Hokies run-rule Liberty 13-3 in midweek matchup

By Josh Collier

Staff Writer

April 11, 2024

BLACKSBURG — No. 16 Virginia Tech baseball (22-8, 10-5 ACC) defeated Liberty (15-17) 13-3 at home on Wednesday largely in-part due to a nine-walk, eight-run seventh inning. 

“That oughta drive me nuts man,” Tech head coach John Szefc said on how he’d react if his pitchers threw nine walks in a single inning. “They walked us 14 times… I mean, they’ve got good arms, but you’ve gotta throw strikes.” 

Liberty gave up nine walks in the seventh inning and 14 in the game, which tied for the most in a single game in program history. 

Wednesday’s ballgame began with Tech freshman pitcher Madden Clement, who pitched a scoreless first two innings and tallied a career-high four strikeouts. 

He was relieved by pitcher Jacob Exum in the top of the third with two runners on base, who scored to push the Flames out to an early 2-0 lead. Matthew Siverling subbed in later that inning to pitch for the Hokies and was credited the win (2-0 on the season), as his team took the lead in the bottom of the third. 

Four scores came in the third inning for Tech thanks to five hits, RBIs from Ben Watson and Carson DeMartini, and 2 RBIs from Gehrig Ebel. 

The game was scoreless from then until the seventh inning, when Liberty cashed in one final run at the top before throwing the game away at the bottom. 

Over the course of five pitchers in one inning for Liberty, the Flames only allowed one hit — but continuously walked the Hokies — leading to eight runs and a 12-3 scoreboard going into the eighth. 

David McCann sealed the game in the bottom of the eighth with an RBI double to score the final runner, Ebel. The score brought the game to 13-3 which, due to the 10-run rule that the coaches agreed upon prior to the matchup, closed out the contest a bit early. 

After suffering a three-game series sweeping loss last weekend against Wake Forest, Wednesday night’s 10-run win against Liberty is exactly what Tech needed before traveling to Georgia Tech to take on the Yellow Jackets in another ACC weekend brawl. 

“[We’re looking forward to] the warm weather,” Szefc said. “It’ll be our first game [this year] playing on dirt so it’ll be interesting to see how that goes. They’re always good; they always play us tough there… it should be a good weekend.”