HOKIES BEAT RAMS 7-3 FOR 6-0 START TO THE SEASON

By Wyatt Krueger

Staff Writer

February 27, 2022

BLACKSBURG – Already 2-for-2 on the day with two doubles and an intentional walk, Virginia Tech left fielder Jack Hurley faced Fordham’s Joseph Quintal in the bottom of the seventh inning after Eduardo Malinowski’s solo homer in the previous at bat.

Facing a 1–2 count with the Hokies leading 6–1, Hurley sent an opposite field shot over the left field wall, his ninth hit in his last 10 at bats.

“He’s as hot as I’ve ever seen,” Virginia Tech manager John Szefc told Chris Hirons of Tech Sideline and 3304 Sports. “He hit [the home run] so late and it’s such a deep barrel. He’s just showing you the kind of tools that he has.”

Hurley went 9-for-10 with three home runs, three doubles, a triple and four RBIs in three games against the Rams over the weekend, making the sophomore a potential ACC player of the week candidate.

Despite pulling away late in the game to win 7–3, the Hokies had to come from behind against Fordham after C.J. Vazquez scored on a wild pitch by starting pitcher Drue Hackenberg in the top of the first.

The Rams tallied five hits in the first two innings before Hackenberg settled into the game.

“Hackenberg really didn’t have his best stuff,” Szefc said. “He wasn’t really sharp. He got through two, that awkward double play helped out obviously. After that he settled in and threw three really good innings.”

“We really need that guy to be good. For as young as he is, I think it was a good experience to go through this game, not have his best stuff, and be able to battle through it and come out on the high side.”

Despite the seven hits allowed, the true freshman finished with five hard-earned innings pitched, four strikeouts and only the one earned run on a wild pitch. Hackenberg has pitched 10 innings with one earned run allowed in the first two starts of his collegiate career.

“Even though it’s not how I expected to start out, just keeping the intent and staying calm and collected was the big thing,” Hackenberg said. “Just staying to my roots, trusting my stuff. It’s more mental than anything.”

After Hackenberg’s day was done, junior reliever Graham Firoved got the call from the bullpen in the top of the sixth inning with the Hokies leading 4–1. The hard-throwing righty tossed three scoreless innings with four strikeouts, establishing himself as one of the toughest at-bats for opposing hitters on this team.

“[Firoved has] a lot of spin rate, a lot of vertical break,” Hurley said. “Anytime he’s out on the mound and he's throwing strikes he’s virtually impossible to hit.”

“Firoved was tremendous, that’s what you expect from him,” Szefc said.

Despite the late home runs by Malinowski and Hurley, the Hokies had to manufacture offense early and struggled bringing guys across the plate, stranding nine baserunners on the day.

The Hokies tied the game in the bottom of the first on an RBI groundout by Gavin Cross to score Nick Biddison, and took their first lead of the game on a sacrifice fly by Cade Hunter.

The bats would eventually get going in the bottom of the fifth inning after a Tanner Schobel RBI double, but the pitching and defense were the keys to success on Sunday.

“I didn’t think we played tremendous but we played well enough,” Szefc said. “We pitched really well and we didn't walk a batter all game. The defense was really good today. It’s hard to lose when you don’t walk anybody.”