hokies drop third straight acc series with 6-1 loss to virginia

Wyatt Krueger

May 2, 2021

BLACKSBURG — With 11 regular season games left, it’s clearly concerning that Virginia Tech has hit its lowest point this year. You can sprinkle more concern in with the ACC Tournament fast approaching.

This weekend, it showed against rival Virginia in the form of being 27-8 in three games en route to a third consecutive ACC series loss.

“It's really not one thing,” Szefc said on his team’s play after Sunday’s defeat. “We’ll score runs some days, we’ll pitch some days. Our defense has been okay, but if you look at the scores of the games we’re just very inconsistent.”

On Sunday, the Virginia Tech (23-17, 16-14 ACC) bats came up short yet again as Virginia (21-20, 12-17 ACC) used a dominant pitching performance from lefty Nate Savino to win the rubber match 6-1 in the Commonwealth Clash.

Savino relied on a 92 mile-per-hour sinker that stymied the Virginia Tech offense all night, forcing 12 groundouts and five fly outs in seven innings of one-run ball despite only striking out two batters.

“He was sinking his fastball and our guys couldn’t get underneath it,” Szefc said. “I give him credit. He did a great job.”

The Hokies also didn’t help themselves by grounding into three double plays throughout the game after showing some positive signs in the first inning.

After TJ Rumfield singled and advanced to second on a passed ball, Nick Biddison singled him home, which was followed by a third consecutive hit by Tanner Thomas to put runners on the corners with two outs.

Although Kevin Madden followed up Thomas with a ground out to shortstop, there were some encouraging signs in the early at-bats against Savino, who was the fourth best recruit in the nation in 2019, as the Hokies grabbed an early 1-0 lead.

Instead, Savino retired eight of the next ten batters faced while the Virginia offense took advantage of rare mistakes from Shane Connolly, who closed out Saturday night’s win in a 23-pitch ninth inning .

On Sunday, Connolly threw four and ⅔ innings, allowing four runs and striking out six on 80 pitches.

His ability to be a consistent piece in the rotation and bullpen — in place of Virginia Tech’s ace Chris Gerard who is dealing with an injury — is something that the Hokies appreciate from Connolly.

“[His durability] is something that you are not used to seeing,” Szefc said. “To be honest with you, for a guy to finish a game one night and start the next day is a pretty rare thing to see.”

The lefty gave up back-to-back solo home runs in the top of the second inning and allowed two more runs in the fifth after Brendan Rivoli’s two-RBI single that ended his outing.

“Our saying around here is solos don’t kill you,” Connolly said on giving up consecutive homers. “I don’t think that would have been the deciding factor of the game. It’s just something you have to pitch through.”

“We didn’t lose the game because of how [Connolly] pitched,” Szefc said. “If you score one run on any day you’re not going to win.”

This week, Virginia Tech has a chance to add some much-needed wins to its record with a midweek game against Georgetown and a three game stint against Toledo.

Although Toledo and Georgetown aren’t ACC foes, more series losses down the stretch of the season could result in missing the regional tournament.

“After 40 games we are probably around that time where you're going to have to be consistent or you're going to end up watching,” Szefc said.