First place hokies host suddenly-stingless yellow jackets

Sam Alves

April 16, 2021

BLACKSBURG, Va. — It’s the battle of the Techs — with a twist.

Georgia Tech boasts a proud baseball program with three national championships and the most recent ACC tournament title (in 2019) to its name but comes to Blacksburg unranked.

The Yellow Jackets (15-13, 12-9 ACC) were voted the sixth-best team in the country on March 29, but lost five straight games in early April and have suffered from defeat in seven of their last nine games.

Meanwhile, the leaders of the ACC Coastal division play for Virginia Tech are two games up on the Jackets, who are locked with a swept-by-the-Hokies Pitt team — one that has raised eyebrows as well — at 12-9 in conference.

With more than twice as many losses as wins to Georgia Tech historically (17-39 all-time) these Hokies (19-10, 14-7 ACC) will look to flip the script and create more separation at the top of a division in which they were predicted to be near the bottom.

Despite a humbling 8-2 road defeat at Liberty on Tuesday, Virginia Tech enters the weekend with wins in nine of its last 11 games, averaging more than 10 runs per game in the victories.

The Hokies are also healthier as Chris Gerard started on the mound Sunday at Wake Forest and second baseman Nick Biddison made his first appearance in the maroon and orange this season last on April 6 at East Tennessee State.

With a first-inning RBI against ETSU and a pair of solo home runs at Wake Forest last weekend, Biddison’s addition to the lineup, where he hits No. 2 ahead of white-hot Gavin Cross and TJ Rumfield, makes the Hokie order that much tougher.

Tasked with facing that fearsome threesome and the rest of Virginia Tech’s potent offense will be Georgia Tech’s starting pitching trio of Brant Hurter, Andy Archer and Sam Crawford, who together have posted 125 ⅓ innings of work while only allowing 47 earned runs — good for a 3.38 ERA — and also recording a 3.34:1 strikeout to walk ratio.

Game one of the series falls on April 16, the 14th anniversary of the mass shooting at Virginia Tech that killed 32 people in 2007. It will be an emotional day at the ballpark, but with the Hokies playing their best ball of the season, there should be plenty to cheer for this weekend.

Series Information:

Location: English Field; Blacksburg, Va.

Game Times

Friday, April 16: 6 p.m.

Saturday, April 17: 3 p.m.

Sunday, April 18: 1 p.m.

How to watch: ACC Network Extra