No. 16 Clemson completes road sweep of Virginia Tech with 9-6 win on Sunday

Raza Umerani

Staff Writer

May 14, 2023

BLACKSBURG - Entering the weekend, Virginia Tech had a golden opportunity to boost its postseason resumé and keep its season afloat with its final home series of the season against perhaps the hottest team in the conference. What followed were three consecutive tough losses to a Clemson squad that was simply the better team all weekend long.

The No. 16 Tigers (35-17, 17-10 ACC) used a four-run third inning to propel themselves to a 9-6 victory over the Hokies (29-19, 11-15 ACC) on Sunday, completing a three-game sweep. Sunday’s win marked Clemson’s eighth consecutive victory, its sixth consecutive series win and 18th victory in its last 21 games. 

“They’re really good. They’re as good of a college baseball team as I’ve seen,” Tech head coach John Szefc said to reporters after the game. “They don’t have pro prospects running around left and right but they do everything right and they barely beat themselves. … They do everything you would want a college baseball team to do. … At this point, we just don’t have enough to go and beat people like that. That team’s going to host an NCAA Regional, and we might see them in Omaha.”

The road team wasted no time on offense, jumping on Hokies starter Jonah Hurney early and often. The Tigers started the game with two singles and a walk to load the bases, which allowed second baseman Riley Bertram to drive in two runners with a two-out single. 

Like the first two games of the series, the Hokies responded with some early offense of their own, as they attacked Clemson’s starting pitcher Caden Grice – a rare two-way star who has lit up the ACC this season. An RBI single from designated hitter Carson DeMartini in the first inning and two-out RBI knocks from first baseman Garrett Michel – who has been excelling in his new role as the leadoff man – and right fielder Carson Jones in the second inning gave Tech its first and only lead of the day.

“I do like [leading off]. I feel comfortable there,” Michel said. “I’ve been doing well there, thankfully, but wherever I’m at, I’m just trying to put the ball in play and help the team.”

But for the next three innings, Grice showed what makes him such a special talent. He retired 10 of the next 11 batters he faced while racking up five strikeouts, only yielding a double to Michel along the way.

“He’s a high level pro. That guy might be the player of the year in the conference,” Szefc said. “It’s not a lot of fun facing him, that’s for sure. He’s as good as they come.”

A leadoff walk by second baseman Christian Martin in the bottom of the sixth inning ended Grice’s day, but Clemson’s offense had done more than enough by that point to ease its bullpen. The Tigers knocked Hurney out of the game in the third inning via an RBI single from first baseman Billy Amick and a go-ahead two-run double from third baseman Blake Wright – the latter coming with two outs, like so many other clutch Clemson hits in the series.

“They’re very, very scrappy,” Michel said. “They have a lot of team camaraderie, and you can see that on the field. They play together well. I think that’s a big thing in baseball.”

Freshman right-hander Jacob Exum relieved Hurney, but another run would be charged to him on an RBI single from shortstop Benjamin Blackwell, which made Clemson’s lead 6-3 after three innings.

“Their offense is really hot right now,” Exum said. “They’re probably the best offense we’ve faced. Whenever we made a mistake, they made [us] pay. … They do the little things right. They get bunts down, they steal, they take extra bases whenever they can. They don’t strike out that much.”

Similarly to the Friday game against Virginia earlier in the season, Exum was asked to eat innings to keep bullpen arms healthy after a less-than-ideal outing from starting pitching. Just like in that game, Exum delivered big time. He tossed 3⅓ great innings, only relinquishing runs on an RBI groundout from Grice and a solo home run from catcher Cooper Ingle while punching out four Clemson batters, including getting three to go down looking.

“It feels good being able to give some guys a little bit of rest, because we don’t have many guys going and we’ve got a lot of guys hurt,” Exum said. “Just throwing strikes and trying to compete.”

Like they have throughout the season, the Hokies began climbing back in the late innings. Third baseman Lucas Donlon took advantage of an error that allowed catcher Brody Donay to reach second base by driving him home with a single in the sixth inning to cut the lead to four. 

In the seventh, Christian Martin drove in two more runs with a bases-loaded single and an error on the throw to first base. That brought the tying run to the plate, but neither Donay nor third baseman David Bryant could drive in a run.

After a quiet eighth, Tech once again brought the tying run to the batter’s box in the bottom of the ninth after a double from left fielder Chris Cannizzaro and a two-out walk from Donay, but pinch-hitter Henry Cooke struck out to end the comeback bid and the series. 

“We didn’t get clutch hits when we needed to,” Michel said. “We didn’t have the best defensive weekend also.”

Virginia Tech returns to action on Tuesday evening in Harrisonburg against James Madison before its final series of the regular season at No. 1 Wake Forest next weekend.

“We come out here every day and work our butts off for stuff like this,” Michel said. “It hurts not to get the results, but at the end of the day, you’ve got to come back out tomorrow and work hard.”