Hokies vanquish doubleheader demons in Saturday sweep of Bowling Green

By Raza Umerani

Staff Writer

May 6, 2023

BLACKSBURG - Doubleheaders have plagued the Hokies all season long. They entered Saturday with a 1-7 record in two-a-days in 2023, including getting swept at home just last week against North Carolina. They were relieved to flip the script in a dominant Saturday sweep of their own against Bowling Green.

Virginia Tech (28-16, 11-12 ACC) utilized its strengths, getting big innings from its offense and strong starting pitching in each game to dismantle the Falcons (16-27, 9-15 MAC) 13-2 and 12-0. Bowling Green did not score an earned run across both games. 

“It’s hard to win one game in one day, no less two,” Tech head coach John Szefc said after the games. “That’s the first time this year we’ve won two games in one day. Most doubleheaders are splits. We’ve struggled in doubleheaders this year, we just have. So the fact that we can come out and do what we’re supposed to do and do it at home is good.”

The opening game of the day was highlighted by another fantastic start from Virginia Tech’s right-hander Anthony Arguelles. After setting career highs in innings pitched and strikeouts on April 28th against North Carolina with 7⅓ and seven, respectively, without giving up a run, he delivered another sparkling outing on Saturday afternoon that saw him set another personal best. 

Arguelles only gave up three hits and three walks in 6⅔ spotless innings, setting a new career-high in punchouts by fanning nine batters along the way. After working through a two on, nobody out jam in the sixth, he recorded two more outs before an error and a triple ended his day. Left-handed reliever Jonah Hurney secured the final out of the seventh, which ensured the starter didn’t have an earned run charged to him. 

“The result was really good today and the line was really good, and in a result-driven business it’s easy to focus on that. But I didn’t feel like I was on today,” Arguelles said. “Today was more of a mental battle, and in this stretch, I’ve turned a tick up a notch mentally in a lot of situations that have put me in positions to succeed because I’m not getting hung up on something that went wrong. It’s just onto the next one and trying to make good things happen every time.”

All the while, the Falcons’ starter Gage Schenk was also having himself quite the outing. After giving up a towering leadoff home run to Tech’s center fielder Carson Jones that went 452 feet, he was almost infallible, yielding just one walk and two hits through the next five innings pitched. It wasn’t until the sixth, when he faced the Hokies lineup for the third time, that Tech started to do real damage with the bats. 

After loading the bases via a walk, a single, and a hit by pitch, the Hokies doubled the lead on a sacrifice fly from designated hitter Carson DeMartini before making it 3-0 on a scorched 113 mile-per-hour RBI single off the bat of catcher Brody Donay.

Things got tense in the top of the eighth as Bowling Green threatened to take the lead, bringing the go-ahead run to the plate after notching a walk and a single against Hurney. After an infield single allowed a run to score and make it 3-2 with two men on and nobody out, the Hokies turned to star reliever Brady Kirtner to get out of the jam. He was able to do so with swiftness, striking out his first batter faced before inducing a textbook 4-6-3 double play to end the inning. 

“I thought the biggest point of the day was when Kirtner came in that first game with [runners on] first and second,” Szefc said. “It was a 3-2 game at that point. He just stopped it. That was certainly the turning point in that game, and maybe in the day. … The middle [infield] did a great job in turning that double play.”

Kirtner has proven himself as the premier arm in the Hokies bullpen. Time and time again, he has been trusted in high-leverage situations, and he continues to deliver.

“He’s a true weapon,” Szefc said. “Today was a good example of it. That breaking ball has velocity. His ability to throw strikes is a real weapon.”

In the bottom of the eighth, Tech was looking for some insurance runs. It got that and then some. Jones led off the frame with his second monster home run of the contest, going 454 feet to right field. A single and two wild pitches put left fielder Chris Cannizzaro on third, and DeMartini ripped a 109 mile-per-hour double to bring him home. First baseman Lucas Donlon bounced a single up the middle to drive in another run. Another well-placed ball plated another run as second baseman Christian Martin poked a single through the right side of the infield, before a sacrifice fly from third baseman David Bryant scored another and turned the lineup over. Jones knocked his second hit of the inning to load the bases, Cannizzaro followed suit with an RBI single that kept them loaded, and DeMartini cleared them with an opposite field grand slam for the exclamation point. 

“A lot of guys are taking good at-bats,” Szefc said. “They’re not always ending in hits, but they might be walks or a long at bat. You’re getting contributions from a lot of different guys.”

The explosive eighth inning saw the Hokies send 13 men to the dish and score 10 runs on eight hits to make it 13-2. With the game well out of reach, coach Szefc gave the ball to Peter Sakellaris, who easily recorded the game’s final three outs. 

In a game filled with some wacky fielding and baserunning, seven of the Hokies’ 13 runs were unearned, while neither of Bowling Green’s runs were earned. 

In the latter game of the doubleheader, Virginia Tech’s offense got off to a much faster start. A two-out rally in the bottom of the second inning got the home team off to a 3-0 start following three walks and three hits, including a two-run double from Jones and an RBI single from Cannizzaro. In the third inning, shortstop Clay Grady golfed one over the left field fence for his fourth home run of the season to make it 4-0.

Jones was stellar across both games, hitting 7-for-9 with two home runs that went a combined 906 feet, four RBIs and a walk. 

“I was seeing [the ball] well,” Jones said. “I thought we had a good approach coming in on the guys we were seeing. Just getting the pitches that I can handle and get a good swing on it. I feel like I was really well-prepared, and that helped.”

The Hokies continued their offensive assault in the fourth inning. A DeMartini walk and Michel single set up an RBI double from Martin and a two-run single from Grady. After a strike 'em out throw 'em out double play, catcher Gehrig Ebel worked a walk, and right fielder Sam Tackett cranked his second home run of the season 415 feet to left field. Another extra base hit from Jones led to another RBI single from Cannizzaro, who Michel subsequently singled home. It was the second time across both games that Tech batted around, as they sent 12 men to the plate and scored seven runs on eight hits and three walks to make it 11-0.

“We played all 18 innings hard,” Jones said. “I thought we took great at bats for all 18. That’s what you wanna see in a doubleheader.”

While the bats continued to wreak havoc, VT’s starter Drue Hackenberg mowed down Bowling Green’s lineup for six sparkling innings. The sophomore right-hander didn’t relinquish a single run while giving up only five hits and racking up nine strikeouts. He didn’t walk any of the 24 batters he faced.

“We pitched really well all day,” Szefc said. “Gave up two runs in 18 innings, that’s a really well-pitched day. When you outscore a team 25-2 you feel really good about it. We got two really good starts, our bullpen pitched really well.”

Tech would tack on one more run before the end of the contest on an RBI single by Donlon in the seventh, and the bullpen did the rest to lock up a 12-0 victory, a doubleheader sweep, and the weekend series against Bowling Green. The Hokies will go for the series sweep on Sunday at 1 p.m.

“It’s huge for us,” DeMartini said. “We need to win almost every game we can from now till the end of the season.”