Aaron McFarling

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BLACKSBURG -- You could call it almost perfect, but that would be a lie. It WAS perfect.

Even as the Miami left fielder leapt high above the left field wall and snatched a game-tying home run away from Virginia Tech, it was perfect.

The record will show that the first home athletic event played after the campus shootings ended with an 11-9 Hurricanes baseball victory. Many will talk about the home run that wasn't, how it was almost unfair for a storybook ending to get snatched away.

"It WAS unfair," said Tech senior shortstop Warren Schaeffer, who'd hit the 1-0 pitch over the 8-foot wall in left with two outs in the ninth, only to see it pulled back in by Nick Freitas to end the game. "That's exactly what that was."

He shook his head.

"On a night like this to end a game like that ..." he said.

But you know what Schaeffer was doing when he said all that? He was smiling. And that told you all you needed to know: Results don't matter now, but this game did.

"That was secondary, man," Schaeffer said, when asked about his grin. "You know, you gotta realize that. Even on an emotional ending like that, it doesn't even compare to the importance of this day."

A day full of tributes and donations and symbols and moments of silence ended with hustle and "pings!" and concession-stand lines that stretched from here to Roanoke.

It ended with Tech coming up just short and the fans cheering anyway.

It ended with Schaeffer's blast, Schaeffer's disappointment, Schaeffer's perspective and Schaeffer's smile.

And from start to finish, it was perfect.

n n n

The place smelled of popcorn and damp grass and ... sniff, sniff ... what's that last one?

Ah, yes. Dogs.

Lots and lots of dogs. Big ones. Little ones. Fluffy ones. Had to be at least a dozen of them at English Field.

And why not? They've been cooped up, too. You don't get walks when your owner's glued to the television set. And neither did the kids, who were out of school all week in Montgomery County by order of law enforcement and obviously eager to return to play, rolling down the hills and playing catch by the fence.

A record crowd turned out for this one -- 3,132 people, most of whom didn't have to change out of the maroon and orange clothes they wore to work. They spilled out of the modest grandstand and deep into the grass overlooking left field. They chanted. They groaned. They cheered.

"There's never anybody up there, usually," Schaeffer said. "But there were so many people there. And the cheers, you know? The 'Let's go, Hokies'? You never hear that. I'd never heard that once here. It was great."

n n n

The night's soundtrack included a lot of the old favorites -- "Brown Eyed Girl" by Van Morrison, "Wild Night" by John Mellencamp, "Don't Stop Believing" by Journey. There was even a rousing karaoke version of "Mr. Brightside" that came drifting over the left field wall, where a Relay for Life rally was taking place on the track.

There was also another noise, too. Something we haven't heard around here all week: Laughter.

It came from the hills to the left and the sidewalk to the right and the stands below, and it didn't really matter why people were laughing.

Just that they were.

n n n

Jim Weaver gets a lot of e-mails. The Virginia Tech athletic director could make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for his son in the privacy of his own home and still get second-guessing e-mails from alumni.

Just heard about your latest sandwich, Jim. Why Jiffy, Jim? Why so liberal with the jelly, Jim?

But when he announced on Tuesday that this game would go on as scheduled, he didn't get a single e-mail saying it was too soon. Perhaps even then, when the tragedy was still its most raw, folks knew there would be a need for something like this by the end of a brutal week.

Weaver and his staff did their best to consider everything, but there's no manual that tells you the proper amount of time to wait before resuming games after such a horrible tragedy.

"There's nothing that says it ought to be two days, three days, four days, 10 days," Weaver said. "You've just got to do what you think is right."

Someone asked him if this felt right.

Weaver looked around at all the fans, the line snaking far away from the concession stand, the little kids trotting around with their gloves.

"Yeah, it does," he said. "It really does."

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