BLACKSBURG – Friday afternoon at English Field at Atlantic Union Bank Park, Virginia Tech baseball played Game 4 of its Fall World Series and pitching dominated early on before the Orange team came back to record a 5-4 victory.
Both starters – Anthony Simonelli (two strikeouts) and Peyton Alford (four strikeouts) – worked two scoreless innings to start the day and Orange's Nolan Wilson relieved Simonelli and continued the trend – retiring all nine batters he faced with three strikeouts.
Orange got to Maroon reliever Stephen Restuccio in his third inning of work, in the fifth inning, for the day's first run. He tossed 2.2 scoreless with two strikeouts, but Jonah Seagears hit a one-out double and, with two down, scored on a wild pitch.
Maroon responded with a two-out, three-run rally in the top of the sixth. Brennan Reback tied the game with an RBI single and Carson Taylor followed with a two-run double to give his team a 3-1 lead.
The teams traded single runs as Maroon held a 4-2 lead at the seventh-inning stretch, but Orange put its own three-spot on the board to reclaim the advantage. Fritz Genther scored on an error and Tanner Thomas hit his own two-out, two-RBI double to put his team back ahead.
Gavin Cross threw a scoreless eighth and Nathan Starliper needed just seven pitches to close out the game and secure the victory for Orange.
Cross actually led Orange with three hits, while Genther had two hits, two walks and scored twice. Seagears also drew two walks for the Orange squad. Brett Stallings was the only Maroon player with two hits and he also scored twice.
Up Next:
The Hokies' Fall World Series concludes on Monday, Nov. 4 with the final game starting at 2:30 p.m. Despite Orange's 3-1 lead in the series, the staff has also put two other competitions into play – run differential and inning wins - and they have yet to win the overall series. Currently, the teams are tied in run differential and Orange leads in innings won 17-10 and would need to win one of those other categories to claim the overall win.