Going into the ACC Tournament, the Virginia Tech baseball team was looking to solidify its spot in the NCAA Tournament next week. The Hokies won their final four ACC series, which moved them up to the seven-seed for the conference tournament and a first-round bye on Tuesday.
They waited and watched Notre Dame beat Clemson to advance to get the right to play them on late Wednesday afternoon in Charlotte. Yes, the game started in the late afternoon, but it went well into the night. That's right, it went past four hours, and there were several reasons for that. However, when the dust settled, the Hokies plated enough runs to eliminate the Irish by seven runs to advance to the quarterfinals against North Carolina on Friday afternoon.
Virginia Tech baseball picks up ACC Tournament win over Notre Dame
It was a game that one team was happy to win, while the other would kick themselves for several missed opportunities. Just how crazy was the game? Just consider some of the following numbers that were put up by the two teams. Here is some of the craziness,
- The two teams combined to throw 388 pitches.
- The two combined for 27 runs.
- The two teams combined for 33 hits.
- The fourth and ninth innings were the only innings in which no runs were scored by either team.
- Every single Hokies hitter had at least one hit.
- Every single Hokie drove in a run except for Pete Daniel.
- Every single Hokies batter had at least two hits, except for Sam Gates.
- Five Virginia Tech pitchers combined to give up 10 earned runs and struck out 13.
Whew. Ethan Grim got the start for Virginia Tech and didn't record an out before being pulled in favor of Logan Eisenrich, who calmed things down after a 4-0 deficit to allow Tech's offense to wake up and get going. On the flip side, Notre Dame used 10 pitchers after playing Clemson on Tuesday night.
Look, winning ugly this time of the year is just as good as winning pretty. It was Virginia Tech's 30th win of the season, and with their strong metrics, they should be good for the NCAA Tournament. They get the Tar Heels on Friday, and maybe, just maybe, if they can stun UNC, they could move up a seed line to the two line from the three. Hey, anything is possible, but the Hokies are playing their best baseball at the right time of the season.
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