Virginia Tech Shows Offensive Versatility, Fights Off Wright State

Image credit: (Photo courtesy of Miami/Thomas Brogdon)

BLACKSBURG, Va. — This weekend is all about winning games. The point is that you want to advance along the road to Omaha. 

But for host teams, especially host teams that are enjoying a breakout season, hosting a regional is also a celebration. It’s a tangible thing for a team to point to as a way to prove how good it has been, and with three other teams and their fans joining the fun, it can feel a little bit like the fair has come to town. 

On Friday, Virginia Tech, in the postseason and hosting for the first time since 2013, and for the first time since opening a completely rebuilt English Field at Atlantic Union Bank Park, made sure its fans were able to celebrate early. 

In the bottom of the first, after leadoff man Nick Biddison was hit by a pitch, center fielder Gavin Cross tattooed a baseball over the scoreboard in right-center field, putting the Hokies up 2-0 in the blink of an eye. The crowd of 2,811 went nuts, Cross glided around the bases and then slammed the Thor hammer into the ground after returning to the dugout, completing Virginia Tech’s signature home run celebration. 

It was the perfect start for a moment years in the making. 

“The atmosphere was great,” said Virginia Tech coach John Szefc. “A night like tonight, with that crowd and hosting an NCAA Tournament game here, there’s a lot of work that goes into getting to this stage amongst coaches and players and administrators.”

The Hokies would eventually build a 5-0 lead after three innings, with the hammer also coming out after a third-inning solo homer for catcher Cade Hunter. And at the same time, righthander Drue Hackenberg cruised through the first three frames, going three up and three down in the first and third. 

Wright State didn’t sign up to simply be a guest at Virginia Tech’s party, so it fought back, scoring two in the fourth and three in the fifth to tie it 5-5, chasing Hackenberg along the way.

From that point forward, the game was much more of a slog than a celebration as Virginia Tech struggled in the middle innings to find any pitcher who could consistently retire the pesky Raiders. In total, six different pitchers took the mound Friday, and it wasn’t until righthander Christian Worley entered the game that the Hokies were able to really hold the Raiders at bay. 

When Worley entered, Wright State had pulled within 10-7 in the top of the sixth and he was the third pitcher of the inning, but he struck out the side in the sixth, allowing just one inherited runner to score, and then went on to work into the ninth inning with only one more run coming across, and it scored after he was lifted in the final frame. 

In his last six outings, Worley has given up four hits and one run in 14.1 innings, dating back to a game against James Madison in late April when he closed out a win, and it’s clear he has worked his way into a much more prominent role. 

“I struggled at the beginning of the year and I knew I had to flip the switch,” Worley said. “(Against) JMU, I came in and closed the game earlier in the year, and after that, (it) switched.”

Wright State’s refusal to fold early in the game did make things tense late into the evening, but it also provided a chance for the Hokies to do what they do best, score runs in bunches, on the way to a 15-9 win. 

The bottom of the fifth saw five runs come across, two of them on safety squeeze bunts by first baseman Lucas Donlon and third baseman Carson DeMartini, both of which ended with the hitter reaching first base safely, and those plays garnered ovations arguably louder than the home runs in the game. 

It later added a manufactured run in the seventh when Biddison singled, stole second, stole third and then scored on a sacrifice fly, and also tacked on four more in the eighth, three of which scored on RBI doubles, giving the Hokies 135 two-baggers on the year. 

And that’s perhaps the thing that makes Virginia Tech most dangerous. Much has been made about the power in the lineup, and that element of the Hokies’ game only gets more effective this time of year as the warm weather, which tends to help the ball fly, is here to stay. 

With two home runs on Friday, Virginia Tech has 112 on the year and seven different players are in double digits. The only two players in the lineup Friday who don’t have 10 or more are DH Carson Jones (who has seven) and first baseman Lucas Donlon, and those two came into the game with fewer than 100 at-bats combined. 

Beyond that, it’s also a very athletic position player group that can beat you by putting pressure on a defense. They don’t steal a ton of bases, necessarily, but four different players have at least 10 steals, led by Biddison’s 21. 

“I’m fortunate enough to where (assistant coach Kurt) Elbin kind of gives me the green light,” Biddison said. 

That helps on a night like Friday when Wright State kept coming and Virginia Tech had to answer. The Hokies aren’t going to wait around to run into a ball. That will probably happen anyway, but they are also going to find other ways to score in between big flies.

“They’re a complete offense,” Wright State coach Alex Sogard said of the Hokies. “They can hit the long ball and they can also execute.”

So maybe Friday’s win wasn’t much of a celebration after the first three innings. It is a win, however, and that’s what ultimately matters here. Two more wins any way the Hokies can get them will allow for the type of celebration the fans are really looking for anyway. 

“Hopefully Blacksburg is getting to be more and more of a baseball place,” Szefc said. “It’s already a football place. It’s a sports place in general, but hopefully our guys are kind of starting to turn it into a baseball place, too.”