Blacksburg - #22 Hokies faced off against the VCU Rams at English Field on Tuesday night where the Hokie Nation saluted the troops with Military Appreciation Night. Hayden toed the rubber for the Hokies and Dan Black took the mound for VCU. Haydun struggled to find the strike zone early on in the game, hitting lead off Cullen and walking Bunn. With one out, clean up hitter Mikionis doubled in the runs for an early 2-0 lead for VCU. However, the Hokies retaliated with a two run homer from Chad Pinder in the bottom half of the inning on a 2-1 fastball.
Hayden struggled again to find the zone in the second inning and after walking two batters and giving up a double, was pulled for Jake Joyce to hold the bases loaded. Jake got Cujas to ground out to end the threat. After a scoreless 2nd and a 1-2-3 inning from Joyce in the third, Tyler Horan came up to with men on the corners and doubled them home on a long double in the right center gap. Jake Joyce escaped a threat in the fourth and Chad Pinder marched up to the plate to hit his second homer of the game in the fifth. With a 5-2 lead, the Hokies turned to Sean Keselica to pitch. Keselica pitched a one hit sixth but surrendered a two one opposite field home run to VCU hitter Machin in the seventh. Keselica then went on to escape a first and second jam by getting Octavi to ground out.
The big bottom of the 7th featured an RBI double from Mark Zagunis and followed by a three run home run for Tyler Horan, his 4th RBI of the game. VCU intentionally walked hot batter Pinder before the home run. Latiban came on for Keselica in the 8th with runners on first and second with no outs but only surrendered one run. Hokies would then score 2 more in the 8th on a dropped fly ball by Alex Perez. The ball appeared to get caught up in the lights and the Center fielder couldn't find the ball. VCU then went down in order in the 9th with Latiban getting two strike outs.
The win marked Virginia Tech's 14th non conference win this season and boosting their record to 21-9. The last time the Hokies won 21 games by their 30th game was in 2010, and previously in 1986. They are off to a hot start and are going to face streaky NCState at home this coming weekend. Stay tuned for a scouting report this week before Friday!
Pinder's second homer of the day.
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