BLACKSBURG – Despite receiving deep starts from right-handers Drue Hackenberg and Anthony Arguelles on Saturday, the No. 11 Virginia Tech baseball team was unable to salvage victory from its cold, ACC doubleheader against Boston College as the Hokies lost a pair of decisions – 8-5 and 7-3 – at English Field at Atlantic Union Bank Park.
Junior catcher Gehrig Ebel logged 18 innings behind the plate for Virginia Tech (12-4, 1-2 ACC), combining to swing 4-for-7 with a double to lead the Hokies offensively.
Boston College (12-2, 2-1 ACC) led, 5-1, during game one after three innings of play and scored seven runs from the sixth inning onward during game two. The Eagles, who defeated No. 3 Tennessee on Tuesday, have now won 12 of their last 13 games (all road contests), clinching their first ACC road series since February 2021.
GAME 1 – Boston College 8, No. 11 Virginia Tech 5
Errors on both sides of the diamond resulted in three combined unearned runs that set starting pitchers Drue Hackenberg (Virginia Tech) and Chris Flynn (Boston College) behind early.
After Christian Martin had reached, rounded and scored without a Tech hit during the first inning, Carson DeMartini missed a long throw to first base that could have closed the door on Hackenberg's second clean inning. With the inning left open, BC capitalized as Vince Cimini worked a six-pitch walk off Hackenberg, preluding a pair of RBI singles by Adonys Guzman and Barry Walsh that put the Eagles on top, 2-1.
Travis Honeyman helped Boston College assert itself during the third inning, stroking a first-pitch single into right field. Two batters after Joe Vetrano had earned the Eagles' second walk off Hackenberg, Cameron Leary drove a three-run home run to right center, rushing BC out to its largest lead of the doubleheader opener.
Virginia Tech was stymied by Flynn, who denied the Hokies run support through the end of the fifth inning. Jack Hurley dropped a bunt single down during the fourth inning that livened the Tech dugout, though the Hokies could do neither with it nor back-to-back leadoff singles by Gehrig Ebel and David Bryant during the fifth inning.
Tech finally broke Flynn's season-opening streak of 22 and two-thirds innings pitched without surrendering an earned run during the bottom of the sixth inning. Clay Grady doubled off Flynn to move Eddie Eisert into scoring position before both runners soon came home for the Hokies – Eisert via a wild pitch and Grady via David Bryant's RBI single to left field.
Although four free passes led to another Boston College run during the top of the seventh inning, BC nearly coughed its 6-3 lead up during the inning's bottom half. Chris Cannizzaro doubled DeMartini over to third base, two batters before Eisert connected on the RBI single that trimmed the visitors' lead down to 6-5.
Despite having pulled within a run, Tech continued to have difficulty limiting base runners late, succumbing to six bullpen walks in total from the seventh inning onward. Cimini waved the decisive blow for the Eagles during the ninth inning, hitting his two-RBI single off Tyler Dean that cushioned the BC lead at 8-5.
Gallery: (3-11-2023) BSB: Boston College Game 2
GAME 2 – Boston College 7, No. 11 Virginia Tech 3
As it had done during game one, Virginia Tech struck first during the bottom of the first inning. Two batters after Carson DeMartini had reached on his one-out walk, Jack Hurley muscled an RBI double down the left field line, bringing DeMartini home with ease.
Spotted a 1-0 lead, Anthony Arguelles shaped his best start of the 2023 season, retiring 15 of the first 17 batters he faced. Arguelles scattered a pair of singles to Joe Vetrano and Barry Walsh, striking out three batters while pitching into the sixth inning for the first time this season.
There, with Tech unable to figure out reliever Eric Schroeder – who subbed for injured starter Bobby Chicoine at the start of the third inning – Arguelles introduced the two base runners who would ultimately do him in for defeat. After Walsh had singled for the second time off him, Arguelles surrendered the double to Travis Honeyman during the next at-bat that left the Hokies facing a pair of runners in scoring position with no outs.
Inheriting a tough situation, Jonah Hurney induced the two sacrifice flies that set Tech behind for the first time. Vetrano and Patrick Roche both skied fly balls that made Jack Hurley retreat in center field, neither offering the All-American outfielder a chance to nab the go-ahead runners at the plate.
With two untimely hit batsmen helping Boston College load the bases during the top of the seventh inning, Honeyman effectively put the game away against Kiernan Higgins by knocking his grand slam off the right field foul pole, charging the Eagles out to the 6-1 advantage.
Tech chipped a run off the BC lead during the seventh inning behind Carson Jones hitting his pinch-hit, leadoff double. Following a double by Gehrig Ebel during the ninth inning and an RBI single by Christian Martin, the Hokies were one batter away from introducing the game's tying run, though were denied by two of closer Joey Ryan's four strikeouts.
Gallery: (3-12-2023) BSB: Boston College Game 3
UP NEXT
No. 11 Virginia Tech will begin a four-game road swing on Tuesday, March 14, at ETSU. First pitch between the Hokies and the Buccaneers at Thomas Stadium in Johnson City, Tennessee, is scheduled for 5 p.m.