No. 15 Hokies Take Two of Three From Duke

Written by Kevin Burke

Monday, 17 May 2010 10:55

vt-duke-baseball

The No. 15 Hokies continued their superb season with a series victory over Duke in the last three home games of the season. Tech won Friday and Saturday's matchups by a grand total of 29-11 (11-3 Friday and 18-8 Saturday), but fell in a wild 11-7 game on Sunday afternoon. Here's the recaps from this weekend:

Friday: No. 15 Hokies Pull Away From Duke in 11-3 Victory

Sean Ryan and Steve Domecus tallied three hits a piece and four separate Hokies gathered two RBI as No. 15 Virginia Tech defeated Duke 11-3 at English Field Friday evening. The win was Tech's fourth consecutive ACC win, dating back to a win over Boston College on April 30.

The Hokies tallied first off of Duke starter Marcus Stroman. With two outs in the second inning, Domecus doubled and Austin Wates drove him in with a single to right field. Domecus contributed an RBI single of his own in the fourth to drive in Ryan, who had doubled to lead off the inning to make it 2-0 Hokies.

Tech finally broke through for a big inning in the seventh. After Matt Blow doubled to lead off, Michael Seaborn sacrificed Blow to third and Brent Zimmerman walked. Ryan drove in his first run of the game with a single and Buddy Sosnoskie brought in Zimmerman with a single of his own, while Ryan came home on an error by the Blue Devil left fielder. After advancing to third on a single by Domecus, Sosnoskie scored on a wild pitch. Wates delivered the final blow of the inning with a single to score Domecus to increase the Hokie lead to 7-0.

Duke's Jake Lemmerman got the Blue Devils on the board with a three run home run in the top of the eighth inning to make it 7-3 Hokies.

VT responded with a four-run output of its own in the eighth. After the first three Hokies reached base, Ryan walked to force in the first run of the inning. Sosnoskie followed with a sacrifice fly to score Seaborn from third. After Tech reloaded the bases, Ronnie Shaban laced a single to left field to drive in two more runs to make it 11-3.

Justin Wright was solid again for the Hokies, going 7.2 innings, giving up three runs on six hits while striking out three to improve to 7-3 on the season. Ben Rowen went the final 1.1 innings, only giving up one hit.

Ryan ended up going 3-for-4 with two RBI and three runs scored. Domecus finished 3-for-5 with an RBI and two runs scored. Sosnoskie, Wates and Shaban added two RBI apiece.

Saturday: No. 15 Hokies Hammer Duke 18-8

Ronnie Shaban went 4-for-5 with six RBI and Michael Seaborn added a grand slam, as the No. 15 Hokies routed Duke for the second consecutive day, 18-8 at English Field Saturday.

Virginia Tech starter Mathew Price was not sharp during his four innings of work, as he gave up two-run home runs in each of the first two innings. Jake Lemmerman hit his second home run of the series in the first inning, while Ben Grisz hit his first home run of the season in the second.

The Hokies responded with four runs of their own in the bottom of the second, as Michael Seaborn laced an 0-2 pitch over the left field wall for a grand slam to draw Tech even. The blast was Seaborn's fifth of the season.

Duke added single runs in the third and fourth thanks to some Hokie miscues. After an error by Tim Smalling in the third, Marcus Stroman singled to drive in Jeremy Gould to put the Devils back on top. In the fourth inning, Will Piwnica-Worms reached on a fielder's choice, stole second, advanced to third on a throwing error by the catcher and came home on a balk by Price to make it 6-4 Duke.

Tech responded with a big inning of their own in the bottom of the fourth. After Duke starter Eric Pfisterer loaded the bases with one out, Steve Domecus drove in two with a single to left to tie the game. After Austin Wates was retired for the second out, Shaban sent an 0-2 pitch over the right field wall for a three-run home run to give VT a 9-6 lead. After Smalling followed with a walk, Andrew Rash doubled to bring home Smalling and increase the Tech lead to 10-6.

The Blue Devils cut the Hokie lead in half in the fifth, thanks to back-to-back singles off of Tech reliever Marc Zecchino. The right-hander was able to work his way out of the jam by getting Dennis O'Grady to ground out.

VT responded in the fifth with another four runs. After the first two batters were retired, Buddy Sosnoskie walked, Domecus reached on an error and Wates singled home Sosnoskie to make it 11-8. Shaban followed with a single that scored both Domecus and Wates to increase the lead to five. Smalling finished the two-out rally with a double to bring in Shaban.

