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Hokies sweep Wake Forest in shortened series

Virginia Tech wrapped up its regular season with a two-game sweep of Wake Forest. With the wins, the Hokies locked up their first 35-win season since 1999 and their fourth straight in-conference series win since joining the ACC.
Unfortunately for seniors Andrew Rash, Joe Mantiply, Clark Labitan and Jake Joyce, Saturday's Senior Day was rained out and the game was completely canceled. Fortunately, I realized just how many players are returning next season.
Tech sewed up the sixth seed in the ACC Tournament and you can expect another post later on the match-ups for the tournament.

By Casey Richey
Wake Forest applauds you.
Wake Forest applauds you.
Streeter Lecka


GAME 1 :: No. 22 Virginia Tech 13, Wake Forest 2 (Thursday)

No. 22 Virginia Tech vs Wake Forest (28-26, 9-19)
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E
WAKE FOREST 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 2 7 0
VIRGINIA TECH 0 1 0 3 0 6 1 2 x 13 15 0

Pat Blair's RBI double put Wake Forest up 1-0 after one, but Tyler Horan smacked team-leading 11th home run of the season to tie the game after two. The Demon Deacons took the lead with a sac fly in the top of the fourth, by Horan doubled to bring in Mark Zagunis and Chad Pinder. Chad Morgan then doubled to bring Horan home to put Tech up 4-2.

Things got ugly in the sixth inning as Morgan hit a three-run homerun and Kyle Wernicki, Alex Perez, and Chad Pinder added an RBI each to give Tech a 10-2 lead.

Andrew Rash doubled in Horan in the seventh inning and Zagunis doubled Pinder in in the eighth. Rash then singled in Zagunis to cap the scoring.

Tech pounded each of Wake's pitchers for five hits and racked up four walks on the night.

Joe Mantiply picked up his fifth win of the year, scattering six hits over six innings and walking one. The 13 runs were the most the Hokies had scored against an ACC team this season.

WP: Joe Mantiply (5-0) -- 6 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 2 K
LP: Jack Fischer (2-4) -- 5 IP, 5 H, 6 R, 6 ER, 3 BB, 3 K

Top Tech Performers:
Tyler Horan -- 4 for 4, 4 R, 2B, HR, 3 RBI
Chad Morgan -- 2 for 6, 1 R, 2B, HR, 4 RBI
Andrew Rash -- 3 for 5, 0 R, 2 2B, 2 RBI

GAME 2 :: No. 22 Virginia Tech 5, Wake Forest 3 (Friday)

No. 22 Virginia Tech vs. Wake Forest
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E
WAKE FOREST 0 0 0 0 0 3 0 0 0 3 9 0
VIRGINIA TECH 0 0 0 1 0 1 0 3 x 5 8 1

Zagunis put Tech up first with an RBI single to score Pinder in the fourth inning. Wake took the lead with three runs in the sixth inning, but Morgan's RBI single pulled the Hokies to within one in the bottom half of the inning.

After singles by Pinder and Zagunis in the eighth inning, Rash took Niko Spezial deep on a questionable home run to left field.

Rash's home run was his 40th of his VT career and put the Hokies up 5-3.

Jake Joyce walked two and gave up a single and Wake Forest had the bases loaded with two outs before Clark Labitan picked up his 9th save of the season by striking out Blair to end the game.

Devin Burke started for Tech and had retired 12 of the first 13 batters, then falling apart a bit in the fifth and eventually getting roughed up in the sixth inning. Joyce picked up the win, his 7th of the year, with two innings of one-hit relief. Spezial was tagged with the loss.

WP: Jake Joyce (7-1) -- 2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 3 BB, 5 K
LP: Niko Spezial (6-1) -- 1 IP, 3 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 0 BB, 0 K
S: Clark Labitan (9) -- 1/3 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 1 K

Top Tech Performers:

Mark Zagunis -- 3 for 3, 1 R, 1 RBI, BB
Andrew Rash -- 1 for 4, 1 R, HR, 3 RBI
Chad Pinder -- 2 for 3, 3 R, BB

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