Virginia Tech Baseball: Hokies Come Up Short at Campbell Invitational

Despite encouraging performances from the Hokies starting pitchers, HokieBall (3-4, 0-0) dropped three of four games this weekend at the Campbell Invitational by a combined four runs.

Saturday, VT @ Campbell: W, 6-5

The Hokies started off the Campbell Invitational in thrilling fashion on Saturday. Senior Alex Perez tripled in the top of the ninth, and then scored on an overthrow to help defeat the Camels.

Sean Keselica took the ball for the Hokies and pitched five strong innings, but his defense committed three errors to give the Camels four unearned runs. The Hokies jumped out to an early lead in the top of the first courtesy of a triple by Perez and a sacrifice fly from Erik Payne. Campbell quickly tied up the game in the bottom of the first off of two hits and a Hokie error. Defense loomed large again in the top of the third as the Camels made two errors of their own to give the Hokies four unearned runs. The sloppy game continued in the bottom of the third as Campbell's Steven Leonard advanced all the way to third off of a bunt due to an errant throw from Payne. Keselica was able to retire the next three batters, but Anthony Lopez managed to cut the Hokie lead to three with a fielder's choice to score Leonard. The Hokies went down in order in the top of the fourth and allowed two more unearned runs in the bottom half to help the Camels shrink the lead to one. Chris Monaco made his collegiate debut in the sixth and threw an inning and a third before a Lopez single evened up the game in the bottom of the seventh. Packy Naughton replaced Monaco and continued his impressive start to the season, striking out Cole Mallum with two runners in scoring position to escape the late-inning jam. It appeared as if the Hokies were going to take back the lead in the top of the eighth after loading the bases, but Ricky Surum grounded out to short to end the inning. Naughton retired the Camels in order in the bottom of the eighth to keep the game tied at five. After two quick outs in the top of the ninth, Perez smashed his second triple of the game and then immediately scampered home off of an overthrow by Campbell's Austin Beard. With the score at 6-5 heading into the bottom of the ninth, Luke Scherzer was brought on to seal the deal for the Hokies. Leonard greeted Scherzer with a one-out single up the middle, but Scherzer buckled down and struck out the final two batters to give the Hokies an exciting one-run victory.

Sunday, VT vs. Rider: L, 4-3

After Saturday's dramatic win over Campbell, the Hokies suffered a disappointing setback in a back-and-forth affair with the Rider Broncs.

Aaron McGarity nearly earned his second win of the young season after tossing seven stellar innings, but the Hokie offense came up just a little short. Rider got on the board in the bottom of the first after Jordan Leinweber smacked a double to right field to score Mike Parsons. The Hokies answered in the second as Miguel Ceballos evened up the game with a double down the line to score Brendon Hayden. The Hokies took a 2-1 lead in the third when Ricky Surum ended his short slump to start the year with his first career home run. As seemed to be the norm on Sunday, Rider quickly responded with two runs of their own in the fourth off of a RBI double by Greg Fazio who would go on to score after a pickoff attempt by McGarity got away. Clinging to a 3-2 lead, the Broncs pitching staff held the powerful Hokies offense down until the eighth when Brendon Hayden tied up the game with a single to score Alex Perez. Sean Kennedy was brought on to work the eighth inning for the Hokies, but his outing was short due to a leadoff walk to James Locklear which caused Coach Mason to call for Luke Scherzer. Scherzer retired the first two batters he faced but was unable to get out of the inning unscathed as Locklear stole second with two outs and then came around to score off of a Justin Thomas single up the middle. Down 4-3 going into the last inning, the Hokie offense couldn't mount a comeback and Rider escaped with a surprising one-run win.

Monday, VT vs. Rider: L, 4-3 (12)

The Hokies found themselves in their third one-run game in as many days on Monday, but once again were unable to pull off a victory.

