BLACKSBURG, Va. – Virginia Tech baseball coach Pete Hughes is in his second season after coaching at Boston College and growing up a lifelong Red Sox fan.
So, yesterday Hughes wasn’t surprised to get a text message from Red Sox manager Terry Francona.
“He said, ‘Good luck. Pound [Derek] Jeter inside and go at them,’ ” Hughes said of Francona’s message.
The Yankees’ involvement with Virginia Tech – a $1 million check to commemorate the campus shooting victims who died last April and yesterday’s visit – took some of the edge off Hughes’ view of Boston’s blood rivals.
“I grew up hating them,” Hughes said of the Yankees. “Now I look at them differently.”
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Hughes on former NC State standout Andrew Brackman, now a Yankees right-handed pitching prospect:
“We ran him out in the fourth [inning] last year, but I saw him the year before, and what a talent. He’s 6-11 with the arm slot and the velocity.”
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Pitching for Scranton/Wilkes-Barre against Toronto’s Triple-A team in Tampa yesterday, Mike Mussina went six innings, gave up three runs, seven hits, fanned two and didn’t walk a batter.
Mariano Rivera, working for Trenton (Double-A), went two innings and retired all six batters (four Ks.).
Hideki Matsui, left behind because the Yankees didn’t want to chance an injury to his surgically repaired right knee if the field was sloppy, went 1-for-4.
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Joe Girardi spent the early part of the game sitting in the stands with Virginia Tech football coach Frank Beamer.
Yankees return to Grapefruit League play tonight against the Pirates in Bradenton.