Virginia Tech Baseball Skates By James Madison, 5-4

With two outs, the tying run at third base and the go-ahead run at second, Virginia Tech bullpen arm Peyton Smith prepared a pitch for James Madison’s Keegan Haesler. Haesler found contact, sending the ball into right. It landed into the glove of the diving first baseman Ethan Gibson.

Gibson then dashed to the first-base bag and by mere inches, dove to force out Haesler. As such, Virginia Tech (7-1) baseball narrowly skated by James Madison (3-4), 5-4, Tuesday in Harrisonburg.

It wasn’t the first time that the Hokies struggled to put away a midweek foe; in Tech’s first midweek showdown of 2025, vs. ETSU, it logged five runs in the fourth inning but allowed ETSU to close the gap to two runs in the seventh.

The Hokies, coming off an exhausting three-game set against Rutgers in which they rebounded from a 16-1 loss to take the final two games, showed little sign of fatigue early on. They struck for two runs in both the first and third innings to build a 4–1 lead through three frames.

Virginia Tech starter Ben Weber was initially steady on the mound. Over the first three innings, he recorded two strikeouts and allowed just a single, a double and a sacrifice fly, keeping Rutgers largely in check while the Hokies seized early control.

But then at the bottom of the fourth, momentum flipped.

After a pair of walks and an Ike Schmidly single, Virginia Tech swapped out Weber for Kansas State transfer Brody Roe. The senior left-hander, encumbered with a bases-loaded jam, induced a liner and a flyout but then conceded a wild pitch, allowing James Madison to close the gap to 4-2.

Virginia Tech tacked on insurance once shortstop Pete Daniel went yard to left-field. The bomb marked Daniel’s first home run, as well as his first extra-base knock of the season.

Daniel’s homer was the second extra-base hit of the day for Virginia Tech, who tacked on its first run with an Owen Petrich left-center triple that scored right fielder Sam Grube. Grube, who transferred from Mount St. Mary’s in the offseason, assumed the spot in right from typical mainstay Sam Gates. Gates himself started at center in place of the sick Treyson Hughes.

Back to James Madison: The Dukes eventually found success in the tail end of the seventh. Outfielder Kyle Langley knocked an RBI single to center field, scoring W. Haacke from second. A batter later, a Josiah Seguin single up the middle plated Langley to bring Virginia Tech within one.

At that point, Virginia Tech substituted out pitcher Aiden Robertson — who had thwarted a bases-loaded jam with two straight swinging strikeouts — and placed in Logan Eisenreich.

Though the sophomore lefty yielded two stolen bases and a wild pitch, James Madison did not score again, with Haesler frozen for strike three to close out the frame.

In the final frame, Petrich recorded a single that placed Grube on third base. Grube, who is averaging a team-high 1.347 OPS (on-base plus slugging), couldn’t come around, however, stranded on third base after Ethan Ball and Henry Cooke were both fanned out.

Virginia Tech came up big in the bottom of the last inning, though it endured several scares to close it out. With Brendan Yagesh now in for Eisenreich on the mound, Virginia Tech yielded two singles. Once Smith stepped onto the mound, he induced a groundout to place the Hokies one run away from victory. Yet, that grounder to short placed Langley, the tying run, on third — and Schmidly, the go-ahead man, on second.

But thanks to Gibson’s timely snag and dive to first, Virginia Tech narrowly emerged victorious, thwarting the Dukes’ hopes of winning on home turf.

Four Virginia Tech players notched a pair of hits: Grube, Petrich, Ball and Locurto. The Hokies worked well against right-handed pitchers, going 7-for-16 and tagging four runs and six hits on JMU starter Patrick Bauer. In contrast, Virginia Tech went only 2-for-18 against left-handed pitchers and struggled late in the contest, compiling only two hits in the final five innings.

Meanwhile, James Madison struggled with situational hitting, going 0-for-4 with the bases loaded, 3-for-14 with runners in scoring position and 0-for-9 in two-out scenarios.

Virginia Tech travels to Arlington, Texas next for the Amegy Bank College Baseball Series, where it will face off against a trio of SEC opponents. All three games will be available for viewing on FloSports. Here’s the three-game slate:

Friday, Feb. 27: No. 23 Texas A&M (8 p.m. ET)

Saturday, Feb. 28: No. 4 Mississippi State (4 p.m. ET)

Sunday, March 1: No. 20 Tennessee (11:30 a.m. ET)