If there was ever a weekend when the Virginia Tech baseball team needed to put things together and win a series, it was this weekend. The last weekend series the Hokies won was the first weekend in April, when they won two-out-of-three at Notre Dame. Since then, anything that could go wrong has gone wrong.
After suffering a brutal sweep on the road at Pittsburgh last weekend, the Hokies did not have a conference series this weekend, instead having home games against Mercer. After taking the opener on Saturday afternoon, 2-0, Virginia Tech was looking to win a series for the first time in over a month, and to do it, they needed to overcome a blown lead before picking up a much-needed run win over the Bears.
David McCann got things going in the bottom of the second for the Hokies with a solo home run before Virginia Tech took advantage of some shaky Bears defense. With two on in the bottom of the fifth, Hudson Lutterman laid down a bunt, which was thrown away, allowing two runs to score for a 3-0 lead. Jared Davis added an RBI single in the inning for a 4-0 lead.
Mercer, which beat Florida State, 9-3, in Tallahassee in March, got a pair of runs in the top of the sixth before a Clay Grady sac-fly in the bottom of the inning made it 5-2. Mercer tied the game in the top of the seventh when Ty Dalley launched a three-run homer for a 5-5 game.
Needing to find a way to get a win and score a run late in the game, the Hokies used some small ball to get it done., Sam Tackett walked, was sacrificed to second and went to third on a wild pitch. Henry Cooke then delivered the game-winning run with a sac-fly to plate Tackett for the win.
The Hokies improved to 29-22 and will host Marshall on Tuesday night before a vital three-game ACC series at home against Virginia. Both teams are on the outside looking in all of the NCAA Tournament bracketology, which means one team will play itself completely out while the other will give them a chance heading into the ACC Tournament next week.