Hokies have historic night under the lights against No. 21 Wolfpack

By Sam Alves

Staff Writer

April 9, 2022

BLACKSBURG – Virginia Tech didn’t just make a statement Friday night. It was more of a dramatic monologue – long, loud and unrelenting.

It took 45 minutes for No. 21 NC State to record three outs in the bottom of the seventh inning. In that time, there were 11 Virginia Tech runs – eight across three home runs – two pitching changes and two ejections.

Gavin Cross, Cade Hunter and Carson DeMartini homered in the frame, each batter’s second long ball of the night. The trio of lefties – and the rest of the Hokies – made good use of the steady breeze which pushed the ball to left field all night long, hammering seven homers, a program best in ACC play, good for a dominant 21-10 effort on the diamond, not the gridiron.

“Our offense is one of the best offenses in the country. Clearly, that’s the case,” Tech head coach John Szefc said. “It was a really big-time performance.”

Short of a grand slam, the Hokies homered just about every which way.

There were line drives from Cross and Conor Hartigan. DeMartini cleared the wall in center field. Hunter did, too, destroying a ball that bounced off the batter’s eye above the upper camera well, a 467-foot blast.

“All wind,” Cross joked.

Hunter’s blast needed none of it. DeMartini’s first four-bagger did, though. The sky-high fly ball cleared the left-field fence thanks to the cooperating breeze despite a 48-degree launch angle.

The 11-run margin wasn't truly demonstrative of the dominance the Hokies (19-7, 6-5 Atlantic Coast) displayed. With the Hokies up 21-4 after the seventh, Szefc pulled starter Griffin Green for his lesser bullpen arms, against whom the Wolfpack (18-10, 6-6 ACC) hit hard.

“As good as we swung it – and we swung it – on a Friday night, you really depend a lot on your Friday night starter, and Green was tremendous,” Szefc said. “He’s pitching in awful weather, goes out and throws seven innings. He’d have gone out and thrown an eighth if we didn’t put an 11-spot up. He’s pitched in the two worst weather games we’ve had."

Green’s final stat line – seven innings, four earned runs, three walks and five strikeouts on 107 pitches – will be overshadowed by the offensive fireworks. With rain pushed sideways by the very wind that guided fly ball after fly ball over the fences, Green powered through a run in the second and third plus two in the fourth.

But then the righty posted three straight zeros thanks to a key adjustment.

“Made an adjustment after the fourth inning: we started pitching inside more, especially to the righties,” Green said. “Try to get weak contact and keep it going throughout the game.”

And as the weather cleared, Green delivered a performance which kept Tech’s back-end bullpen fresh for the weekend.

“Griff’s just one of the best competitors I know,” Hunter said of his batterymate. “Coming out –– it’s raining, it’s cold. Obviously, he didn’t have the greatest stuff in the beginning. How could you in those conditions?

“But it cleared up a little bit in the fourth through seventh, and that was the best his stuff looked all year.”

Green’s steadiness on the mound set the table for the best Tech’s offense looked in many years.

The big innings in the third and seventh overshadowed Hurley extending his season-opening hitting streak to 25 games, a Tech program record since joining the ACC play. It also marked his seventh straight game with a double.

And the 11 runs in the seventh tied an ACC-era program record for the Hokies, too.

Hurley didn’t score in the inning, but the Hokies – led by starter Griffin Green – did take the field in the seventh with a 10-4 lead.

Griffin Green took the mound in the seventh having already tossed 101 pitches. He needed just six to retire the side in order, the first one-two-three frame of the night for either team.

After the stretch and Cross’ second home run, NC State relief pitcher leaked his first pitch high and tight on Tanner Schobel and was quickly – and emphatically – ejected. Soon thereafter, Wolfpack head coach Elliot Avent was, too.

That was about the last drama of a unique night, the first under the lights in ACC play at English Field.