Virginia Tech routs Pitt for first ACC win of season

By Nick Cheshire

Staff Writer

March 20, 2022

BLACKSBURG — After a blistering 10-1 start to the season faded into a five game losing streak, Virginia Tech finally got back on track Saturday against Pittsburgh, notching its first ACC win in dominant fashion, 22-6.

“It’s just another day in the office, that’s what Hurley always says to me,” Starter Drue Hackenberg said. “The last five games weren’t the way we pictured them but we showed we can battle and that’s all that matters.”

The day after a heartbreaking 4-3 loss, Virginia Tech (11-6, 1-4 ACC) responded with an offensive barrage that included a whopping six home runs to even the weekend series against Pittsburgh (10-9, 1-4 ACC) at a game apiece.

On the mound for the Hokies, Hackenberg got the nod for the fifth time this year, logging six innings, allowing four earned runs on 11 hits while striking out four, picking up another win and moving him to a spotless 4-0.

“You see 22 runs, there’s a lot of credit given to the offense, which there should be,” Head coach John Szefc said. “However, his start was really important to us, to get through six and save our bullpen for the rest of the series.”

“When he’s on the mound, we just know that he’s going to keep us in the ballgame,” Carson DeMartini said. “He’s going to force ground balls, he’s going to force weak contact, it lets us play our game.”

The standout of the six home runs was a moonshot off the bat of Jack Hurley that blasted the upper part of the batter's eye in center field, sparking a quartet of runs in the third to break the game open.

“I was going up there, trying to hit a ball off the batter's eye and I did,” Hurley said. “That’s always my approach, obviously it’s not always going to happen, but it’s a good approach to have.”

Hurley went 3-5 with two home runs and five RBI’s, while in the number nine spot, DeMartini went 4-4 with a pair of homers of his own, plus four RBI’s.

“The home runs that Hurley and DeMartini are hitting… there weren’t a whole lot of cheap ones today,” Szefc said.

“I’ve been feeling good this whole season, I’m seeing the ball well,” Hurley said. “I feel consistent right now, level-headed. It’s the same swing every day.”

The majority of the damage offensively came in the sixth, when the Hokies added nine runs on seven hits, including three of the aforementioned six home runs, really putting the game out of reach.

The crowd was lively on the beautiful Saturday afternoon, helping energize the Hokies and getting them back on track.

“We love the fans, we want them to keep coming out,” Hackenberg said. “It certainly helped me today, it was fun to see everybody.”

As for the losing streak, the end of the five-game slide leaves room for optimism, and with the metaphorical monkey off their back, the Hokies can focus on winning an ACC series.

“We needed to get past it, we need to get guys feeling good about themselves,” Szefc said. “We just need to be able to come out and duplicate a good effort tomorrow and win a series we need to win in conference play.”

The two teams are back in action Sunday at 1 p.m. for the deciding third game in the weekend series.