Virginia Tech Baseball: Hokies Swept by No. 11 Miami

The Hokies (17-20, 7-11) limped to an 0-4 record this week with a setback to Radford (23-12, 10-2) and three losses to the ACC Coastal leading Miami Hurricanes (28-9, 14-4).

Monday, Radford @ VT: L, 15-7

The Hokies let yet another lead slip away on Monday as Radford scored ten runs in the eighth inning on their way to a decisive victory in Blacksburg.

Connor Coward started for the Hokies and surrendered five runs in just 3 2/3 innings of work. Radford jumped on the Hokies early with a run in each of the game's first three innings. The Highlanders extended their lead to five in the top of the fourth with RBI singles from Danny Hrbek and Brad Keen.

After two walks and a single loaded the bases for the Hokies in the fourth, left fielder Mac Caples pulled the Hokies within one with a grand slam. Brendon Hayden tied the game at five in the bottom of the fifth with a double that scored Alex Perez.

The Hokies took a 6-5 lead in the seventh when Saige Jenco raced home on a wild pitch from Radford reliever Kyle Zurak. Sean Kennedy entered the game in the top of the eighth for the Hokies and had a forgettable night as he was charged with nine earned runs in his one-third of an inning.

With the game well out of reach, the Hokies managed one more run in the bottom of the ninth but a nine run deficit was too much to overcome as the Hokies fell to their southwest Virginia rival.

Friday, VT @ Miami: L, 11-1

The eleventh ranked Miami Hurricanes took game one from the Hokies with a convincing 11-1 victory in Coral Gables.

Senior Sean Keselica was unable to replicate his past Friday night success as he lasted just two innings against the powerful Canes offense. Three singles and two Hokie errors in the first inning allowed the Canes to take an early 4-0 lead. Miami's Garrett Kennedy smoked a two-run homer in the fourth off of reliever Packy Naughton to extend the Canes lead to six.

Playing in his home state of Florida, Senior Alex Perez gave the Hokies their only run of the evening in the sixth with a triple that brought the speedy Rahiem Cooper in from first.

Miami erased all hope of a Hokie comeback in the sixth and seventh innings with five more runs off of the floundering Virginia Tech bullpen that gave them a commanding 11-1 lead.

The Hokies couldn't muster up any offense in the game's final three innings.

Saturday, VT @ Miami: L, 14-4

Miami took the series on Saturday with their second lopsided win of the weekend over the Hokies.

In what seems to be becoming a worrisome trend, the Hokies allowed two big innings that were once again too much to recover from. The first big inning for the Canes came in the bottom of the second as they scored four runs against Hokies starter Jon Woodcock to give them an early 4-0 lead.

Erik Payne extended his streak of reaching base safely to 35 games in the fourth with an RBI single that scored Rahiem Cooper.

Miami posted their second crooked number of the evening in the fifth with the help of three errors from the Hokies defense. Even though they managed just two hits in the inning, the defensive miscues allowed the Canes to tally seven unearned runs to give them an 11-1 lead.

There was a brief moment of positive news in an otherwise disappointing weekend in the eighth inning when senior Alex Perez singled through the left side to earn his 200th hit as a Hokie.

Other than Perez reaching another 200 milestone, nothing else was doing for the Hokies offense in the final third of the game as the Canes cruised to their second ten-run victory of the weekend.

Sunday, VT @ Miami: L, 9-1

Miami finished out the weekend with their third runaway victory in as many days over the struggling Hokies. Enrique Sosa threw seven strong innings for the Canes and his lone blemish occurred in the seventh when third baseman Johnny Ruiz lost track of the situation to allow the Hokies to score their only run of the day.

As was the case in games 1 and 2, Miami struck first with three runs in the second and one more in the fourth. Miami's David Thompson put his stamp on the series in the fifth with a 3-run shot to center field that put the Canes up 7-0.

The Hokies got on the scoreboard in the seventh when Ruiz fielded a 2-out ground ball at third and stepped on the bag instead of firing across the diamond. With runners at just second and third, no force out was recorded and the Hokies stole a run on the Miami mental mistake.

The Hokies couldn't mount a comeback late as the Canes added two more runs before the discouraging series finally came to a close.

This Week (4/13 - 4/19)

The Hokies daunting schedule won't get any easier this week as the twenty-second ranked North Carolina Tar Heels (22-14, 9-9) travel to Blacksburg for a 3-game series. The Hokies will also head west to Johnson City, Tennessee on Wednesday for their second midweek matchup of the year with East Tennessee State (14-20, 3-6).

With their conference record now sitting at 7-11, the Hokies are hovering right around the cut line for the ten team ACC tournament. While the schedule does appear to open up for the Hokies after UNC (at Duke, BC, at Pittsburgh), they'll need to rebound from four straight series losses if they hope to play postseason baseball.