Hokie ClubBLACKSBURG – Hammering five home runs (season high) on Saturday, including three hit during the first inning, the Virginia Tech baseball team punched back against No. 12 North Carolina, defeating the Tar Heels, 10-6, to level the teams’ ACC series at English Field at Atlantic Union Bank Park.
From the jump, Virginia Tech (25-14, 10-10 ACC) blitzed UNC starter Aidan Haugh for five hits through its opening six at-bats of the ballgame, witnessing home run swings by Henry Cooke (two-run), Sam Tackett (two-run) and David McCann (solo). Haugh – who entered Saturday’s contest having allowed four home runs through 48 and one-third innings pitched this season – surrendered a fourth home run to Ben Watson (two-run) during the bottom of the second inning, resulting in his earliest departure and highest earned run count (seven) of the 2025 campaign.
After the Hokies had staked the 5-0 lead during the bottom of the first inning, North Carolina (30-9, 12-8 ACC) came charging back during the top of the second inning, loading the bases against starter Jake Marciano with three straight leadoff singles. Marciano gave himself a ticket out of trouble by striking out Perry Hargett and Carter French, back-to-back, though lost a two-strike count to leadoff outfielder Kane Kepley, who rode the eighth pitch of his at-bat to left field for a bases-clearing, three-RBI double.
With Virginia Tech leading, 7-3, Marciano found his rhythm against the Tar Heels, retiring nine of the next 10 batters he faced until allowing a solo home run to Luke Stevenson during the fifth inning. Marciano finished his start at four and two-thirds innings and 96 pitches, registering six strikeouts (no walks) while scattering seven hits.
Grant Manning needed two pitches to retire UNC during the top of the fifth inning before sitting down the Tar Heels in order during the sixth inning. Lee Sowers finally broke through against Manning with a base hit to the start the seventh inning, leading to an unearned run that trimmed the Hokies’ lead to 7-5.
Virginia Tech answered with an unearned run of its own during the bottom of the seventh inning as Cooke managed to turn a slow-developing chopper up the middle into two bases, taking 90 feet on the Jackson Van De Brake’s throwing error. Two batters later, Tackett chimed in with an RBI single through the left side, reinstating the Hokies’ 8-5 lead while awarding him his third RBI of the contest.
North Carolina threatened to undo Virginia Tech’s lead during the top of the eighth inning behind a leadoff double by Gavin Gallaher. Manning’s four-pitch walk of Tyson Bass put runners on the corners with one out, from which Alex Madera slid an RBI single through the right side to cut the score to 8-6.
While an untimely passed ball complicated matters for Manning, sending Madera to second base as the game’s potential tying run, the 6-foot-6 right-hander worked himself out of the jam. Manning struck out Sowers, looking, before covering first base on Carter French’s groundout, protecting the Hokies’ two-run lead.
Tensions between the two ACC rivals boiled over during the bottom of the eighth inning.
Jared Davis iced the game for Virginia Tech with his pinch-hit, two-run home run against Folger Boaz that widended the hosts’ lead to 10-6. However, Davis was deemed to have taken his celebration too far after both dugouts had been warned during the first inning, resulting in the junior’s ejection from the ballgame.
Boaz’s ensuing pitch to Anderson French spun above the helmet of the 6-foot-5 catcher, though hit French’s bat, prompting a routine, 2-3 putout by the Tar Heels. As the sequence and the inning ended, actions by both teams led to a quarrel between both sides, leading to the ejections of French and both head coaches.
Manning struck out the UNC side during the top of the ninth inning, clinching Virginia Tech its seventh win against D1Baseball’s top 25 poll this season (most since 2022).
Saturday’s game was played in front of 2,581 spectators, marking the largest crowd at English Field since April 15, 2023.