The No. 13/17 Virginia Tech Hokies waited until the third to finally plate a run against the Syracuse Orange in their 13-2 victory on Saturday to clinch the final conference series of the season.
Virginia Tech (43-9, 14-6 ACC) started conference play on the road in Durham, NC, against Duke on Mcarch 13, and with the victory over Syracuse (18-25, 4-17), Tech wraps up a conference slate in which it went 6-2 in such series.
It was a record setting day for the Pete D’Amour led maroon-and-orange, but it took a few innings for that to come to fruition, as the Orange struck first in the opening frame.
Syracuse found its only two runs of the contest in the bottom of the first, as the Orange plated both runs in unearned fashion against Hokies’ starter, Emma Mazzarone.
Mazzarone was forced into dealing with a bases-loaded, no out jam after allowing two walks and a single to Syracuse right fielder Vanessa Flores.
Back-to-back strikeouts made the scenario more favorable for Mazzarone, as she forced a first-pitch roll over from designated player, Madalyn Lopez, to second base. Yet, fifth-year senior Rachel Castine was unable to glove the grounder as it bounced off her chest, as her delivery came late to first, before Michelle Chatfield attempted to fire home, but the second run had already crossed for the Orange.
It took the Hokies until the third to respond, unlike Friday’s affair in which they plated runs in each innings, yet Tech was just as aggressive.
The Hokies nabbed the lead five batters into the frame and never looked back; back-to-back bases loaded RBI singles from sophomore Nora Abromavage and Kylie Aldridge scored three, as both pushed their base knocks past the infield dirt.
Abromavage and Aldridge were the last to score in the five-run frame for Tech, as Castine lofted a sacrifice fly into left field, and freshman Gaby Mizelle legged out an error which she hit to second base, almost replicating the RBI that Syracuse had earlier.
Rose Cano, a senior arm for the Orange, did enter the contest in the third, and did see two runs come across, they weren’t on her, yet Tech was able to pounce on her for five runs in the fourth.
Lynch smacked her team-leading 17th homer of the season with one out to open the scoring in the fourth.
The Hokies garnered back-to-back record-setting RBI back knocks with two outs against Cano shortly after, with catcher Zoe Yaeger singling into center for Tech’s 400th RBI of the season. A batter later, Castine launched a two-run homer to plate two and cross double-digits, 10-2, but more importantly set a new program record with hits in a season, with 519 and counting.
Tech’s starter, Emma Mazzarone, nabbed an RBI on her start day with a pinch-hit single that she blooped into left field on a 3-1 batter’s count that scored pinch runner Lyla Blackwell.
The Hokies were nearly given two runs in the top of the fifth, after relief pitcher Jackie Pengel opened with eight straight balls to the Tech batters. Sophomore MJ Abernathy was the third to garner a four-pitch walk to load the bases, before a wild pitch to Blackwell plated freshman Lily Pallante.
The final run for Tech came when Blackwell rolled over to first base, allowing utility bat, Charlotte Moore, to skirt the 60 feet home to cement the 13-run affair.
The Hokies will wrap up the regular season tomorrow, at noon ET, with their 53rd game of the season as Sunday’s conference slate will lock in the seeding for the ACC Tournament in Charlottesville.
As it stands, Tech is on the outside looking in at a first round bye at the fifth seed, with only the top four seeds getting a pass into Thursday’s action.
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