Collegiate Times

Virginia Tech's Jesse Hahn (#21), P, pitching for the Hokies against Wake Forest, VT vs. Wake Forest, March 27, 2010, Blacksburg, Virginia

The Virginia Tech baseball team defended English Field this weekend, taking two of three games from the Wake Forest Demon Deacons as the Hokies dive into the bulk of their ACC schedule.

On Friday, junior pitcher Justin Wright led the Hokies to a 7-0 victory, tossing a complete game shutout and fanning six batters en route to an easy win.

Wright allowed just four hits over the course of the game. The win brings Wright’s season record to 3-3 as he continues to be one of Tech’s most steady presences on the mound.

At the plate, both left fielder Buddy Sosnoskie and shortstop Tony Balisteri homered. The two-run shot that Balisteri lifted in the sixth inning was his first of the season, and pushed Tech’s lead to 6-0. Sosnoskie connected for his fourth home run of the year to close out the Hokies’ scoring in the eighth inning.

With threat of rain on Sunday evening, the Hokies hosted a doubleheader on Saturday to make sure all three games of the series could be played.

In game one of the doubleheader, Wake Forest looked like a different team than the one the Hokies had seen Friday.

Responding to the previous night’s shutout, the Demon Deacons came out swinging, scoring in the first inning on an RBI single from catcher Mike Murray.

While Tech starting pitcher Jesse Hahn was able to hold Wake from scoring again until the fourth inning, the Hokies found no answer on the offensive end to compete through the ninth.

As a team, the Hokies finished the first of two games with just five hits and left all five of those batters on base.

Runs in the fourth, seventh, eighth and ninth sealed the game for the Deacons, giving Wake Forest a 5-0 victory and the shutout-Hokies a taste of their own medicine.

Wake’s third baseman Carlos Lopez led all hitters with four hits in game one, including a solo homer in the fourth, his third on the year.

Deacons’ pitcher Tim Cooney tossed eight innings of five-hit ball, picking up his team-best third win in the season.

At the plate, Hokies’ centerfielder Sean Ryan was the team’s lone bright spot in game one, accounting for two of the team’s five hits.

In the day’s second game, however, Tech ousted Wake in what was very much a pitcher’s duel between Tech sophomore Matthew Price and Wake sophomore Austin Stadler.

Price struck out a career-high of 10 Wake Forest batters in the second game Saturday, and every one was needed for the Hokies.

After its seven-run explosion the night before, Tech’s offense was sluggish Saturday, posting only two runs in 17 innings.

After giving up an RBI single to Wake’s Mark Rhine in the third inning of game two, knotting the score at 1-1, Price tossed six innings of scoreless baseball to pick up his third win of the season.

The Hokies peppered 10 hits off Stadler, but only could muster two runs off the sophomore. In the second inning, left fielder Steve Domecus scored off third baseman Ronnie Shaban’s single and in the fourth, Tech’s Austin Wates put the Hokies’ second run and eventual winning run on the board, scoring off a Sosnoskie single.

The series win improves the Hokies’ record to 16-9 overall on the season with a 4-5 mark in ACC play, as the Demon Deacons fall to 8-17 and just 2-7 in the conference.

The Hokies take to English Field again Tuesday, where they will host No. 29 VMI at 5:30 p.m.

A version of this article appeared in the Mar 30 issue of the Collegiate Times.