Virginia Tech’s All-American Keely Rochard did not pitch during Tuesday’s doubleheader at Longwood. Turns out, the Hokies didn’t need her.
Freshman Emma Lemley and sophomore Ivy Rosenberry shut down the Lancers on their own, throwing back-to-back no hitters to pace the No. 5 Hokies (23-3) to a doubleheader sweep (5-0 and 13-0) of Longwood. The two victories extended the Hokies current win streak to 12 games.
It was the first time in school history that VT pitchers threw back-to-back no hitters in a doubleheader.
Lemley (9-1, 1.24 ERA) wasted no time serving notice on the Lancers, striking out five of the first six hitters that she faced. She finished the day with 13 Ks, only walking two. A Longwood radar gun clocked many of her pitches in the upper 60s and she even hit 70 mph a few times.
When Lemley retired the last Longwood batter on a popup, the first Hokie out of the dugout to congratulate her was Rochard.
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Offensively, Tech started off slow in game one, but an RBI single by Emma Ritter and a bases loaded triple by Jayme Bailey provided all the run support that Lemley would need.
In game two, Rosenberry (1-0, 1.24 ERA) retired the first 10 batters she faced before giving up a walk, one of her two on the day. She totaled four strikeouts and needed only a total of 65 pitches to put the Lancers away. She also brought the heat, constantly throwing in the upper 60s and had several tosses at 72 mph.
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Once again, Rochard was one of the first Hokies out of the dugout, and she even added he own flavor on social media.
Although she wouldn’t need it, Rosenberry found herself with plenty of run support as the Hokies hammered out 15 hits and took advantage of five walks and two Lancer errors.
In the second inning, Morgan Overaitis started the scoring with an RBI single and Darby Trull drove in two runs with a double. That was all before Meredith Slaw capped it off the early scoring with a two-run blast over the center field fence.
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The Hokies would continue to their offensive onslaught throughout the game. Addy Greene had three hits and drove in two runs, Ritter was 3-for-3 with 2 RBIs, and Bre Peck was 2-for-2 with two runs. But production also came from some unlikely places.
Kaleigh Addington had a line drive single to center in her only at bat and freshman Rachel Castine blasted her first career home run, a three-run shot in the fifth.
As expected, head coach Pete D’Amour was pleased with his team’s effort.
“This was my first trip to Longwood,” D’Amour said afterwards. “It was an awesome atmosphere, the stands were packed and the hill in the outfield was covered with Hokie faithful.
“Longwood has beaten some good teams this year. Backstrom was one of the better pitchers we’ve seen all year. Our offense continues to hum along. Obviously, the story will be the back-to-back no-hitters. Emma and Ivy pounded the strike zone, and we made some good plays behind them on defense.”
The Hokies will travel to Pittsburgh (11-12, 1-5 ACC) this weekend for another conference series.
“Our team is extremely deep this season,” D’Amour said. “It was good to see a lot of our young ladies get into the games today and excel. They all work so hard and put their time in. We can only play nine players at a time, but we were able to get a lot of people in tonight.”