Jon Woodcock got the start for the Hokies and threw seven solid innings, continuing the streak of quality starts from the Hokies pitching staff. Unfortunately, the offense, the perceived strength of the squad, continued to struggle. Rider struck first in the third inning when Patrick Murphy singled to left to bring in two runs. The Broncs extended their lead to three in the fifth inning with a Justin Thomas bomb to left off of Woodcock. The Hokies fought back, though, scoring a run apiece in the fifth and sixth innings off of RBI singles from Andrew Mogg and Phil Sciretta. The bats for both teams remained quiet until the eighth inning when Sciretta laced his second RBI single to tie the game. The Hokies did have a chance to win it in the bottom of the ninth when they loaded the bases with two outs, but Brendon Hayden grounded out to first to send the game into extras. Packy Naughton, quickly becoming one of the most reliable arms on the Hokies roster, held down the Broncs in the ninth and tenth innings. Saturday hero Alex Perez came on to work the twelfth and allowed the Broncs to scrape across the winning run off of a hit and an error. Down 4-3 heading into the bottom of the twelfth, Hayden worked a one-out walk but his pinch runner was later caught stealing to end the game. The Hokies wouldn't have much time to get over their second loss to Rider with the first pitch against Campbell scheduled to be thrown in just 30 minutes.

Monday, VT @ Campbell: L, 3-1

The Hokies disappointing three days came to an end on Monday night with a pitcher's duel between Kit Scheetz and Campbell's Grant Yost. Yost emerged victorious as the Hokies bullpen faltered in the eighth inning to allow the Camels to finish out their weekend on a positive note.

Scheetz gave up one run in the bottom of the first to give the Camels an early lead, but then thoroughly dominated throughout the next six innings, allowing just one hit. Ryan Tufts scooted home off of a wild pitch in the third inning to provide the Hokies their only run of the evening. The pitcher's duel continued until Sean Kennedy replaced Scheetz to start the bottom of the eighth. The Camels loaded the bases off of two hits and a walk and then "broke open" the low-scoring game with a sacrifice fly to put them up 2-1. Campbell tacked on a third run after Kennedy hurled a wild pitch past Andrew Mogg. The Hokies offense showed signs of life in the ninth, but Kyle Wernicki lined out with two men on base to bring the weekend to a close.

Top Performers

After a preseason full of praise for the lineup and doubt surrounding the pitching staff, not many fans could have foreseen what would take place at Campbell this past weekend. Other than ace Sean Keselica (who didn't even allow an earned run), every Hokie starter delivered a quality start (at least 6 IP, <= 3 ER). Freshman Packy Naughton continued to show great promise and has now made four appearances without allowing a run. Luke Scherzer continued his dominance out of the back end of the bullpen and Freshman Chris Monaco pitched well in his first two appearances as a Hokie. With opponents hitting a paltry .194 against the Hokies to date, Coach Mason has to be pleased with how his staff has performed.

Surprisingly, the potent Hokies lineup has started off the season a little slow. Facing live pitching is a whole different animal than teeing off against coaches behind L-Screens all winter, so a sluggish start isn't out of the ordinary for hitters. Expect the Hokies lineup to settle down over the next few weeks and begin to produce more runs for a pitching staff that has been far better than expected.

This Week (2/24 – 3/1)

Radford was scheduled to travel to Blacksburg on Tuesday for a mid-week tussle between local rivals, but that contest has been postponed indefinitely due to weather. Additionally, the Toledo series has been moved from English Field to the Ripken Baseball Complex in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina due to weather and field conditions. Toledo, fresh off a series win over Winthrop, comes in to the weekend sporting a 2-4 record. If the Hokies can continue to get quality starts out of their pitching staff, look for the bats to heat up to get HokieBall back on the right track.

Friday, February 27- Toledo vs. VT, 3 P.M.
Saturday, February 28- Toledo vs. VT (DH), 1 P.M.
Sunday, March 1- Toledo vs. VT, Noon