BLACKSBURG – Trailing by a run in the bottom of the ninth inning, Luke Horanski stepped to the plate with one on and one out and blasted a two-strike pitch over the right field wall to give the Virginia Tech baseball team an 8-7 walk-off victory over visiting Radford on Tuesday night at English Field at Union Park.
For Tech, the win keeps the team perfect to start the season at 7-0 and is also now 3-0 in one-run games this year. It's only the fourth time in program history the Hokies have started a season with seven straight wins and it's the longest win streak at any point since the 2015 season when the Hokies won seven straight games from April 26 to May 5.
The back-and-forth game saw the Highlanders jump out to a 3-0 lead in the second on a three-run home run by Matt Roth before Tech responded.
The Hokies scored two in the home half of the frame – an RBI double by Jonah Seagears and an RBI single from Kerry Carpenter – and Carson Taylor tied the game in the fourth with an RBI grounder that plated Jack Owens.
Radford (2-5) reclaimed the lead in the fifth with a two-run frame, but in the bottom of the inning, a Carpenter two run home run tied the game at 5-5 and a Jack Owens' RBI single drove home Nick Owens and Tech led for the first time.
The Highlanders knotted the game back up in the eighth on a solo home run by Adam Whitacre and took the one-run lead in the top of the ninth on Andrew Szamski's RBI double.
With one out in the ninth, Nick Owens singled, his game-high third hit of the afternoon, putting the tying run on first. Horanski, who was hitless in the game, turned on the 1-2 pitch to register his seventh career home run in a Tech uniform and his second walk-off RBI hit.
Tech Notes
- Is 24-3 all-time in home games played in the month of February, winning 11 straight dating back to a 7-3 loss to Temple (Feb. 24) in the 2013 home opener.
- Is 46-15 all-time against Radford, including a 26-3 record at home. Tech has won four straight at English Field at Union Park versus the Highlanders and nine of the last 10 meetings at home.
- Is 7-0 for just the fourth time in school history – the 1987 team started 8-0; 1920 (10-0); 1915 (21-0).
- Records its fourth walk-off win under head coach John Szefc, and second versus Radford – the team won 3-2 in 12 innings in last year's meeting in Blacksburg.
- Horanski's first walk-off hit was a bases-loaded RBI single versus Old Dominion on April 18, 2018.
Up Next
Tech continues its homestand by hosting a three-game set against Bryant this upcoming weekend. The series begins on Friday with a 4 p.m. first pitch.