The Hokies added two more runs in the seventh on a Shaban single and Smalling sacrifice fly, and capped the scoring with two in the eighth via a Domecus double and Wates single.

Every Hokie batter in the game scored at least one run, while eight of the nine batters recorded at least one hit. Shaban tied career-highs in hits (four) and runs (three), while setting a season-high with six RBI, to go along with a double and three-run home run. Domecus tied a career-high with four hits of his own with three RBI, two doubles and three runs scored. Seaborn contributed a grand slam and four RBI, while Wates and Smalling added two RBI and two runs apiece. Rash contributed the final RBI, as he went 2-for-6 on the afternoon.

Price received a no decision, as he went four innings and gave up six runs (five earned) on nine hits, four of which went for extra bases. Zecchino (1-1) picked up the win by going the final five innings, allowing two runs on four hits for his first career ACC win.

The 18 runs scored by Virginia Tech was the most ever scored in an ACC home game, the second most scored in an ACC win and the third most scored in any ACC game. It also marked the highest output in a home conference game since a 20-1 blowout against West Virginia in 2004.

Sunday: Hahn Struggles in Return, No. 15 Hokies Fall 11-7 to Duke

Now, I didn't really get the chance to write a recap for Sunday's finale, as one wasn't really warranted after Tech's performance. The Hokies fell behind 10-0 after six innings, thanks to Duke's perfect execution of their "smallball" game plan.

The Blue Devils scored two in the first off of Hokie starter Jesse Hahn, thanks to three walks and a bases loaded single. Duke added a run in the fourth off of a perfectly executed squeeze bunt and tallied a fourth run in the fifth off of reliever Joe Mantiply.

Duke put the game away in the sixth inning by scoring six runs on six consecutive singles. In fact, 15 of 16 Duke's base hits were singles, with the other being a double. The first six Blue Devils to bat in the inning all recorded singles, with the first two batters stealing second base to score on the ensuing hit. After two fielder's choice groundouts, the Blue Devils scored the fifth run of the inning on a wild pitch and added the final run when Dennis O'Grady came home while a Duke runner was caught in a pickle between first and second base.

Speaking of O'Grady, he shut the Hokies down in his seven innings of work. The left-hander didn't allow a Hokie hit until the sixth inning, when the game was already out of hand. Tech scored a run in the sixth inning and had a chance to score in the seventh, but Michael Seaborn grounded into a double play to ended the threat.

After a one hour and 23 minute rain/lightning delay in between the seventh and eighth innings, the Blue Devils added their 11th run of the game on three consecutive singles off of Hokie closer Ben Rowen.

Tech attempted a comeback of epic proportions in the final two innings against the Duke bullpen. Steve Domecus brought in a run on a double down the left field line, while two runs came home on a walk to Austin Wates. On ball four to Wates, the ball got away from the catcher, allowing Sean Ryan to come home, but the catcher's throw to the pitcher was errant, enabling Domecus to come all the way around from second to make it 11-4. Anthony Sosnoskie struck out with runners on the corners to end the threat.

The Hokies added more drama in the ninth, as Domecus delivered his second double in as many innings, this time driving in two runs to bring Tech to within five. Wates followed with an RBI groundout to bring Tech within 11-7. Ronnie Shaban ended the late-inning comeback attempt with a groundout to end the game.

Hahn (5-3) took the loss in his return, as he went four innings, allowing three runs on four hits while walking four and striking out none. Mantiply was roughed up for six runs on eight hits in only one inning of work. O'Grady (2-4) got the win for Duke, going seven innings of one-run, three-hit ball while striking out six and walking four.

Domecus was the lone offensive start for Tech, going 3-for-5 with three RBI on his senior day.

After the weekend, the Hokies sit at 36-16 overall, but more importantly 16-11 in the ACC. Currently, the Hokies sit in fifth place in the conference, one game ahead of sixth place Clemson and three games behind third place Miami and Georgia Tech, who Tech has the tiebreaker over. Tech will travel to No. 21 UNC this Thursday, Friday and Saturday for the final ACC series of the year. Then, it's on to the ACC Tournament in Greensboro, NC from May 26-30.

Be on the lookout for more Hokie Baseball stories this week, including what Tech has to do to host a NCAA regional and move up in the national rankings. That and much more coming up this week on FFODC.