It wasn’t domination, but No. 11 Virginia Tech swept Mount St. Mary’s on Tuesday night at Tech Softball Park by scores of 6-5 and 10-2 (five innings, run rule).
The Hokies (16-4, 3-0 ACC) trailed midway through both games, but responded with an offensive explosion that included five home runs, a triple and four doubles. As a result, they’re tied for first in the nation in home runs (38).
“I didn’t prepare the team well enough to play today,” Virginia Tech head coach Pete D’Amour told Tech Sideline afterwards. “For the first four innings of the first game, we were just ‘there.’ That falls on me. We’ll have to do better tomorrow, and definitely this weekend. We can’t just play average softball until a team scores on us and then turn it on. That is going to bite us eventually. I want to see us be the aggressor from the start of the game.”
In game one, freshman Lyndsey Grein had a solid performance in the circle, striking out 11. However, a pair of fifth inning walks followed by a home run gave the Mountaineers (3-9) a 3-1 lead before Emma Ritter and Madison Hanson blasted home runs to put the Hokies in front.
Errors on both sides led to additional runs for both teams, but the Hokies held on for the 6-5 win.
Game two saw D’Amour significantly juggle his lineup and rest Ritter, Cameron Fagan and Bre Peck while starting Molly Jacobson in the circle. Freshman Emma Jackson gave the Hokies an early 1-0 lead in the second inning with a home run. Since breaking into the starting lineup in Texas, Jackson has batted .412 (7-for-17), hit three home runs and driven in seven.
The Mountaineers tied the game in the third with the help of two VT errors. In the fourth, they looked ready to break the game open after taking a 2-1 lead and putting runners on second and third with no outs. D’Amour elected to bring in Emma Lemley and Tech’s ace responded, striking out the next three batters and retiring all six batters she faced.
In the bottom of the fourth, Jayme Bailey and Kylie Aldridge hit back-to-back bombs to give the Hokies a lead that they didn’t relinquish.
While Lemley continued her shut-down mode in the fifth inning, the Hokies ended the game in their half of the inning by scoring six runs to hit the run-rule margin. Back-to-back Mountaineer errors created base runners and Meredith Slaw slammed a double to left center to open the scoring. Singles by Jackson, Bailey and Rachel Castine scored four more runs before Kelsey Brown ended the contest with a walk-off single of her own.
In spite of its doubleheader loss, Mount St. Mary’s impressed D’Amour.
“I give props to Mount St. Mary’s for coming in and being ready to play,” D’Amour said. “You’re talking about a team that had a bus ride from Oxford, Mississippi to Blacksburg the last two days. Traveling like that takes a toll, and they weren’t fazed by it.”
The Hokies now take a bus trip of their own and travel to Boiling Springs, N.C. on Wednesday to play Gardner-Webb. After that, their journey continues to Chapel Hill for a weekend series with North Carolina.
Box Score: No. 11 Virginia Tech 6, Mount St. Mary’s 5
Box Score: No. 11 Virginia Tech 10, Mount St. Mary’s 2 (in five innings)