April 15, 2015
Perez clutch triple lifts Tech to victory
Senior drives in all six Hokie runs in 6-5 win at ETSU
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Virginia Tech (18-20) 001020102682
East Tennessee State (14-21) 010002110554
  • Thomas Stadium - 511

JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. – With two outs in the top of the ninth inning, Alex Perez laced a triple into the right-center field gap and drove in a pair of runs to put the Virginia Tech baseball team on top of East Tennessee State University 6-5. Sean Kennedy then finished off the game with a scoreless ninth and the Hokies ended a five-game losing streak with the victory.

For Perez, the triple capped off an incredible evening for the senior, who plated all six of Tech’s runs, a career high, and became the first Hokie with six RBIs in a single game since Chad Pinder (May 22, 2013) had six against Virginia in the ACC tournament game in Durham. He also pushed his career RBI total over 100 in the contest.

The triple was the seventh of the season for Perez, who is now tied for second all-time in a single season with Shaun Thomas (1990) and just two behind Kevin Barker (1996). It was also the 14th triple of his career, tied for second all-time with David Dallas (1989-92) and Austin Wates (2008-10) and three behind Barker (1994-96) for the most all-time at the school.

And, Perez also extended his career long hitting and reached base streak to 16 straight games.

ETSU (14-20) put the first run on the board in the second as Zach Thompson doubled to lead off the frame and moved to third on a sacrifice by Danny Carrier. Christian Bailey then grounded to third allowing Thompson to score.

The Hokies answered back in the third with an unearned run. Logan Bible reached on a fielding error by Carrier and raced to third on Rahiem Cooper’s single to right. Perez then drove Bible home with a sacrifice fly to left.

Two more unearned runs crossed the plate in the fifth as Tech took a 3-1 lead. Ryan Tufts led off the inning by reaching base on another Carrier error, and then took second when Bible drew a walk. The pair used a double steal to get into scoring position and both scored on a Perez single.

After the Buccaneers tied the game with two unearned runs in the sixth, Perez again put the Hokies into the lead with an RBI single that scored Cooper, who hit a one-out double to get on base.

But ETSU scored single runs in the seventh and eighth frames to turn a one-run deficit into a one-run lead before Perez did it once again with his heroics in the ninth.

Kennedy improved to 2-4 with the win out of the pen. He tossed two innings and struck out one. Packy Naughton got the start for the Hokies and threw a career-high 6.1 innings and struck out a career-high six batters. He was tagged for four runs, two earned. ETSU’s Jimmy Nesselt was saddled with the loss and is now 4-4.

Tech now returns home and will welcome North Carolina to English Field for its ACC series this weekend, starting on Friday at 5:30 p.m.

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