Going into their weekend series at home against a struggle Stanford team, the Virginia Tech baseball team need to at least win the series, if not sweep it to move in the right direction in ACC play with some tough road series coming up. Easier said than done.
The Hokies dropped two out of three games to the Cardinal in disappointing and frustrating fashion. Virginia tech dropped the opener on Friday, 9-7, after allowing five runs in the top of the eighth. On Saturday, they bounced back for a 10-2 win leading into Sunday's rubber game at English Field. In what turned out to be one of the more frustrating games of the season, Stanford scored three runs in the top of the 10th to win the series with a 6-3 victory.
Virginia Tech loses frustrating series to Stanford
After losing two out of three road series to Georgia Tech and Virginia, two Top 10 programs entering the weekend, the Hokies won two out of three over Duke last weekend in Blacksburg. This past weekend, facing a Cardinal team that was 1-5 in conference play coming in, the Hokies needed to win the series to stay within striking distance of the 64-team NCAA Tournament field.
On Sunday, the Hokies had every chance to put Stanford away before the 10th inning, only to come up short at the plate. Virginia Tech left 14 runners on base. To compound matters, they went hitless in six at-bats with the bases loaded. How the Hokies scored their runs sums up the game. A sac-fly from Hudson Lutterman tied the game in the bottom of the first, before a bases loaded walk to Henry Cooke tied the game in the third inning. The only run plated with a hit was an RBI single from Sam Gates in the fifth inning.
After that, it was nothing but frustration. In the bottom of the ninth, Henry Cooke doubled with one out. Tyson Hughes walked and Gates followed with a walk to load the bases. However, the Cardinal avoided a walk-off loss with a strikeout and fly-ball to right to end the frame. They went on to score three times in the top of the 10th. If the Hokies are going to come anywhere close to getting an NCAA Tournament bid, they will need to fix their Achilles heel, hitting with runners in scoring position.
At 13-13 overall and 5-7 in ACC play, Virginia Tech will visit Radford for a non-conference game on Tuesday, before a three-game weekend series at Miami next weekend. They will then host Liberty next week, before a weekend series from April 10-12 at surging Boston College.