LEXINGTON, Va.? VMI brought the go-ahead runs to the plate in the eighth and ninth innings, but could not come up with the big hit they needed, as they fell 9-8 to Virginia Tech on Wednesday evening at English Field.
VMI (20-10) put up three runs in the ninth inning to pull within one run, but stranded the tying run on second base when Adam Redd notched his second strikeout of the night to secure his first save of the season. Rhett Ballard (1-2) picked up the win for the Hokies (12-17), pitching four innings and giving up only two runs. Freshman Kevin Booth (1-1) took the loss for VMI, as he surrendered five runs in his 1.2 innings of work.
Junior Chad Rice paced the Keydet offensive attack, going 3-for-5 a double, triple and two RBI from the leadoff spot. Junior Jacoby Fields went 2-for-4 with two more RBI, batting in the fifth lineup spot.
The top two Tech hitters in the lineup, Warren Schaeffer and Sean O'Brien, combined to go 5-for-9 while accounting for four RBI. They were joined by Billy Marn as the hot Hokies of the evening, as Marn went 3-for-4 while scoring a pair of runs.
A five-run second inning would put Tech on top for good after VMI put up a single run in the first. Chad Rice scored that first-inning tally on a Fields' single to left field. However, the Keydets would strand a pair of runners in the first, a trend that would continue throughout the game, as VMI left 12 men on base in the one-run loss.
Tech posted a one-out rally in the second, with Booth giving up a double to Jose Cueto before hitting Matt Hacker. Back-to-back singles from Jose Rojas and Marn plated the first two runs, while a sacrifice fly from Matt Foley made the score 3-1. Back-to-back singles from Schaeffer and O'Brien completed the rally, before O'Brien was caught stealing to end the frame with the score 5-1.
The hosts tacked on two more in the fourth, with Schaeffer's two-run single to rightfield doing the damage against VMI reliever John Phelps.
The Keydets posted single runs in the next four innings to get back into the game. The eighth-inning tally, brought home on Rice's double to the left-center gap, cut the advantage to 7-5 with one out and a man on second. However, Redd struck out Klint Reed before walking Kelly Sweppenhiser. He then got Eddie Van Es, who entered the game at first base for Robert Crumpler, to flyout to centerfield.
Tech would come back with two big insurance runs in the bottom of the eighth. O'Brien's single up the middle made the score 8-5, one batter before a squeeze bunt executed by Bryan Thomas made the score 9-5.
But the Keydets would not go quietly. A leadoff walk issued to Fields was followed by B.T. Good being hit by the first pitch he saw from Redd. A double by Mike Roberts brought home Fields before Will Smith's sacrifice fly to centerfield cut the score to 9-7 with one out on the board. Redd induced a groundout to third base by A.J. Yoder, pinch-hitting for Shane Geisslinger, for the second out of the inning. On a 2-1 count, Rice hit a high fly ball to shallow rightfield, where the Tech second baseman, Hacker, was in position to end the game. However, the ball glanced off of his glove, allowing Roberts to score from second base and putting the tying run just two bases away, before Redd struck out Reed to end the game.
The Keydets will return to Big South Conference action on Friday afternoon at 3 p.m., taking on High Point on the road in the first game of a three-game weekend series.
