Virginia Tech bumped from ACC quarterfinals by No. 2 North Carolina

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Hammering three house runs throughout its quarterfinal sport on the 2026 ACC Baseball Championship, the seventh-seeded Virginia Tech baseball group gave second-seeded (No. 2) North Carolina a scare, regardless of exiting the event courtesy of its 10-4 defeat at Truist Field.

Ethan Gibson and Henry Cooke slugged back-to-back house runs in the course of the high of the third inning for the Hokies, who chased 2026 All-ACC First Team pitcher Jason DeCaro from the sport after three and one-third innings pitched. Ethan Ball led off the fifth inning with a solo house run – his third of the championship – tying this system file for probably the most house runs hit throughout a single ACC event week (Chad Pinder, 2013).

Virginia Tech (30-24) trailed, 5-4, on the sport’s halfway level and confronted a 6-4 deficit in the course of the eighth inning when North Carolina (44-10-1) iced the end result by plating 4 insurance coverage runs. Leadoff shortstop Jake Schaffner went 2-for-3 for the Tar Heels with a double, a triple and 4 RBIs – one among three multi-RBI producers within the UNC lineup together with Owen Hull (three) and Macon Winslow (two).

Right-handed starter Griffin Stieg matched DeCaro’s size at three and one-third innings pitched, holding North Carolina’s feisty offense to 3 hits, although issuing 5 walks (profession excessive). Stieg labored round back-to-back leadoff walks in the course of the backside of the primary inning to punch strikeouts of Hull and Erik Paulsen, stranding two Tar Heels in scoring place to delay the sport’s opening run.

However, UNC went to work once more in the course of the second inning, receiving a pair of two-out hits that put Steig and the Hokies behind, 2-0. With a runner on first base, Carter French shuttled a single to middle discipline earlier than Schaffner cut up the hole in left middle discipline for 3 bases, pocketing a two-RBI double as a consequence of a slight outfield bobble by Sam Gates.

Dialing up its energy, Virginia Tech answered with 5 hits in opposition to DeCaro in the course of the third inning, highlighted by Gibson and Cooke’s back-to-back jacks hit to left middle discipline – two house runs each estimated to have traveled 400 toes and past. Staking the 3-2 lead, the Hokies loaded the bases behind the fireworks and practically struck for an enormous inning when Gates barreled a fly ball into the best middle discipline alley, regardless of French chasing down the inning-ending out and preserving the one-run margin.

Stieg took Virginia Tech’s lead into the fourth inning the place North Carolina spurred the bases-loaded rally that in the end ended his outing. Two batters after Stieg had compelled within the tying run by hitting Schaffner, Hull related on the go-ahead, two-RBI single in opposition to Ethan Grim, taking pictures the Tar Heels out to the 5-3 lead.

Willing the Hokies again in the course of the high of the fifth inning, Ball unloaded a center-cut, leadoff house run to proper middle discipline, circling the bases to halve the deficit at 5-4. Pete Daniel furthered the inning in opposition to UNC reliever Caden Glauber by drawing a one-out stroll, by means of was unable to outlive the primary of two inning-ending double performs that have been turned by the Tar Heels down the stretch.

North Carolina regained its two-run lead in the course of the backside of the sixth inning on an RBI single by Gavin Gallaher – the lone run Grim allowed by means of three and two-thirds innings of aid. Grim completed with a three-up, three-down seventh inning, recording 4 strikeouts after his all-too transient begin on Wednesday in the course of the second spherical in opposition to Notre Dame.

Stymied on the plate by Glauber, Virginia Tech succumbed to the Tar Heels’ four-run rally in the course of the eighth inning that featured an RBI triple by Schaffner and a two-run homer by Winslow. With the safety of a 10-4 lead, Glauber blanked the Hokies in the course of the ninth inning to gather his ninth win of the season, posting six strikeouts by means of the sport’s last 5 and two-thirds innings pitched.

UP NEXT

Virginia Tech will flip its consideration to the 2026 NCAA Division I Baseball choice present, airing nationally (ESPN2) on Monday, May 25, at midday ET. The Hokies are eyeing their first NCAA event berth since 2022 after they championed the Blacksburg Regional, reaching the Super Regional spherical for the primary time spanning program historical past.