No. 17 Virginia Tech heads to Tuscaloosa, Ala., on Friday for the Easton Bama Bash.
The Hokies (8-2) join Drake (1-3), Southern Utah (2-7) and No. 21 Alabama (6-5) in the three-day affair. They’ll play two games each against the Thunderbirds and the Crimson Tide and will face the Bulldogs once. The two games vs. the hosts will be televised on SEC Network Plus.
Tech’s schedule is as follows:
The Hokies are looking to rebound from back-to-back losses against No. 5 LSU. They fell 7-2 on Saturday and 7-4 on Sunday, the latter of which was especially frustrating as three errors and a misjudged fly ball led to five Tigers runs.
Tech Sideline’s Carter Hill spoke with Tech head coach Pete D’Amour on his podcast this week. Click here to listen.
Alabama
The Crimson Tide has gotten off to a rocky start this season, losing games to No. 11 Arizona (9-1, 5 innings), San Diego State (4-1), Liberty (7-6), No. 4 UCLA (6-3), and No. 13 Oklahoma State (4-3).
Alabama went 39-20 last season and upset Tennessee in the super regionals behind the strong arm of Kayla Beaver to make it to the College World Series. However, it lost 10 seniors to graduation, including Beaver, and now has an uncharacteristic team ERA of 3.39.
Ole Miss transfer Catelyn Riley (4-1) leads the team in starts (seven), innings (32.2) and ERA (2.14). Sophomore Jocelyn Briski (1-4, 4.06 ERA), who was a preseason top-20 pitcher by D1 Softball, leads the team in strikeouts with 28 in 29 ⅓ innings. Senior transfer pitcher Emily Winstead (1-0, 2.90 ERA) has seen action in relief in five games and picked up the staff’s only save versus Jacksonville State. All of Alabama’s hurlers are right-handed.
Offensively, Alabama is led by freshman Audrey Vandagriff, a top-20 recruit by Extra Innings Softball. She paces the Tide in hitting (.516) and on-base percentage (.579) and is second in the country in stolen bases with 15 (in 16 attempts). She set a school single-game record with five stolen bases vs. Western Michigan and almost matched it with four against Ohio State.
As a team, the Tide has stolen 32 bases in 34 attempts, which will keep Hokies catchers Kylie Aldridge and Zoe Yaeger on their toes.
Junior outfielder Larissa Preuitt ranks second on the team in batting average (.438) and hits (14) and is 5-for-5 in stolen bases. Northern Iowa transfer Alexis Pupillo (.412) leads the team in RBI with 12 and senior second baseman Kali Heivilin (.321 average) leads the team in home runs with three.
Alabama is coached by Patrick Murphy, who is in his 27th season. Murphy, who spent two years as an assistant at Alabama before becoming the head coach in 1999, has taken the Crimson Tide to 25 NCAA Tournaments and 15 Women’s College World Series. He also led the program to a national title in 2012.
Drake
Virginia Tech will open the Bama Bash with a game vs. Drake from the Missouri Valley Conference. The Bulldogs, who were picked seventh in the preseason MVC poll, opened the season two weeks ago in Northern Illinois’ tournament. They went 1-3 in the event, which included a 4-3 win over Loyola Chicago, but dropped a pair of games to North Dakota (9-7, 6-4) and a single game to Omaha (7-1).Although Drake has five starters hitting .375 or better, the combined average of the remaining starters is .130 (7-for-54). It left a total of 23 runners on base in its three losses. Utility player Emma Dighton (.400 average, one home run this year) led the Bulldogs in hitting last season with a batting average of .344, ranked second in homers with five and third in RBI with 24. However, through the first four games this season, sophomore Frankie Rita leads the team in batting with a .462 average.
After four games, the Bulldogs have a team ERA of 3.23 with 17 strikeouts in 26 innings. Last season, Molly Hoekstra was the top arm for the Bulldogs and had topped statistical categories for wins (13), ERA (3.02) and strikeouts (78).
Lindsay Diehl enters her second year as the Head Coach of Drake after going 23-26 in her inaugural season. Diehl came to Drake from JUCO power Indian Hills Community College, where she had been since 2018. She amassed 186 wins an impressive .762 winning percentage while guiding the Warriors to four NJCAA Region 11 Championships, two district titles and a pair of World Series appearances.
Southern Utah
The Thunderbirds are the fourth team in the event. They’re 2-7 on the season with wins over Buffalo (10-7) and Oregon State (1-0). However, they surrendered 34 runs in two games against Oregon (five innings each), resulting in a current team ERA of 7.29.
Senior right-hander Keimon Winston threw a three-hit shutout versus Oregon State, striking out six. Her season ERA of 6.00 is hurt by surrendering nine runs in four innings to the Ducks and eight runs in 2 ⅔ innings to Kansas.
Southern Utah has only two hitters batting over .300: sophomore infielder Arianna Ramirez (.444 average, 7 RBI) and sophomore outfielder Taralyn Ollison (.359).
The Thunderbirds are coached by Don Don Williams, who is in her sixth season at the helm. Williams previously coached at North Idaho College. She recorded her 700th carer win in 2024.
Here is the tale of the tape:
