Virginia Tech Hokies Drop First Game, but Win the Series with Wright State; 5-11, 9-3, 17-1

Well, you can’t say that I didn’t warn you. Baseball is a sport played to averages and even the best teams on the hottest streaks trip over the first base bag and don’t get to 2^nd in the occasional game. The Wright State University Raiders (a Wolf, mind you), rolled into Blacksburg from Fairborn, Ohio with some ideas. They were 0-6, looking for their first win, and facing Tech’s ace rotation pitcher Griffin Green to start a three game weekend series. The Hokies were white hot, with a seven-game no loss win streak and a hammer as their power symbol.

Hokies vs. Raiders Game 1 – Friday March 4^th

At 2:02 PM on Friday March 4^th, the Raiders stepped into the batter’s box and promptly laid down a bunt single to Green. They singled again in the game but grounded out for the final two at bats. It was a bit scary, but Green had the Hokies back him up with an explosion of four runs including a Malinowski three run homer.

The inning ended with Jack Hurley scoring a run on a Sam Tackett RBI single, after taking a work trip around the bags into scoring position. After that, the Hokies managed to lose their bats, or develop a case of the jitters... or someone find an excuse because they managed a single run in the bottom of the 5^th and that was that for the game. Now with a four-run lead and some insurance in the 5^th you’d have thought a team with a pitcher holding a sub 3 ERA would just hang on through the offensive slump to pull out a pitching and fielding shutdown of the Raiders.

Such was not to be the case. It seems that Griffin Green ran into the spirit of the withered arm on the way out to the mound for the top of the 2^nd inning. The Raiders kept running into pitches, and managed to even the game up 4-4 before the first out, on a double play was turned. To add a bit of insult to injury, Wright State managed another run on a double, before Green managed to strike out the last batter. Green didn’t last the first out in the 3^rd.

He was pulled after hitting the lead off batter, and baseball disaster occurred. Pitch by committee when your starting pitcher is pulled after a meltdown in early innings. That event almost never bodes well, and it didn’t here.

Wright State’s offense didn’t do much after that, and Tech’s single run in the bottom of the 5^th got them within a run with lots of baseball left to play. Wright State played that, and Tech didn’t. The Raiders put six more runs up and Tech never managed to answer. Baseball games are famous for “well that isn’t gonna happen” games, and it looks like Game 1 just was one of those games.

There were some highlights for the offense, but it just wasn’t enough.

BATTING

Two Baggers: Gavin Cross (1)

Dingers: Eduardo Malinowski (1)

BASERUNNING

Steals: Jack Hurley (1)

Plonked: Gavin Cross (1)

Hokies vs. Raiders Game 2 – Saturday March 5^th

Saturday, the Hokies took the field in much the same shape has they left it on Friday evening. Ryan Okuda took to the mound and gave up a double on the second pitch of the game. He ended up tossing two into the “Twilight Zone” and starting Catcher Cade Hunter developed a hole in his mitt for a third loss of control in the delivery system. In the mean time Wright State crossed the plate twice, and the Hokie fans in the stands were scratching their heads wondering where the Hokies of the first seven games had run off to. They were in a first inning multi-run hole, again, against a team with a 1 and 6 record with that one being the prior night’s Tech meltdown.

Okuda found his arm and sights, the Hokies found their bats, and the team turned around a potentially serious pothole on the way to a much better season. The Raiders didn’t score again until the top of the 9^th.

Meanwhile the Hokies did start getting some offense generated.

BATTING

Doubles: Gavin Cross (1); Eduardo Malinowski (1); Cade Hunter (2); Carson DeMartini (1)

Homers: Eduardo Malinowski (1); Cade Swisher (1)

Sac Flies: Cade Hunter (1)

Two doubles (Malinowski and Hunter) with a Cade Swisher dinger got the Hokies on the board and ahead to stay in the bottom of the 2^nd. Gavin Cross and Eduardo Malinowski teamed up for a double/single run in the bottom of the 3^rd. The Malinowski dumped one over the wall in the 5^th to get some insurance up. Three runs isn’t a whole lot of breathing space, but Hokie pitching was holding and the defense was keeping the Raider sticks quiet. Hokies added a single manufactured run in their half of the 7^th, and then pretty much put the game away with a bunch of small ball base running supported by singles, walks, and wild pitches by Wright State’s reliver.

Wright State tried something of a rally in the top of the 9^th, but it was just too much to make up. The door closed and the Hokies evened the series to wait for the rubber game on Sunday.

Hokies vs. Raiders Game 3 – Sunday March 6^th

Where do you start with this one? The prior two games the Hokies managed some decent offense – even with the Friday loss they scored 3 more runs than their aggregate pitching ERA, and it was only a pitching meltdown that allowed Wright State to jump out and stay ahead of the Tech offense. As they say in the pop culture of yore… Sunday was “hammer time”. Game 2 was a mixture of some opportune long ball, but basically 9 runs on singles, doubles, walks, and better than adequate pitching. Game 3 was nothing of the sort.

First, the Hokie defensive effort was led off by Freshman sensation Drue Hackenberg on the mound. He gave up a single in the bottom of the 1^st, but kept the goose egg on the scoreboard after 10 pitches with two groundouts and a swinging strike out. Hackenberg would go 7 full innings with only one earned in the 7^th when a Raider ran into one and put it over the wall. Hackenberg is 3-0 with a miniscule ERA (for college ball).

Sometimes game stories are on both sides of home plate, and the Hokie defense was definitely impressive on the 6^th. The offense, once again, assumed that football scores look great on baseball scoreboards when you are on the plus side of things. The Hokies generated some serious offense on Sunday. They also substituted nearly the entire lineup as the score widened and the opportunity to get playing time arose.

You are reading things right. This was a festival of the long ball. Take a look at the scoring highlights, and see the line of dingers and multi-bag hits for the game. Everyone looked like they wanted to get into the heavy contact act.

BATTING

2-fers: Nick Biddison (1); Tanner Schobel (1)

3-fers: Eduardo Malinowski (1)

Taters: Gavin Cross (1); Eduardo Malinowski (1); Jack Hurley (1); Conor Hartigan (1); Lucas Donlon (1)

BASERUNNING

Swipes: Cade Hunter (1)

Hit by Pitch: Tanner Schobel (1); Conor Hartigan (1)

So, the Hokies took the series and get ready for the Tuesday game against none other than East Carolina. The Pirates roll into town for a non-conference matchup. Maybe that relationship gets repaired, maybe not. Next weekend the Hammerin’ Hokies take to the road for a three-game set in Atlanta to open the ACC season against Georgia Tech.