Virginia Tech baseball's struggles continue in series-opening loss to North Carolina

After rolling through the middle part of their ACC schedule, the Virginia Tech baseball team has hit some major roadblocks. After winning three straight series, the Hokies were swept last weekend at home by Florida State.

After going on the road and picking up a win at East Tennessee State University on Tuesday afternoon, the Hokies returned home for another daunting ACC series against 12th-ranked North Carolina. Like FSU, the Tar Heels have a deep and talented pitching staff.

To Virginia Tech's credit, they were able to put up five runs, but North Carolina jumped out to a 5-1 lead and held off a Hokies late-game rally to pick up a Game 1 victory, setting themselves up to win the series on Saturday.

Brent Renfrow has been a good Friday night starter for John Szefc, but against the Tar Heels, a real threat to get to the College World Series again, he went 5.2 innings, allowing eight hits and five earned runs before giving way to the bullpen.

Offensively for Virginia Tech, Sam Tackett had a solo home run in the bottom of the third inning to snap out of his struggles at the plate. He also had a double in the game in the sixth inning, which started a rally with the Hokies down four runs. After Henry Cooke walked, Hudson Lutterman hit a three-run home run to cut the deficit to 5-4.

As was the case all night long, the Tar Heels answered with two runs, but Clay Grady drove in a run with an infield single in the bottom of the eighth to make it 7-5 North Carolina. The Tar Heels broke the game open in the top of the ninth with two runs on bases-loaded walks to pull away for the win despite a David McCann ninth-inning home run.

Game 2 will be on Saturday afternoon at 3 o'clock before the series wraps up on Sunday, with first pitch scheduled for 1 o'clock.