WOLFPACK AVOID SWEEP, BEAT HOKIES IN FINAL GAME OF SERIES

By Wyatt Krueger

Staff Writer

April 10, 2022

BLACKSBURG – Tommy “Tanks” White stepped up to the plate in the eighth inning for NC State with a 7–2 lead.

Virginia Tech’s Cade Hunter had cut the deficit to five in the previous inning with a solo home run, and White – who had a single despite entering Sunday’s game 0-for-7 in the series – looked to put the Hokies away.

On a full count, White barrelled up Jordan Geber’s 92 mile per hour fastball and launched it 451 feet to right-center field, putting the Wolfpack up six en route to a 10–3 victory on Sunday.

NC State (19-11, 7-7 ACC) was due for a big day at the plate after being outscored 29–12 by Virginia Tech (20-8, 7-6 ACC) in the first two games of the series.

“Good weekend for us, as far as winning the series,” Virginia Tech manager John Szefc said after the game. “It just wasn’t a very good day for a lot of different reasons. We are in this situation where I think we have a very good team right now, and there’s a big difference between winning two games and three games on a weekend. A very good team wins two, a championship caliber team wins three.”

Sophomore Henry Weycker earned his first career start due to having a great season out of the bullpen. Weycker failed to record an out, allowing three runs on three hits and two walks in the top of the first before being pulled for Ryan Okuda.

“Henry’s a good dude, he’s done his job for us.” Szefc said. “He just didn’t have a good start. He’s done a very good job for us. You just didn’t see it today.”

Szefc noted after the game that they would like to have the Sunday starting role solidified down the stretch of the season, but it is clear that is still a work in progress.

“We’re trying to groom some people to hopefully be able to soon,” Szefc said of the Sunday starter. “It would be nice if we can get that done sooner than later. It’s going to be up to guys to take advantage of their opportunities.”

The Hokies’ bats were stymied by NC State starting pitcher Canaan Silver, who threw six scoreless innings while only allowing two hits and one earned run.

“He was throwing guys timing off by his quick pitching,” Szefc said. “The slots were different. He did a good job for them.”

The Hokies were unable to string together quality at bats early, as Silver worked through the Virginia Tech lineup in just 27 pitches through the first three innings.

“I think we were jumpy to hit pitches earlier in the counts that we probably shouldn’t be swinging at,” Virginia Tech catcher Cade Hunter said of Silver’s day. “How we play, we’ll be better for it, and if a guy like that comes out again, we’ll smoke him.”

Okuda and Graham Firoved handled a bulk of the relief duties early on, but after Kiernan Higgins entered the game for Firoved with the bases loaded, the Wolfpack were able to add two more runs via fielder’s choice and a wild pitch to increase its lead to 5–0.

Virginia Tech manufactured a run in the bottom of the fifth thanks to a two-out RBI single up the middle by Nick Biddison, but Silver limited the damage to only one run.

Hunter continued his hot hitting season with his third home run of the series in the bottom of the seventh, slapping a ball to left field that just carried over the wall.

Hunter leads the team with 11 home runs and is hitting .409 with a 1.333 OPS.

Last season, Hunter hit .178 while dealing with injuries and struggling to stay on the field. His resurgence this year has been a huge part of the Hokies’ success.

“I'm trusting myself,” Hunter said of his hot start. “I know I can hit to all parts of the field. I know as a pitcher pitching to someone like that is difficult. I know I'm going to get a pitch that I can do something with and I’m just trusting myself through that.”

The Hokies tacked on another run in the bottom of the eighth to cut the deficit to five yet again, but the Wolfpack added two more in the top of the ninth to put the game away.

Up next, now No. 21 Virginia Tech will face No. 2 Miami (26-6, 13-2 ACC) this Thursday through Saturday.

The Hurricanes have won 13 consecutive games and swept No. 8 Virginia this past weekend.

“You can take rankings and RPIs and all that stuff and throw it out the window when you get on the field,” Szefc said. “Teams are good, they’re either gonna play good or they’re not gonna play good.”