Baseball Recap

The Virginia Tech baseball team won its home opener 8-2 over Albany with the help of pitcher Adam Redd who picked off four Great Dane runners in his three scoreless innings of work.

Redd fell one pickoff short of tying the Tech single game record of five held by Greg Margheim.

The Hokies tallied the first run of the game in the second inning when designated hitter Jose Cueto jacked a towering home run to center field.

Albany would respond in the next inning when an error by Hokie second baseman Matt Hacker resulted in two unearned runs for the Great Danes, giving them a 2 to 1 lead.

Albany’s lead, though, was short-lived as Virginia Tech answered right back in the bottom half of the inning with RBI singles from centerfielder Nate Parks and third baseman Bryan Thomas.

Tech first baseman Sean O’Brien broke the game wide open then in the fifth with a three-run double that Great Dane leftfielder Zac Halloran could not handle.  

The Hokies would add one more run in the sixth on a Parks’ double, and closed out the scoring in the eighth inning on a Thomas sacrifice fly.

Parks had a hand in five of Tech’s eight runs, scoring three and knocking in two more.

Pitchers Rhett Ballard and Randy Buffington combined with Adam Redd to throw six scoreless innings in relief of Tech starter Rob Whitley.  Redd notched his first victory of the season.

Virginia Tech improves to 3-2 overall with the win while Albany drops to 0-2.

The Hokies will travel to Charleston, S.C. this weekend to compete in the Citadel Tournament, before returning home to start a three game series with North Carolina A&T on Friday, March 2.