Hokies Unleash 13 Runs vs Liberty (4-10-24)

By: Joey Raymond

All Photo Credit: Katie Lovell-LMS Network 

Blacksburg, VA —On a cloudy and humid day in Blacksburg, Virginia Tech welcomed Liberty University into English Field for a Wednesday night matchup. The Hokies are coming into this matchup after getting swept in their last series against Wake Forest. They looked to hold off a Liberty team who won their last road series 2 games to 1 against a solid New Mexico team when they play at home. Both of these teams are looking to win what feels like an important game despite it being a nonconference game. With this game not being a conference game, both teams agreed that come the seventh inning, if either team led by 10 or more the game would be over. 

Understanding that if this game got blown open the game would end, both teams would end up doing whatever they could to keep it close. For the majority of this game, it would be. The first two innings of this game would end up scoreless, with Liberty not hitting the Hokies. Then came the third inning, that’s when the scoring would start to open up. After giving up a single and a walk, Liberty would move the runners over after a sacrifice bunt. The next batter, Brayden Horton would smack a single into left field, bringing in two runs for the Flames. Liberty would call a hit and run on the next play, and Aiden Sweatt would hit a single, allowing Horton to move to third. Unfortunately, they wouldn’t be able to bring the runner home, keeping the score at 0-2. 

Moving into the bottom of the third inning the Hokies knew they needed to formulate a response to get momentum back on their side. Virginia Tech opened the inning with back-to-back singles from Ethan Gibson and Christian Martin. Clay Grady would load the bases up bunting for a base hit the following play. Ben Watson would knock a run in by hitting a single, bringing the Hokies within one run. After a flyout, Liberty would walk the next batter, bringing in another for Virginia Tech. With a tied ball game, the Hokies would grab momentum and keep the pedal to the floor. Gehrig Ebel would rocket a single to straight center, allowing two runs to score, giving the Hokies a 4-2 lead. The inning would end on a double play just a play later. 

Then the battle would commence. Both Liberty and Virginia Tech would dig their heels in and put up scoreless innings until the seventh inning rolled around. Virginia Tech would get 2 quick outs against Liberty to start the seventh. The next batter would walk, prompting Horton to come up, who would hit a shot to left field. The outfielder would struggle with fielding the ball, allowing the runner to score. On the play, Horton would try to advance to third and get thrown out, ending the inning. The run would bring Liberty within a run and the score to 4-3. That’s when things would completely fall apart for the Flames. 

Liberty’s pitching would go on to start the inning giving up four straight walks to start the inning and it definitely wouldn’t end there. Eddie Micheletti would then come up and zip a single into right field, allowing another two runs to score, and stretching the Hokies lead to 7-3. Yet another walk would load the bases, and then another walk would follow, allowing another run to score. The Hokies would go on to score a total of 8 runs in the inning as the Liberty pitching staff would record a season-high in walks. The Flames pitching staff would account for 14 total walks. By the time the inning ended, the Hokies would only need a single run to win the game, thanks to the mercy rule in place for the game. 

That last run would not take very long for the Hokies to acquire either. After only allowing a single to the Liberty batter’s in the top of the eighth, the Hokies would come up to bat with one mission and score the game winning run. Only two batters would be needed for Virginia Tech, Gehrig Ebel would get a walk to start the inning. The next batter, David McCann would hit a ball into the gap in left-center field, allowing Ebel to score easily. The Hokies would win in technically a walk-off win, with a final score of 13-3. The pure domination was unexpected considering how close the game was for a large portion of the contest. The nail in the coffin for the Flames was the lack of control in the strike zone, you can’t give up 14 walks and expect to win. The Hokies will head into the weekend slate and face Georgia Tech in Atlanta. Liberty will head back home and host Jacksonville State.