Wild pitches, errors derail Syracuse in 13-2 loss to Virginia Tech
Despite exiting the first inning with a two-run lead, SU used four pitchers over four innings, caused by three errors and three wild pitches. Keenan Sawada | Contributing Photographer
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Syracuse shot itself in the foot. Take it from head coach Shannon Doepking.
The Orange loaded the bases and went up 2-0 to open the game on which their Atlantic Coast Conference Tournament chances rested, Then they fully undid their efforts. No, really, take it from Doepking.
“Virginia Tech was Virginia Tech,” Doepking told CitrusTV. “A lot of freebies, a lot of miscues, When you shoot yourself in the foot against a team like that in compounds quickly.”
In a 13-2 mercy-ruling by No. 17 Virginia Tech (43-9, 17-6 ACC) Saturday, Syracuse (18-25, 4-17 ACC) struck first. But what followed was four innings that saw four separate pitchers, a revolving door caused by three errors and three wild pitches. Each miscue led directly to a Virginia Tech run or a score in the next at-bat. The tally of six combined errors and wild pitches was SU’s most of the season, tied with its two errors and four wild pitches against Winthrop on Feb. 8.
Virginia Tech entered the game leading the ACC in batting average (.359), slugging percentage (.647), hits (510) and runs batted in (394). Despite the numbers, Madison Knight’s frequent use of inside fastballs kept the Hokies at bay until the top of the third. VT caught on, and a three-run rally early in the inning prompted SU’s coaching staff to turn to Rose Cano and move Knight to first base.
Cano, who entered with two runners on, quickly allowed the Hokies to load the bases via a Michelle Chatfield single. But she made up for it by forcing Zoe Yaeger and Rachel Castine into consecutive flyouts. Then came the first error.
Gaby Mizelle whacked a hard grounder at second baseman Lauren Fox, who knelt to receive it. Instead, the ball hit her shin and bounced into the outfield, allowing both VT’s Kylie Aldridge and Chatfield to score. It put the Hokies up 5-2.
Fox’s second error came in quick succession with the team’s third. With Nora Abromovage on first, Aldridge pulled a ground ball into the gap between Fox and second base. Fox slid to reach the ball, but misplaced her glove, allowing it to slip under her and into the grass.
The blip put runners on the corners and set up SU’s third and final error, perhaps its most flagrant. Chatfield whizzed a line drive to SU shortstop Jadyn Burney, who snagged it with ease. She lobbed the ball to third baseman Kaylee Eubanks to prevent Abromovage from running home.
The throw was low. Eubanks dropped it. As she scrambled, she noticed that the runner on first led off. So she threw it to first to manufacture an out.
The throw sailed high and wide of Knight, giving Abromovage the green light to run home. But Cano wasn’t out of the woods yet. When Yaeger stepped up to bat next, Cano threw a pitch in the dirt that catcher Kiara Bellido couldn’t scoop up. Lily Pallante, pinch-running for Aldridge, took second. Yaeger singled to center field. Pallante was quick enough to make it home in time.
It was the third score in a six-run fourth inning that saw Cano get replaced by Jackie Pengel one at-bat after. The final run in the fourth followed a near-identical script.
Pengel immediately walked Mizelle, who was replaced at first by pinch-runner Lyla Blackwell. Pengel then whipped an errant pitch toward Emma Mazzarone. It hit the dirt about a yard left of the plate, bounced over Bellido’s glove and lodged itself in the back netting. Blackwell stole second.
Now in scoring position, when Mazzarone eventually singled to shallow left field, Blackwell was fast enough to make it home.
As Doepking said, the issues had compounded. After Pengel began the fifth inning with consecutive walks. Sydney Jackson got the nod to take the pitching circle. Jackson walked MJ Abernathy, which loaded the bases.
In similar fashion to Pengel’s wild pitch, Jackson’s throw hit the dirt and skipped over Bellido, wedging itself in the netting behind home plate. Free of any pressure, Pallante jogged in. The score on SU’s final wild pitch was more a whimper than a shout. It quietly upped Virginia Tech’s tally to 12, and silently begged the question of whether the game was ever competitive. Was the two-run first inning just a blip?
Doepking certainly has her answer.
“I don’t think it was competitive,” Doepking told CitrusTV. “I don’t think it was a great representation of what we want to be.”
