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The Tribe from William & Mary drove out I-64 and down I-81 to visit the remnants of English Field. The last time these two met, The Tribe and the Hokies wrapped a 8 ½ inning slow pitch softball game; well the score looked like one. Fresh off two big wins, the Hokies weren’t too keen on repeating being on the short end of that sort of score.
This evening the two teams posted a more normal baseball score. This time there were only five total runs in the game, and thankfully three of those runs were scored by the Hokies.
Virginia Tech Hokies vs William & Mary Tribe Game 2 of the extended series:
|
|
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
6 |
7 |
8 |
9 |
R |
H |
E |
|
William & Mary (11-8) |
0 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
8 |
0 |
|
Virginia Tech (14-9) |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
3 |
0 |
X |
3 |
4 |
1 |
Win: Kit Scheetz (3-0) Loss: Aaron Fernandez (0-1)
For a relatively interesting mix of pitching, the game was very much a pitchers’ duel, with the fight being more of an eight man tag team than a marathon of two hurlers grinding bobbing and weaving bat missing miracles. Each team put four men on the mound, and Tech even went to Tom Stoffel, normally a position player, to set up Aaron McGarity for the close. Starting pitcher Joey Sullivan ended up with a No Decision which, given that The Tribe scored their two runs on him, was a good deal.
Really, W&M had the game pretty much in the bag by scattering two runs over seven and a half innings. Old baseball people always warn about the 7th inning stretch, especially concerning the home team. Tech shined a bright light on that old ballpark wisdom.
After 6 innings of Hokie bats missing balls, and when making contact having it go largely nowhere, the stretch lit a fuse. JD Mundy and Mac Caples both burned their bats at the plate for outs, but Tribe pitcher Aaron Fernandez walked Joe Freiday and Matt Dauby. With two outs and two on the bags, Pat Mason put Grant Maiorana in to pinch run for Matt Dauby. The speed improvement move wasn’t particularly required. Rahiem Cooper drove them both in with tater over the left field fence.
No one else managed to score, though Tech threatened a little bit in the bottom of the 8th.
Virginia Tech Hokie Box Score from March 21st:
|
|
AB |
R |
H |
RBI |
BB |
SO |
PO |
A |
LOB |
|
Jack Owens 2B/3B |
2 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
|
Ryan Tufts SS |
4 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
3 |
2 |
|
Tom Stoffel RF/P |
4 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
|
Sam Fragale 1B/3B |
4 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
6 |
2 |
1 |
|
JD Mundy DH/1B |
3 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
|
Jake Rosen PR/2B |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
|
Mac Caples LF |
3 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
|
Joe Freiday, Jr. C |
3 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
2 |
13 |
2 |
4 |
|
Matt Dauby 3B |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
|
Grant Maiorana PR/RF |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
|
Aaron McGarity P |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
|
Rahiem Cooper CF |
2 |
1 |
1 |
3 |
0 |
1 |
2 |
0 |
0 |
|
Joey Sullivan P |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
|
Kit Scheetz P |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
|
Totals |
26 |
3 |
4 |
3 |
5 |
8 |
27 |
8 |
7 |
Doubles: Mundy
Home Runs: Cooper
RBI: Cooper (3)
Super Clutch Game Winning Run RBI: Cooper (3)
Standing on the Bags: 7
That ends a home stand for a very short road trip up to Pittsburgh to play the Panthers. Tech is currently sitting on a three game winning push, with a record of 14-9 (3-3 in the ACC). There is a whole lot of baseball left to play, and the heavy ACC grind is just starting with Pitt. Nine ACC games in three weeks is very heavy lifting.
It’s best to take them one at a time.