irish cap penultimate regular season game with shutout win over hokies

Sam Alves

May 21, 2021

BLACKSBURG — Nick Holesa stepped up to the plate in the seventh inning with Virginia Tech’s only hit that left the infield — a second-inning line drive to right-center field. Down 3-0 with no outs and TJ Rumfield and Kevin Madden on first and second, his second line drive of the night looked destined to start the comeback his team desperately needed to revitalize its season.

Instead, the ball found the glove of shortstop Zack Prajner — who was in the right place at the right time to snag Holesa’s line drive— then Jared Miller at second, for a rally-deflating double play.

Two more rallies — runners on first and second with no outs in both the eighth and ninth inning — were killed, leaving the Hokies (27-21, 16-19 ACC) with five hits but no runs on the night.

Fittingly, it was Prajner’s run — brought home by Ryan Cole’s two-run blast in the third — that proved to be the difference in Notre Dame’s (28-10, 24-10 ACC) series-winning 4-0 shutout that likely eliminated Tech’s at-large hopes for the NCAA tournament.

The Fighting Irish pushed across one more run charged to Anthony Simonelli, a sacrifice fly to center that scored leadoff hitter Spencer Myers with reliever Shane Connolly pitching.

Just that one run scored on Connolly’s watch, though he inherited runners on the corners with no outs. Another flyout and Cole’s failed steal attempt ended the threat without further damage.

Then to start the ninth, Connolly plunked slugger Niko Kavadas square in the back before sophomore right Graham Firoved entered, surrendered a single and induced a fly ball to left field.

But senior left fielder Tanner Thomas couldn’t locate the ball, which landed just fair to his right and bounced over the short bullpen fence for a run-scoring ground rule double, bringing Kavadas home from second and the scoring to a conclusion.

To their credit, the Hokies kept pushing. Rumfield stood at second and Madden at first for the second time in reliever Tanner Kohlhepp’s 2 ⅓ innings of three-hit, three-walk work. His 62 pitches nearly matched spot-starter Aidan Tyrell’s 71 over 5 ⅔ innings during which he allowed two hits while striking out three and walking none.

So in came starting third baseman Jack Brannigan to record the final three outs. Making up for his two strikeouts at the plate, he struck out Holesa, Nick Biddison and Jack Hurley in just 11 pitches to end the game.

With how cold the bats have been and the 2-14 stretch over their last 16 ACC games, the Hokies are increasingly likely to have just three more left.