Sunday, No. 14 Virginia looked to complete the sweep of Commonwealth Clash rival and ACC opponent Virginia Tech. With effective freshman John Paone getting the start and a well-rested bullpen behind him, the Cavaliers (16-4, 4-2) hoped to finish the weekend without bruising their record. Instead, Virginia Tech (9-9, 2-4 ACC) suppressed any offensive momentum and escaped Disharoon Park with a 6-3 victory.
“I've been doing this for 28 years,” Coach Chris Pollard said. “You lose a Sunday game, it doesn't feel great, but there's a lot of positives about this week. We played really well, and the job in the ACC is to keep stacking series wins.”
Paone looked strong to begin the afternoon — recording a trio of strikeouts to just a single hit, a double by graduate Sam Gates, in his first three scoreless innings of work. It was in the fourth where the cracks began to show. After allowing a pair of baserunners on a double and a walk, sophomore Hudson Lutterman smacked a fly ball into the left field bleachers, putting the Hokies up 3-0.
“We just gave them some free offense,” Pollard said. “We spotted a couple of runners, and you can't do that. Paone will learn and grow from that. But I thought [his] stuff was good. I thought he might have fatigued a little bit there around 60 to 70 pitches.”
From the other dugout, junior Griffin Stieg put on his best performance of the season in a winning effort. Stieg, making his return this season after missing last year with Tommy John surgery, put together a workhorse start. He threw six frames, tossing 104 pitches and surrendering a single run.
Stieg repeatedly worked his way out of Cavalier traffic on the basepaths. In the first, a pair of baserunners in junior shortstop Eric Becker and junior second baseman Joe Tiroly were stranded by coaxing a double-play ball from junior first-baseman Sam Harris. In the fourth, Stieg left runners in scoring position by striking out sophomore outfielder Zach Jackson.
Becker put the only Virginia runs on the board against Stieg in the fifth when he roped a homer into the bullpen, his third of the season. Finally, Stieg ended his day with a strikeout in a scoreless sixth. The veteran was still hurling at 95 mph as he crossed the century mark in pitches thrown.
Graduate Lucas Hartman heard his name called from the bullpen for the 12th time this season as he came in to replace Paone, the most appearances of any Cavalier pitcher this season. Unfortunately for Virginia, Hartman let all of his inherited runners score in the fifth but proved otherwise effective in three innings of work.
In the seventh, with opportunities to mount a comeback dwindling facing a 6-1 deficit, Pollard looked to the bench for a spark. He elected to pinch hit junior Antonio Perrotta for graduate catcher Noah Jouras. Perrotta promptly buried a home run into the Virginia bullpen, scoring a pair and bringing the game to 6-3.
From there, each team brought some of its best bullpen arms to finish the game — the Cavaliers aimed to keep the game within striking distance while the Hokies looked to slam the door and get back on the bus to Blacksburg. Freshman Jayden Stroman and graduate Tyler Kapa did their jobs for Virginia, recording a scoreless eighth and ninth.
Junior Preston Crowl stepped up to secure the Virginia Tech save. Crowl fanned all four batters he faced, flipping sliders past the barrels of Virginia hitters. Virginia finished the game with a loss, but the Cavaliers still earned a series win, their second in ACC play.
Virginia now approaches a loaded upcoming week with a pair of midweek games at home against Georgetown and on the road in Lynchburg against Liberty before hosting Wake Forest for a three-game weekend series. The Cavaliers played a pair of fall exhibition games with Georgetown earlier in the academic year.
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