RADFORD, Va. – Batting around during its eight-run fifth inning on Wednesday night, the No. 8 Virginia Tech baseball team collected its 25th victory of the season by holding off challenger Radford, 13-8, at Sherman Carter Memorial Stadium.
Sophomore shortstop Tanner Schobel led Virginia Tech (25-9) with five RBIs, tallying three run-scoring hits while drawing two walks and plating three runs. The smooth-swinging, right-hand bat put the exclamation point on Tech's monster fifth inning that featured 11 plate appearances, delivering the three-run homer that pushed the Hokies' lead to 11-5.
Tech's leadoff quartet of Nick Biddison, Gavin Cross, Schobel and Jack Hurley combined to reach base during 15 of their 24 trips to the dish, uniting for nine hits and six walks. Hurley matched Schobel with three hits in the cleanup spot while Biddison chalked a 2-for-4 performance with a sacrifice fly.
Fifth-year left-hander Ryan Okuda started and provided Tech with two and two-thirds innings on the mound, surrendering a run on five hits while recording two strikeouts. After the Hokies and the Highlanders had traded first-inning runs, Okuda was gifted a 3-1 lead during the third inning as Eduardo Malinowski followed Hurley's RBI single with enough carry on his fly ball to plate Schobel from third base.
Radford (12-24) turned the tables on Tech during the bottom of the fourth inning when it earned four hits from the first five batters it brought to the plate. Avery Spencer put the Highlanders on top, 4-3, with his two-RBI single off Henry Weycker, two batters before Ty Dooley's RBI infield single wound up capping their four-run, five-hit inning.
Tech flipped the script on Radford during the fifth inning, tying the game six batters into the frame with a lone hit from Hurley. Pinch-hitting in his usual ninth spot in the Hokies' order, Carson DeMartini smoked a two-RBI double down the right field line, rushing Tech out to the 7-5 lead before Schobel drove his 12th home run of the season.
Radford answered Schobel's RBI single during the seventh inning by cashing in two bases-loaded runs during the inning's bottom half. Tech closed its scoring with a double steal of second base and home during the top of the ninth inning while the Highlanders matched with a late RBI single by David Bryant.
Weycker earned his fourth victory of the 2022 season, completing three innings of middle relief without being charged for a run.
NOTEWORTHY
• The 2022 Virginia Tech baseball team is the program's fastest to have won 25 games since its 1982 squad finished with a 50-9 record under legendary head coach Chuck Hartman.
• Tanner Schobel has registered 16 RBIs across his last five games and has hammered nine home runs during his last 13 appearances.
UP NEXT
No. 8 Virginia Tech will open a three-game ACC road series at Boston College on Friday, April 22. The series will step into Fenway Park on Saturday, April 23, when the Hokies compete in the Eagles' annual ALS Awareness Game, honoring the late Pete Frates.
Gallery: (4-20-2022) BSB: at Radford