow night as the Hokies' lone participant.
Future games can be heard online at www.ClubBaseball.org. Virginia Tech next plays at 3:00 PM on Sunday. You can also follow me on twitter @slicktrip. I'll try to update as much as possible.