After four solid weeks to start the year, No. 18 Virginia Tech (17-4) opens ACC play this weekend at Tech Softball Park with a three-game series against No. 23 Virginia (16-5). All three games will be televised on ACC Network Extra.
Friday, March 7: 6 p.m. ET
Saturday, March 8: 2 p.m. ET
Sunday, March 9: Noon ET
Although the Hokies and Cavaliers have clashed 78 times on the softball diamond — Tech leads the series 54-24 — this will be the first time the teams have met when both are ranked. The Hokies have won 18 of the last 20 contests, but the two UVa wins came in the last two years.
The Cavaliers opened the season with a pair of heartbreaking losses to South Carolina. They led 6-2 in the season opener entering the bottom of the seventh only to see the Gamecocks score five runs to register a 7-6 win. The following day, they led 4-1 entering the bottom of the sixth before losing 5-4.
The next weekend, UVa participated in the Clearwater Invitational and dropped games to Auburn (7-6), Texas A&M (4-3) and San Diego State (6-2) before shocking No. 4 UCLA 7-6 with a walk-off, two-run home run by M.C. Eaton.
The UCLA win seemed to energize the Cavaliers as they won their next 11 games. However, all of those were played in Charlottesville and the average RPI of those opponents is 208.
“[UVa head coach Joanna Hardin] is doing a good job,” Tech head coach Pete D’Amour said on his podcast this week. “She’s got pitching. Her offense is clicking right now — they’re scoring a bunch of runs. They’ll have a lot of confidence coming in. They’ve had some big wins already. We have to be ready.”
In an interesting stat, Virginia leads the country in triples with 19. Junior Jade Hilton and senior Kailyn Jones each have five. Hilton is tied for the team lead in home runs with M.C. Eaton with five.
Meanwhile, the Hokies have won five of their last six games and have wins this season over three ranked teams: Northwestern, Alabama and Liberty. They’re averaging 6.8 runs per game while limiting opponents to 2.1.
Senior Cori McMillan is among the ACC leaders in batting average (.458), slugging percentage (.915) and on-base percentage (.568) while senior Bre Peck leads the conference in home runs (8) and is third in runs batted in (30).
“I feel like we’re in a good spot right now,” D’Amour said. “But we haven’t peaked.”
Hardin settled on her starting lineup early. Nine players have started 18 or more games, seven of them juniors or seniors, along with two sophomores. Meanwhile D’Amour has experimented with various combinations that have included freshmen Jordan Lynch and Jayden Jones. Eleven players have started 10-plus games.
Both teams had two players named to the preseason All-ACC teams: Hylton and pitcher Eden Bigham for Virginia; McMillan and pitcher Emma Lemley for Virginia Tech. As expected, they’ve all played key roles for their respective teams this season.
Here’s a hitting comparison of the potential starters:
In the circle, UVa appears to have more depth than years past with its 21 starts being spread among all four pitchers. Bigham and fifth-year senior Savanah Henley have both appeared in 12 games, and Bigham threw a five-inning perfect game against Hofstra in her last outing on March 1.
For the Hokies, Emma Lemley has taken on the workhorse role with nine starts and 55 innings pitched. She threw back-to-back perfect games earlier this season and a no-hitter versus Liberty on February 26. The veteran leads the ACC in strikeouts (82) and opposing batting average (.153).
Here are the pitcher stats for the two teams:
Virginia Tech currently leads the ACC in fielding percentage at .978 and has committed the fewest errors (11).
Here is the tale of the tape:
