Virginia Tech Baseball: Perez Lifts Hokies over 'Hoos, 6-5

Despite two victories over rival and top-ranked Virginia to start the weekend, the Hokies were far from satisfied coming into game 3.

"We didn't want to just settle and win the series," said Senior Alex Perez. "We wanted to go for the jugular."

The Hokies did just that on Sunday with an emotional 6-5 victory after an eighth inning home run from Perez catapulted the Hokies to a series sweep. The win marked the first sweep of an opponent ranked in the top 10 in program history.

With the Blacksburg wind blowing directly out of English Field, both starting pitchers struggled to keep the ball in the ballpark. Erik Payne put the Hokies ahead in the bottom of the second with a solo blast that easily cleared the 375 sign in left center. Junior Kevin Doherty, a reliever for the Cavaliers with just four career at bats entering the day, homered in the top of the fourth off of Hokies starter Jon Woodcock to tie the game at 1 apiece.

In the top of the fifth, Virginia's Daniel Pinero bashed a two-run homer to put the 'Hoos ahead 3-1. The Hokies answered immediately in the bottom half of the inning as Cavalier's starter Brandon Waddell lost all semblance of his command. A Sean Keselica single followed by an Andrew Mogg double placed runners at second and third for the Hokies with just one out. Waddell unleashed the first of three wild pitches in the inning to allow Keselica to race home, cutting the 'Hoos lead in half. The Hokies then tied the game at three off of a Saige Jenco single that brought Mogg home. When Waddell spiked yet another fastball, Jenco alertly took off for second as the ball got away from Virginia catcher Matt Thaiss. Thaiss inexplicably attempted to throw out Jenco, who was already nearly at second, and launched his throw into center field to allow Jenco to take third. The disastrous inning for the 'Hoos continued with another wild pitch that Jenco scored on to give the Hokies a 4-3 lead.

Kevin Doherty ended Woodcock's day in the sixth inning when he smashed an RBI double in the gap to tie the game at four. Freshman Connor Coward emerged from the bullpen to relieve Woodcock with one thing on his mind: keep the ball down.

"I was shagging BP this morning before the game started and we were watching what we thought were routine fly balls just carry out," said Coward. "Coach Woodard preaches knees and down and that was really important, emphasized even more today."

Coward executed his plan to perfection and held the 'Hoos scoreless to get Woodcock off the hook for a potential loss.
Kevin Doherty's shocking day continued in the eighth inning with an RBI single to right field to put the 'Hoos up 5-4. While Doherty's bat was absent from the scouting report prior to the series, Coach Mason joked that they the coaching staff won't be making the same mistake in the future.

"There is now," said Mason, referring to a scouting report on Doherty. "He had a good day."

Trailing by one with flame-throwing closer Josh Sborz in the game, it appeared the sweep would elude the Hokies. There was just one problem: no one told Alex Perez.

After Matt Dauby led off the bottom of the eighth with a walk, Perez, in his 189th consecutive start for the Hokies, deposited a 2-0 fastball just over the right field fence to bring over 2,500 Hokie faithful to their feet.

"He threw a fastball over the plate and I was able to put a good swing," Perez said. "It felt good off the bat and got a little generous Hokie wind."

Wind-aided or not, the clutch blast put the Hokies ahead 6-5 heading into the top of the ninth.

With closer Luke Scherzer unavailable after throwing 40 pitches on Saturday, the Hokies elected to bring in Freshman southpaw Packy Naughton to close out the game. Naughton got two quick outs before Daniel Pinero kept the Cavaliers alive with a single to right field. Fittingly, Naughton got the third out when Pavin Smith grounded out to Perez to end the game.

After some early season struggles, the sweep of top-ranked Virginia serves as a huge confidence boost for the Hokies. More importantly, it gives the players proof that they can make some noise in the ACC and potentially beyond this season.

"It just validates my message. My message will not change because I think these guys are good and I think they can go far," Mason said. "If anything, it validates what we've been saying since September."

The Hokies will look to carry their momentum into two mid-week games this week with Liberty and Radford before Clemson comes to town next weekend. Oddly, the Hokies have struggled mightily in mid-week games, most recently suffering a 5-1 loss to William & Mary last Tuesday. Perez says the Hokies need to show up for every game with the intensity that they displayed against Virginia.

"When we play mid-week, I don't feel like we get up for the game," said Perez. "It's just weird. We just got to be able to bring it every day."

For now, though, the Hokies can savor one of the best weekends in the history of the Virginia Tech baseball program.

Perez summed up the emotions of the day beautifully, simply saying that Sunday's win over Virginia was "the greatest experience of my life."