Three Takeaways From Virginia Tech's 2-1 Series Loss Vs Stanford

The Hokies were riding high as they entered the weekend after a 2-1 series win over Duke where Sam Grube hit a walk-off single to win the game-three rubber-match in extra-innings.

Things have changed after the weekend, where the Hokies dropped 2-1 in a home series against the Cardinal, including an extra-innings loss in the game-three rubber-match. The Hokies are sitting in a tough spot at 13-13 — here are three takeaways from the series loss.

No. 1: Virginia Tech needs to get healthy

While Virginia Tech's game-three loss cannot be blamed on the bullpen, part of the blame can be rested on Virginia Tech's health, espcially in the bullpen.

Coming into the season, the Hokies were already missing Madden Clement and Jacob Exum. They've seen the return of Jacob Exum in a very limited role, and are expecting Clement to return soon.

Peyton Smith and Josh Berzonski are also both missing some time because "Smith has something he's working with, and Berzonski got an MRI... he's kinda getting evaluated too," according to John Szefc.

While Berzonski and Smith are not top-end bullpen arms, the ability to have them eat up the 1.2 innings that Chase Swift threw on Saturday is the difference between Preston Crowl having to throw 2.2 innings on both Friday and Sunday.

No. 2: Preston Crowl and Chase Swift are elite bullpen arms:

Sticking with the bullpen, Preston Crowl and Chase Swift are a pair of elite arms. Over the weekend, those two combined for seven innings, where they surrendered four earned runs with six strikeouts.

If you give a pass on Preston Crowl's 2/3 of an inning in extra's during game three, that brings those two to 6.1 innings of work with just one earned run allowed with six strikeouts. You can't ignore parts of a performance typically, but Crowl was on his second outing of throwing at least 35 pitches that weekend. He did slow down a bit.

Crowl and Swift both had rough stretches of work towards the beginning of conference play, but they've turned it around in a big way to give Virginia Tech some stable bullpen support.

No. 3: Virginia Tech's has turned things around offensively

The Virginia Tech offense had a lot of struggles early on in the season, but they've found a way to score 6+ runs in seven of the last eight games. A lot of that is thanks to the huge step forward from Henry Cooke and Pete Daniel, who are both hitting over .310 in conference play.

Ethan Gibson and Hudson Lutterman have also taken big steps forward, with Lutterman hitting .318 and Ethan Gibson hitting .296, along with a slugging percentage of .593.

Virginia Tech has been searching for consistent hitters towards the back and middle of the order to support the early-season success from Sam Grube and Ethan Ball. With the recent hot-streaks, the Hokies have found just that.