Virginia Tech baseball avoids a potentially disastrous weekend on the diamond against Virginia

Good luck finding another ACC baseball team that has a tougher opening to the season in conference play than Virginia Tech. One week after opening the season against Georgia Tech in Atlanta, the Hokies had to travel to Virginia for three games in Charlottesville against the No. 14 Cavaliers.

Two series against two conference foes that are legitimate threats to get to Omaha this year for the College World Series. That is less than ideal for anyone, never mind a team that started out the season 7-1, but has found the month of March to be daunting.

Last weekend at Georgia Tech, the Hokies dropped the first two games to the Yellow Jackets before avoiding a sweep with a win in the third game of the series. This weekend, it started the same way with Virginia winning the first two games, before Virginia Tech was able to avoid a sweep again, this time with a 6-3 victory.

Virginia Tech baseball avoids disastrous sweep at Virginia

The Hokies closed out the month of February in Texas against three SEC schools, Mississippi State, Tennessee, and Texas A&M, losing all three games. It got worse with a mid-week loss at home to Marshall, before dropping two out of three at Georgia Tech. After a week off, it was a lost weekend, but at least it wasn't a sweep by UVA.

Griffin Steig was tremendous on the mound Sunday for Virginia Tech, allowing just three hits, one run, three walks, and seven strikeouts. Hudson Lutterman got the offense going with a three-run home run in the fourth inning for the first runs of the game. The lead ballooned to 6-0 in the fifth before the Cavaliers closed within 6-3 in the bottom of the seventh. Brody Roe and Preston Crowl combined for six strikeouts to close out the game.

The win improved the Hokies to 9-9 overall and 2-4 in conference play. They will host VCU in a mid-week game on Tuesday at 6 p.m. before Duke comes to Blacksburg next weekend for the first ACC series of the season at home.