After winning their third straight ACC series over the weekend at California, the Virginia Tech baseball team was looking to pick up a huge non-conference win on the road at Liberty. After taking series over Pittsburgh, North Carolina State, and Cal, the Hokies are squarely on the NCAA Tournament bubble.
At 25-21 overall, John Szefc's crew faced a huge résumé-building opportunity against the Flames, who entered the game at 35-13 overall. Liberty is just about safely into the 64-team field later this month, but the Hokies have a lot of work still to do. After dropping the first matchup earlier this season in Blacksburg, Virginia Tech was able to pick up some revenge and earn a season split with an 8-4 win.
Virginia Tech adds to NCAA Tournament résumé with non-conference win at Liberty
As has been the case over the last month, Szefc's team got timely hitting and solid pitching to secure the road victory. The win is more impressive after flying back from California earlier this week and then hitting the road. It would have been easier if the matchup this time was in Blacksburg, but regardless, the Hokies hit the road and took care of business.
The Hokies opened the scoring in the first inning and never looked back. They saw their lead grow to 7-0 heading into the bottom of the seventh. They recorded the first two outs; however, a single against a shift (imagine losing a no-hitter in the seventh against a shift) started a rally where the Flames put up four runs to cut the deficit to 7-4. The Hokies answered with a run in the top of the eighth.
The win snapped a six-game Liberty winning streak and was the Hokies' 10th win in their last 13 games. They will take a break from ACC play this weekend and host UNC-Greensboro for a pair of non-conference games. They will host Marshall next week in another non-conference game before Clemson visits to close out conference play before the ACC Tournament the following week.
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