BLACKSBURG - Virginia Tech (24-10, 11-7) took down Radford (10-23, 3-9) in a midweek matchup 7-1.
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After being victimized by Georgia Tech over the weekend, the Hokie bullpen came alive on Tuesday to hold the Highlanders scoreless until the last inning.
Freshman Madden Clement started his second game this season and threw two innings, striking out two batters. “I think eventually [Clement] should be able to be a weekend type arm or a weekend starter. He’s coming along, it’s hard for a freshman to start on the weekend, it’s hard to be a [Brett] Renfrow or a Drew Hackenberg,” said head coach John Szefc.
Brady Kirtner, who was credited with Tuesday’s win, came in to relieve Clement on the mound. Kirtner struggled against Georgia Tech on Sunday, allowing four runs and two walks from the six batters he faced. However, the Christiansburg native righted himself on Tuesday, throwing one full inning and striking out two Radford bats.
Offensively, Tech got off to a strong start. Christian Martin, who returned to his leadoff hitter position after some lineup changes, put the Hokies on the board in the bottom of the first to grab an early lead. Carson DeMartini and Chris Cannizarro also scored in the third to help secure a comfortable three-run lead over the Highlanders.“If we’re going to be really good, then we’re going to need guys like Martin, Ben Watson, DeMartini, and Cannizarro to be at their best. So, we can juggle [the lineups] around a little bit and get them comfortable, but at the end of it all, we’re going to sink or swim with our best players,” Szefc said.
The bats came alive in the fifth inning, with Cannizarro hammering one home to left center, allowing Watson to score, quickly followed up by a home run from Henry Cooke to effectively double Tech’s lead over Radford. Heading into the final inning, the Hokies had seven runs on the board, and it looked like they were going to record their second shutout of the season, their first since opening day, but Zack Whitacare slammed one down center field to bin Radford’s goose-egg. While the Hokie faithful are relieved to be back in the win column, Tech has a tough weekend ahead of them as they face No. 7 Duke (27-10, 11-7).
“We’ll make some adjustments going into this weekend so that hopefully we will match up better. Georgia Tech gave us a bit more information, that being the sixth ACC weekend. You try to gather information as you go through these weekends and make the best decisions that you can moving forward. We’ll make a lot of those decisions tomorrow based on what we saw last weekend and tonight,” Szefc said.
Tech will kick off its seventh ACC weekend with Duke at English Field Friday at 7 p.m. ET.
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