February 23, 2016
Tech defeats ETSU for second straight shutout
Andrew McDonald picks up first career win in 11-0 victory
123456789RHE
East Tennessee State (1-2) 000000000055
Virginia Tech (2-2) 15002120X11142
  • English Field - 127

BLACKSBURG – For the second straight game, the Virginia Tech baseball team jumped out to an early lead and got strong starting pitching enabling the Hokies to defeat the visiting ETSU Buccaneers, 11-0, in the Hokies’ 2016 home opener at English Field, Tuesday afternoon. It was Tech’s second consecutive shutout – as the team beat The Citadel on Sunday, 12-0 – marking the first back-to-back shutouts since May 2012.

Andrew McDonald, who missed last season due to injury, earned the first win of his Tech career after a solid four innings of work. Chris Monaco (2.1/1K), Paul Hall, Jr. (0.2), Luis Collazo (0.2/1K), Cole Kragel (0.1) and Connor Coward (1.0/1K) combined in the shutout effort. For ETSU (1-2), Ryan Simpler lost his first game of the season after lasting just one-plus innings of work.

How the runs were scored

  • Tech (2-2) opened the scoring with an unearned run in the first with Grant Maiorana plating Saige Jenco on a sacrifice fly to right.
  • The Hokies increased their advantage to 6-0 after the first seven batters of the second inning reached base. Joe Freiday, Jr. started the rally with a RBI double, Jenco walked with the bases loaded, Maiorana plated a pair with a single and Tom Stoffel ended the frame with an RBI single.
  • Two more runs came across the plate in the fifth, thanks to a Matt Dauby double and a Ryan Tufts single, which brought in Max Ponzurick and Dauby.
  • Ponzurick made it 9-0 in the sixth with an RBI single scoring Stoffel.
  • In the seventh, the Hokies concluded their scoring with two more runs, with Tufts scoring on an error and Jenco coming home on a Phil Sciretta single.

Inside the Box

  • Jenco extended his reached-base streak to 24 straight games. He also tied a career high with three runs scored (last done March 12, 2014) and notched his 38th multi-hit game of his Tech career.
  • Maiorana knocked in his first collegiate run in the first and totaled three in all, and also had his first multi-hit game.
  • Sciretta knocked in a run to continue his RBI streak – at least one in all four games this season.
  • Ponzurick recorded his third career multi-hit game.
  • With two hits and two runs, Dauby now has nine career multi-hit games and six multi-run scoring games.
  • Tufts also had two hits and two runs, to give him 11 multi-hit games and seven multi-run scoring games.
  • McDonald last appeared in a game in April 22, 2014 and his last start was April 1, 2014 versus James Madison – an 11-5 win.

Additional Notes

  • With the win, Tech improves to 36-17 overall against ETSU, including a 22-7 advantage at home. It was also the sixth straight win for the Hokies in the series.
  • The Hokies are now 7-4 on this date in their history, ending a three-game losing skid.
  • Tech is now 7-3 in its last 10 home openers, while the Hokies improved to 20-3 overall in the month of February at home (91-49 overall).
  • The Hokies recorded just two shutouts all year during the 2015 season.
  • It’s early, but the Hokies’ bullpen currently has a 1.23 ERA and has allowed just two earned runs over 14.2 innings with 18 strikeouts.

Up next

The Hokies will travel to Norfolk, Virginia this weekend to play in the Old Dominion Baseball Tournament and will open with Delaware on Friday at Noon.

For updates on Virginia Tech baseball, follow the Hokies on Twitter

HokieSports Shop