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Syracuse entered its series against No. 15 Virginia Tech sat 12th in the Atlantic Coast Conference standings, two spots out of the ACC tournament. A series loss to Pitt and upcoming matchups against the Hokies and No. 16 Florida State seemed daunting.

But assistant coach Will Loredo begged an ever-important question to his squad.

“Why not us?” was his message ahead of SU’s most important series of the season.

The Orange were tasked with shutting down Virginia Tech, who boasted the third-best scoring offense in the nation and rode an 11-game win streak. SU also dropped five of its last six ACC contests, losing four by five or more runs. The Orange had not beaten a ranked team since 2022, dropping its last 16 against such opponents. But facing the Hokies, Syracuse rode two complete games by Lindsey Hendrix to a series win.

“It was more like a mindset and just a realization that we are good,” Laila Morales-Alves said. “And we do deserve to put up a fight.”

To start the weekend series, Syracuse struck first in game one. In the bottom of the second inning, Madison Knight gave SU an early 1-0 lead on a solo home run. But the story of the weekend was Hendrix. Other than a first-inning double by Bre Peck and a Cori McMillian home run, VT’s explosive offense went quiet.

Mixing speeds kept the Hokies off balance. Their five hits were tied for its second-lowest total of the year, and it was just the fifth time they were held under four runs in a game.

“My pitches this weekend, I thought they were spinning pretty well, especially my curve,” Hendrix said. “So I think with the movement, even if they touched it, they weren’t squaring it up fully.”

After McMillian’s blast in the top of the fourth, SU regained the lead. With runners on the corners and one out, Makenzie Foster grounded into a fielder’s choice. The Hokies retired the runner at second, but Foster beat out the throw to first, giving the Orange a 2-1 lead.

That was all Hendrix needed. She didn’t allow a runner in scoring position and shut out VT across the final three innings.

“I think we were just playing loose like we weren’t supposed to win,” Morales-Alves said. “But that just makes it more fun and more exciting.”

The win was rare considering SU’s previous performances against ranked opponents in 2024. During a three-game series against then-No. 7 Duke from March 2-3, the Orange were shut out in each game and totaled 24 strikeouts. But they only walked five, hit two batters and made three errors.

In its series against Clemson from April 6-7, the roles reversed. SU walked 15, hit six batters, and committed eight errors on the weekend. In both series, the Orange never even held a lead.

But against Virginia Tech, it was different. Syracuse played clean defense, while Hendrix and Knight limited the walks with just eight total.

Offensively, SU’s approach differed also. Despite striking out 23 times, Syracuse combatted that by drawing 13 walks, its most in an ACC series since drawing 17 in a four-game series against Pitt in March 2021. SU’s seven walks in game three of the series was its most in a game since Robert Morris in Feb. 2023.

“We didn’t really chase anything out of the zone primarily,” Knight said. “The majority of the time we swung at strikes, it was pitches we wanted to hit.”

Syracuse saw its most trouble in the second game, falling 7-3 after a four-run eighth inning from the Hokies. Despite VT’s big inning, it was the offense that came up short. In the seventh inning, Syracuse tied the game at 3-3 and still had the bases loaded with one out.

Angel Jasso, one of SU’s best hitters, stepped up with a chance to walk it off. But Jasso struck out, swinging through Lyndsey Grein’s riseball. Taylor Posner followed, but suffered the same fate as Jasso — one of 13 strikeouts from Syracuse. But in game three, its approach changed.

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“Going into the weekend, we knew they had a good pitching staff and our offense hasn’t been to the level we wanted,” Morales-Alves said. “So just really zoning in on the fact that, yeah, they’re good, but we could be better.”

Knight was patient in her first at-bat, pushing the count to 3-1. The ensuing pitch, she blasted her second home run of the weekend to put SU in front 2-0.

Another two-run inning in the fifth was kickstarted after Madelyn Lopez worked a full count. The lefty took the 3-2 offering from Grein and drilled it to the opposite field gap for a double, although Jasso followed with a strikeout.

The Orange extended their lead to 3-0, but Vanessa Flores wasn’t done. Finding herself ahead in the count 2-1, Flores attacked Grein’s 2-1 pitch, fouling it off. The next pitch was the same, followed by a ball. With runners on the corners, Grein couldn’t afford a walk. Grein’s pitch was down the middle and Flores didn’t miss, driving a ball into center field to make it 4-0.

The Orange forced Virginia Tech’s pitchers to throw 144 pitches, its most in a game since a 12-3 loss to then-No. 14 Georgia in the NCAA Regionals in 2023. Syracuse also drew seven walks while striking out six times.

VT struck back with two of its own in the sixth, but SU countered with two more. Hendrix shut the door on Virginia Tech and sealed the series win for the Orange. Not only was it the first top-15 series win in SU’s history, it slotted Syracuse into the last playoff spot heading into the final weekend of the regular season.

“We want to make it to the ACC tournament. The underclassmen and the juniors want the seniors’ season to extend, so I think it’s just playing for a reason bigger than yourself,” Knight said.

Published on April 30, 2024 at 9:19 pm

Contact Nick: nsjepson@syr.edu