Biddison, DeMartini shine in Tech's season-opening series win

By Sam Alves

Staff Writer

February 19, 2022

BLACKSBURG — A nip-and-tuck game turned much more comfortable for Virginia Tech when its No. 2 hitter, a lefty slugger, pulled a homer headed towards the scoreboard in right field. That’s not so unexpected for a team that boasts a consensus top-10 college prospect in Gavin Cross, who’s slotted in the two hole

But Cross didn’t hit second. In fact, he didn’t play at all. Instead, it was true freshman Carson DeMartini who hit that ball out of English Field, extending Tech’s sixth-inning lead to five in a 8-1 win over UNC Asheville.

For the second day in a row, the Hokies (2-0) rode a DeMartini home run and a scoreless, five-inning start — this time from Ryan Okuda, who departed with a much slimmer 1-0 lead — and cycled through mostly clean innings from its relievers for the win.

“You gotta be able to be successful different ways,” head coach John Szefc said. “Today was not an easy game…It was good to see guys have good at-bats later in the game.”

Those at-bats came from outfielders Nick Biddison and Jack Hurley, who responded to the Bulldogs’ (0-2) lone run in the eighth, which brought Tech’s five-run lead back into slam range.

“If we’re going to be good, we need a guy like [Biddison] to be good,” Szefc said.

And Szefc on Hurley: “It was really encouraging because he had two really good swings against left-handed arms with two strikes. That wasn’t happening so much last year as a freshman. That’s where you kind of see the jump he’s taken.”

Senior Ryan Okuda, who started for Tech, has made a jump, too.

“Traditionally, you need two really good pitches — maybe three — to have a good start,” the lefty said. “That was one thing I really worked on in the offseason: getting that third off-speed in there. It was encouraging to see I could get it in there.”

His start wasn’t as encouraging, though. Ryan Okuda opened with two straight swinging strikeouts but found himself in an early jam after UNC Asheville walked and singled. But he got out of the jam with a third swinging strikeout, this time offspeed after going with high heat for his first two.

Okuda retired 13 of his last 14 batters, though, finishing with eight strikeouts, two walks and a hit allowed over 82 pitches and the win.

Like Friday, the Hokies blew the game open in the middle innings. After an eight-run fifth inning on Opening Day, Tech plated four in the sixth Saturday. A walk and single put two runners on base for Nick Biddison, who doubled Tech’s lead with a flair shot over the shoulder of twisting shortstop Kohl Abrams in left field.

Biddison led off the eighth with a home run, too.

“It was awesome,” Okuda said of Biddison, who was sidelined by a shoulder injury much of last year. “Not many guys put the work in…to help the program like he has.”

Prior to Biddison’s RBIs, right-hander Graham Firoved saw his first action of the season first in relief of Okuda. Firoved blew through the top of the Bulldog order on just 11 pitches, including the second of two swinging strikeouts at 93 miles per hour to end the frame.

That success didn’t last, though, and pitching coach Ryan Fecteau pulled him after walking the first two batters of the seventh.

“[Firoved] did a really good job coming out and facing their top three hitters,” Szefc said. “Then it was kind of a long sit there in the cold, and he didn’t respond to that too well.”

So in came lefty Jonah Hurney, who induced a flyout before grazing right-hander Kevin Katrine with a pitch to load the bases with one out. Hurney, also pitching in the low 90s, responded with a strikeout and groundout to keep the shutout in order.

“Something that’s tough coming in as a reliever is sometimes if you come with runners on and not many outs, you’re going to give up runs here or there,” Okuda, who has pitched in several roles for the Hokies over the years, said. “Jonah did a great job….He did a great job getting a fly ball and a strikeout. Those are two really good outs for us as pitchers because you can’t really move on those [as a baserunner.]”

The Hokies started the scoring in the second inning by taking advantage of Bulldog misplays in the field.

Eduardo Malinowski reached on a throwing error by fellow second baseman Ty Kaufman. JMU transfer Conor Hartigan doubled off right fielder Grayson Preslar’s glove in left field, sending Malinowski to third, and Cade Hunter — who hit two home runs yesterday — settled for an RBI via a groundout to second.

In the end, that second run was all Tech needed to win its second straight game to open the season.