Hokie ClubWINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – Trailing early in both games of a doubleheader at Wake Forest, Virginia Tech was able to come back both times, but could only manage to hold its lead in the first game and split the day with the Demon Deacons by identical 8-6 scores on Saturday at WF Baseball Field.
Tyler Horan drove in four runs combined on the day to lead the Hokie attack, while Mark Zagunis had three RBI. Andrew Rash scored a team-high four times on Saturday, while Johnny Morales crossed the plate three times and Brendon Hayden had a team-high four hits.
Down 4-1 in the first game through three innings, Chad Pinder hit a solo home run to cut into the Hokie deficit in the fourth and then Morales and Ronnie Shaban each had an RBI in a two-run fifth that tied the game at 4-4.
Shaban broke the tie in the eighth with a solo home run of his own, his first of the season, and Tech tacked on three insurance runs in the ninth with another Morales RBI and a two-RBI single from Horan.
Clark Labitan (6-1), who came in to relieve Andrew Aizenstadt after five frames, allowed his only runs of the game in the ninth, two, but just one earned, to pick up the win in relief. Jack Fischer (2-3) suffered the loss for the Demon Deacons.
Wake Forest (25-16, 9-12 ACC) jumped out to another lead in the second game off another two-run first-inning home run by Mac Williamson, his ACC-leading 13th of the year.
However, Virginia Tech (27-15, 8-13 ACC) erased that deficit in the third inning by putting six runs on the board. Pinder led off the frame with a double, his 21st of the year, and moved to third on Hayden’s single. Alex Perez brought him home with a groundout and Rash drove in Hayden with a double.
Horan blasted his team-leading 11th home run of the year to follow, a two-run shot, and after Morales drew a walk, Zagunis hit his fifth home run of the season, another two-run blast, to make it 6-2.
Wake Forest answered with three runs in the bottom of the third and one in the fourth to tie the game at 6-6.
The Hokies stranded eight runners on base from the fifth through eight innings and could not break the tie. It was the Demon Deacons, though, that broke the tie as they pushed two across in the bottom of the eight and held on for the 8-6 win in game two.
Michael Dimock improved to 2-2 with the win out of the pen in the second game, while Jake Joyce suffered his first loss and is now 3-1 on the season.
Tech will take a couple days off before returning to English Field to face Davidson on Tuesday with first pitch scheduled for 5:30 p.m.