Freiday, Jr. home run, career-high four RBI leads Tech to win

Hokies get back on track with 8-3 win over visiting Niagara

March 7, 2017

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Niagara (6-5)	0	0	2	0	0	0	1	0	0	3	2	0
Virginia Tech (9-5)	0	0	0	1	4	0	2	1	X	8	10	3
EF at Union Park - 78 Box Score

BLACKSBURG – Joe Freiday, Jr.’s hit his fourth home run of the season and drove in a total of four runs to help the Virginia Tech baseball team to an 8-3 victory of Niagara, Tuesday afternoon in nonconference action at English Field at Union Park.

Trailing 2-0, Freiday, Jr’s RBI single in the fourth put the Hokies on the board and his sacrifice fly in the fifth capped a four-run frame that gave Tech the lead at 5-2.

In the seventh, after Niagara had cut its deficit to a pair of runs, he notched his seventh career home run, a two-run shot, that gave the Hokies a couple of more insurance runs.

Connor Coward picked up the win on the mound for Tech after throwing 5.1 innings and striking out a season-high six batters. Paul Hall, Jr. helped eliminate a Purple Eagle scoring threat with a double-play ball in the sixth and Kit Scheetz tossed the final two frames scoreless, with three strikeouts, to end the game.

Inside the box score

• Nick Anderson: season-high four hits, third career game with at least four hits; 26th career multi-hit game, ninth of the season.
• Coward: improved to 2-0 on the season and is tied for second on the team with 15 strikeouts; also second on the team with a 2.00 ERA.
• Freiday, Jr.: home run, fourth of the season, seventh of his career; two hits, fifth multi-hit game of the season, 13th of his career; career-high four RBI, second multi-RBI game of the season, sixth of his career.
• Scheetz: 2.0 innings pitched, pushing career total at Tech to 199.1 innings; three strikeouts, 139 in his Hokie career.
• Tom Stoffel: two runs, third time this season, 10th time in his career with multi-run scoring game.

More Tech notes

• Turned two double plays in the game and has 19 for the season. The Hokies led the country in double plays turned entering the week.
• Improved to 4-1 all-time against Niagara, last facing the team in a four-game series back in 2011, and 7-2 at home on this date, March 7.
• Has hit 31 home runs this season, after hitting just 34 all of 2016 and 35 in 2015. The Hokies were first in the country entering the week in home runs.

Up next

• Tech heads out on the road for its next four games, traveling across the state to face William & Mary Wednesday night at 6 p.m. before opening ACC play at Duke this upcoming weekend.

For updates on Virginia Tech baseball, follow the Hokies on Twitter Follow @VT_Baseball