No. 8 Hokies take sixth straight ACC series in first game at Fenway

By Sam Alves

Staff Writer

April 23, 2022

Nearly 15 innings into No. 8 Virginia Tech’s series at last-place Boston College, the Hokies had scored three runs — two coming in Friday’s 2-0 win — hardly anything to write home about.

But with one swing of the bat, Jack Hurley penned the finest moment of his skyrocketing baseball career, pulling a home run into the red seats beyond the short right-field wall at Fenway Park, the deciding hit in Tech’s 6-1 win over Boston College in the 10th annual ALS Awareness Game.

“It was the coolest hit I’ve ever had in my life,” Hurley said to 3304 Sports by phone after the game. “I’ve never had a bigger, more cool home run in the moment. That was just unreal.”

In “America’s Most Beloved Ballpark,” a trio of Tech batters — sophomores Gavin Cross, Tanner Schobel and Jack Hurley — accounted for all six Tech RBIs and showed why, if they reach their peak, Saturday night won’t be the last time they play at Fenway Park.

“We got really big swings from Gavin and Jack — guys that are special guys, going to play the game for a long time, I think,” Tech head coach John Szefc said. “If you’re going to be good, your better players are going to need to be best, and that’s what happened to us with those guys and Hackenberg and a lot of different guys.”

Hackenberg certainly played his part, pitching seven innings of one-run ball — the second time in as many weeks he has pitched at least that far while giving up just one earned run — key length that allowed the Tech bats to settle under the pressure of a major league park.

“I think it was a difficult thing to walk into a big league ballpark,” Szefc said. “You’re signing your name on the back of the scoreboard….We have to get by that. You have to get by that and play the game, and our guys did a great job.

“The other part of it is this: Good players can get over the hump no matter what. And I think we have a lot of good players.”

Just how much did playing on one of the sport’s grandest stages affect even a star like Hurley?

“It took a little bit to kind of relax and cool down the first couple innings,” Hurley said. “You’re in the batter’s box and all you’re thinking about is, ‘Man, I’m playing at Fenway Park right now.’”

With a couple at-bats under his belt, though, Hurley said he relaxed — both his hands and his mind — and locked into Boston College (15-24, 3-17 ACC) starter Henry Leake’s delivery.

“After I swung over a changeup in the dirt [during] my third at-bat, I was telling myself, ‘Just see the ball up and put my best swing on it,’” Hurley said. “[Leake] kind of hung a changeup, and the second I hit it, I kind of knew it was going to go over the fence, which was really cool because that never really happens for me.”

The two-homer broke the 1-1 tie in the sixth, giving Tech a 3-1 lead, its first of the night. Schobel was stationed at first during the at-bat thanks to a gift Hurley immediately capitalized on.

With one out and the bases clear, Schobel skied a ball that didn’t pass the pitcher’s mound. Leake tracked the ball well until Boston College third baseman Patrick Roche called him off with the ball already descending. Roche’s move proved costly, as he couldn’t secure the ball and was charged with his first of two errors on the night.

Keeping up the pressure in the seventh — by then the Hokies harnessed it in their favor — Cross added an insurance by pulling a seeing-eye single through the right side to score Lucas Donlon from second with two outs. It was the lefty’s second RBI of the night, the first tying the game on a ground rule double inside Pesky’s Pole in the third.

“Happy for Gavin and Jack, but happy for our group in general that they can go to a park like [Fenway] and enjoy the night,” Szefc said. “It’s a come-from-behind win. Of course, we were down 1-0, but it was a come-from-behind win. It’s not easy to do that on the road.”

Tech’s one-run deficit Saturday night came in the first, when Hurley was forced to wait for the ball to bounce off the Green Monster in left field for a two-out, RBI single from Parker Landwehr. That knock still left runners on the corners, but Hackenberg escaped by inducing a groundout to second.

The rest of the night, the Eagles only placed two baserunners in the same inning once — on consecutive one-out singles in the sixth.

“I think [Hackenberg’s] performance was tremendous,” Szefc said. “I think Hackenberg was as good as he’s been. If you think about the last two weeks, he’s started in front of about 4,000 [fans] at our place against Miami and gave up two [runs —one unearned]. He starts another at a big league ballpark with a chance to win a series and gives up one.

“What are you going to say about the guy? He pitches way beyond his experience and his years....If he’s not one of the best arms in the country — certainly in our league — I don’t know what else he’s got to do.”

And while the stars shined, Tech got contributions from across the lineup from unsung heroes, too. Donlon, in only his fourth start of the season, batted 3-for-4 with three runs while also bailing out a couple poor throws to first from Hackenberg.

“He made us look good,” Szefc said with a chuckle. “Really happy for Donny. He’s a guy that’s easy to root for. For him to have a great game like that at a big league park, that’s just tremendous.”

Christian Martin — the Amherst, Va. product — filled in for Eduardo Malinowski at second. Malinowski exited Friday’s game after rolling his ankle, but Szefc said he hopes he'll to return by midweek, if not Sunday.

Martin played clean defense and chipped in offensively, with a sacrifice bunt to move Donlon into scoring position for Cross in the second and doubled in the fourth. Szefc is high on Martin, who took advantage of his reps, which Szefc says will be key to high long-term development as a “high-end” player.

So once Hackenberg departed, Kiernan Higgins entered to record the last six outs. While the writing was literally on the wall inside the Green Monster — fresh with new inscriptions from Hokie players — it too was, figuratively, with the righty striking out Travis Honeyman to end a tremendous Tech night in Boston.