Hokie ClubDELAND, Fla. – In the final game of the Westin Lake Mary Stetson Invitational on Sunday night at Melching Field, the Virginia Tech Hokies batted back from a three-run deficit to register a 4-3 victory over Central Michigan as Tom Stoffel get the go-ahead RBI in the top of the ninth, his second RBI of the game.
In the bottom of the inning, Andrew McDonald tossed a scoreless frame with two strikeouts to pick up his first save of the season for Nic Enright, who improved to 1-1 with the win. Enright had come into the game in the fourth and shut down the Chippewas offense to help the Hokies in their comeback effort.
Trailing 3-0, the Hokies chipped away at the Chippewas' advantage scoring single runs in the fourth, fifth and sixth innings. In the fourth, Sam Fragale picked up an RBI on a grounder scoring Stoffel for Tech's first run.
An inning later, Stoffel doubled home Jack Owens, who reached by a single and stole second and then Fragale opened the sixth with a triple and raced home on Joe Freiday's sacrifice fly.
Enright, who came into the game in the bottom of the fourth with runners on first and second and one out, tossed 4.2 near-perfect relief innings. He retired 14 of 15 Chippewas, including seven by strikeout, and sat down the last 11 batters he faced.
In the top of the ninth, Darion Jacoby singled and moved to third on a stolen base and error by the catcher. With two outs and runners on the corners, Stoffel laced a single back up the middle for his ninth career game-winning RBI.
Inside the Box
- Enright – career-high seven strikeouts; season-high 4.2 innings pitched; retired 14 of 15 batters faced, including 11 straight.
- Fragale – triple, first of the season, fifth of his career; two hits, fourth multi-hit game of the season, 42nd of his career.
- Jacoby – stolen base, first of his career; two hits, first multi-hit game of his career.
- McDonald - save, first of the season, second of his career.
- Owens – stolen base, 4-for-4 this season, 13 stolen bases in his career; two hits, third multi-hit game of the season, 27th of his career.
- Stoffel – double, third of the season, 40th of his career; three hits, fifth multi-hit game of the season, 43rd of his career; second three-hit game of the year, 18th of his career; two RBI, first multi-RBI game of the season, 27th of his career.
Additional Notes
- This was the fourth all-time meeting between the two schools, with Central Michigan winning the first three – including the first ever meeting in the 1997 NCAA Mideast Regional in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The two teams will face each other again on Wednesday at Noon.
- In the Sunshine State, Tech is 49-99 all-time, which includes a 15-14 mark in DeLand. They are now 35-34 in neutral site games in the state, 14-6 in DeLand.
Up Next
- Tech will take a day off from action before returning to Melching Field in DeLand on Tuesday for a game against Wagner with first pitch set for 4 p.m.