Virginia Tech baseball continues streaking

Coming off of a walk-off win against Boston College, the Virginia Tech baseball team blew out the West Virginia Mountaineers 13-3. Although they left 11 runners on base, the Hokies capitalized on all 13 of their hits, with three doubles, two triples and a home run.

Tech’s opponent was out-of-state rival West Virginia. In contrast to Virginia Tech’s winning streak, West Virginia was on a streak of its own, having lost five straight coming into this afternoon’s game.

Junior pitcher Jon Woodcock started on the hill for the Hokies, giving up a double in the first inning. However, the defense and pitching came together, including a double play to end the inning, stranding that runner at third.

After scoring no runs in the bottom of the first against Mountaineer pitcher Jeff Hardy, the Hokies had a key defensive error. On a grounder to second baseman Sam Fragale, a late hop from the ball left no time to throw out either the runner heading to first or second. The next batter then hit a single, and the first run was scored, giving West Virginia a 1-0 lead.

However, West Virginia’s lead did not last very long.

Erik Payne doubled to start off the second inning. Fragale hit a pop-fly RBI to score Payne. Saige Jenco’s hard-hit triple later in the inning to right field brought in three more runs. The score was now 4-1 in favor of the Hokies.

In the bottom of the third inning, the Hokies continued their explosive batting. They added another two runs off the Payne two-run homerun over the left-field fence.

Although the Mountaineers continuously went to their bullpen, as they rotated through six different pitchers, their defensive struggles remained the same.

By the end of the sixth inning, the Hokies had scored in every inning but the first. West Virginia was not able to answer, with the score at 12-2.

A key contributor of the game was sophomore Saige Jenco, who went 3-4 on the night with two triples, one double and one walk, tallying five RBIs.

Jneco tributes the team’s overall success to everyone hitting well.

“Hitting carries throughout the dugout. It's contagious,” Jenco said.

Jenco credits his individual success to adjusting his swing and patience.

“I’ve been working on staying inside on pitching, trying to pull more,” Jenco said. “Early in the season I had been too aggressive, last season I had been too patient. I’m just trying to find the right balance.”

One team’s struggle was another team’s strength tonight in regard to pitching.

Through seven innings, Woodcock allowed seven hits for only two runs, of which one was earned. Woodcock was relieved by the closer Luke Scherzer before the eighth.

Scherzer, along with Aaron McGarity’s ninth inning relief work, followed Woodcock’s lead and kept the Mountaineers to just one run in the game’s final two innings.

The offense behind Jenco continued to click, adding an additional run to the Hokies' score before the game was over. The final score was 13-3.

While West Virginia was the Hokies' last home game, their season is not over. The Hokies will have nine days until their last scheduled series at Pittsburgh.

Head coach Patrick Mason has made his desire to add a few more games to the season known.

“I would like to add more games, but it’d have to be the right opponent. I’m not just going to add a team that hurts our RPI rankings,” Mason said.

Doubling their loss total, the Hokies have gone 16-8 at English Field, notching some impressive wins, including a sweep of the then No. 1 Virginia.

Virginia Tech baseball, now 26-24 and 13-14 in the ACC, is still competitive and is working towards a bid for the ACC Championships.