Hokie ClubBOSTON - Staking the 4-0 lead at Fenway Park on Saturday, the Virginia Tech baseball team threatened to clinch its ACC road series at No. 23 Boston College despite coming up short by a run, 8-7, during the Eagles’ 14th annual ALS Awareness Game.
Senior catcher Henry Cooke led Virginia Tech (16-17, 7-10 ACC) with his 3-for-4 day that featured a triple during the first inning. Batting behind Cooke, Hudson Lutterman went 2-for-5 from the cleanup spot while three more Hokies – Ethan Ball, Ethan Gibson and Owen Petrich – each chalked multi-hit performances at America’s Most Beloved Ballpark.
Cooke’s triple led to Virginia Tech’s first run of the ballgame as Lutterman followed by cracking a first-pitch, RBI single through the left side. Building on their 1-0 lead, the Hokies rallied for three runs during the second inning on four hits, receiving an RBI double by Owen Petrich off the Green Monster and a two-run home run by Ball that chased the park’s red seat signifying where Ted Williams had hit his famous, 502-foot homer in 1946.
Right-handed starter Brett Renfrow began his day with a three-pitch first inning on his way to keeping Boston College (25-12, 10-7 ACC) scoreless into the fourth inning. There, the Eagles managed to bring nine batters to the plate, scoring four game-tying runs – three on the bat of Gunnar Johnson’s bases-clearing double.
Johnson troubled Renfrow again during the bottom of the fifth inning, lifting a sacrifice fly to center field that plated the go-ahead run for Boston College. However, crafty defending by Sam Gates and Virginia Tech allowed the Hokies to escape without further damage, turning the 8-3-6-4 double play on Johnson’s sacrifice that left BC lying only the 5-4 lead.
Virginia Tech pulled even during the top of the seventh inning behind the polished base running of Nick Locurto. Drawing a leadoff walk, Locurto took two bases on Ball’s ensuing single into shallow center field, scoring on a wild pitch by Sean Hard to level the game at 5-5.
With Renfrow grinding through six innings (career high, 109 pitches), the Hokies’ bullpen struggled to put away BC during the bottom of the seventh inning. Back-to-back leadoff singles by Ty Mainolfi and Nick Wang complicated matters for Ethan Grim, who ultimately drilled Carter Hendrickson in the back to load the bases.
Inheriting a jam, Brendan Yagesh was greeted by a leadoff single by Luke Gallo that put the Eagles on top, 6-5. Yagesh forced in a second run when he hit Johnson and had to settle for a third run coming across when Kyle Wolff lifted a sacrifice fly to deep right field.
Down but not out, Virginia Tech nearly tied the game by staging a two-out rally during the top of the eighth inning. With two runners aboard, Locurto belted a two-RBI triple into the right field corner, bringing the Hokies within 8-7 and representing the game’s tying run, 90 feet away.
Though Locurto was stranded during the eighth inning, Virginia Tech made its final push at extending the contest during the top of the ninth inning as Cooke and Lutterman led off with consecutive singles, putting runners at the corners. However, Sam Grube’s grounder to the mound was handled wisely by pitcher John Kwiatkowski, who held Cooke at third base, let Lutterman advance to second base and took the easy out at first base.
In a bizarre ending, Boston College managed to collect the final two outs unconventionally as Johnson, the BC catcher, followed Pete Daniel’s swinging strikeout by throwing behind Cooke at third base, picking him off.
Boston College starter Brady Miller matched Renfrow’s six innings on the mound, bettering him by two strikeouts (six). Johnson single-handedly accounted for six of the Eagles’ eight runs, finishing with five RBIs, in addition to his game-winning pickoff.
UP NEXT
Virginia Tech will contest the series rubber match at No. 23 Boston College on Sunday, April 12. First pitch between the Hokies and the Eagles at Eddie Pellagrini Diamond at Harrington Athletics Village is scheduled for 1 p.m. ET.
REMAINING SERIES PROBABLE STARTERS
• Sunday (April 12): Griffin Stieg (2-1, 5.59 ERA) vs. Tyler Mudd (2-3, 4.36 ERA)