Hokie ClubBLACKSBURG – The Virginia Tech baseball team continues its final homestand of the year at English Field at Union Park on Wednesday night when the Hokies welcome No. 21 West Virginia for its last non-conference home game of the 2019 season. Tech will then take a week off before hosting Virginia next week (Thursday through Saturday) in its final ACC series of the year.
Tech enters the midweek game with a 25-24 overall record and is 8-19 in the ACC. The Hokies were riding a five-game winning streak in non-conference games before a one-run loss at Old Dominion last Tuesday in the Commonwealth Classic. They are 10-3 in home games this season against non-conference opponents and their 17 overall wins are the most by the program since the 2013 season, when the team won 20 non-conference games during the regular season, the last of 11 straight years of winning at least 16.
West Virginia (28-17, 11-10 Big 12) is ranked for the fourth consecutive week, but is coming off just its second Big 12 series loss of the season, which snapped a stretch of 13 wins in 17 games and five consecutive series victories. West Virginia walked off in the finale against TCU, 6-5, as six of WVU's last seven game-winning hits have come in the ninth inning or later.
WVU junior left-hander Nick Snyder (6-1, 1.93 ERA) gets the start for the visitors. In last week's 2-0 WVU win over Marshall, Snyder was one strike away from a no hitter and struck out 16 batters in the complete-game shutout. The Hokies will counter with senior right-hander Luke Scherzer (3-3, 3.58 ERA), who had an eight-strikeout performance versus Liberty (March 26) and had nine over five innings in a win at VMI (April 2).
WEDNESDAY'S GAMEDAY LINKS
vs. No. 21 West Virginia, 6 p.m.
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Quick notes on the West Virginia series
- This will be the first meeting between the two schools this season, but the 90th in the all-time series that dates back to a 9-6 win for the Hokies in Blacksburg on March 29, 1905.
- Overall, the Hokies hold a 53-35-1 mark in the all-time series, but they have lost the last three including the last meeting on May 9, 2018 in Morgantown.
- In last year's tilt, Michael Fernandez led the Hokies with three hits, while Nick Menken had two hits and a team-high two RBI, however, the Mountaineers won the game 10-5 as they jumped out to a 7-0 advantage after three innings.
- Tech is 29-12-1 in games played in Blacksburg, and is 12-3-1 at English Field at Union Park, but lost an 8-6 contest in the last matchup here on April 25, 2017.
- The Hokies' last win in the series was a 13-3 home win on May 5, 2015, which ironically improved the team's record to 26-24 (with a win tonight, that would be Tech's record).
- Saige Jenco had a career-high six RBI on three hits in the victory, while Joe Freiday, Jr. had three hits and scored four times, and Brendon Hayden and Erik Payne each added two hits and two runs scored. Jon Woodcock allowed just one earned run over 7.0 innings to earn the win that night.