No. 16 Hokies softball heads to the Bluegrass State this week for four games against teams from Kentucky.
Virginia Tech (19-5) travels to Lexington on Wednesday to face the Wildcats (16-6), who are No. 23 in the NFCA Coaches Poll, before continuing their travels for an ACC weekend series with Louisville (16-7). All four games will be televised on streaming services.
The week’s schedule:
Wednesday, March 12, at Kentucky: 5 p.m. ET, SECN+
Friday, March 14, at Louisville: 6 p.m. ET, ACCNX
Saturday, March 15, at Louisville: 1 p.m. ET, ACCNX
Sunday, March 16, at Louisville: Noon ET, ACCNX
Kentucky
The Wildcats, who were picked to finish 11th in the SEC preseason poll, made the NCAA Tournament last year for the 15th consecutive season but were eliminated by Michigan in the Oklahoma State regional.
Virginia Tech and Kentucky last met in the Blacksburg regional in 2022 when UK pushed VT into the loser’s bracket on Saturday before the Hokies swept the Wildcats 9-2 and 5-4 on Sunday to advance to the NCAA Super Regionals.
The Wildcats had to replace eight of their top nine hitters from last season. Sophomore Peyton Plotts, the only returning player who hit better than .300 last year, leads them this spring with a .389 average.
Kentucky rides a seven-game winning streak into Wednesday’s contest after sweeping SEC foe Missouri last weekend — 6-4, 5-4 and 9-6. Those were its three best wins of the season to date.
Half of the Wildcats’ losses have been to ranked foes: No. 8 Duke (6-3), No. 9 Oklahoma State (6-3) and No. 4 UCLA (3-1). Against ACC competition, Kentucky has wins over Pitt (7-0), Notre Dame (12-4), Clemson (7-6) and Georgia Tech (10-0 and 16-6) with losses to Virginia (4-1) and the top-10 Blue Devils.
Hitting stats for the Hokies and Wildcats are almost identical, from batting average (.321 vs. .323) and runs per game (6.6 vs. 6.8) to stolen bases (21 each). Tech has a slight advantage in ERA (2.42 vs. 2.78) and strikeouts per seven innings (8.70 vs. 5.23), but a more pronounced advantage in errors per game (.5 vs. 1.5).
Rachel Lawson is in her 18th season as Kentucky’s head coach. In February, she became the first coach in school history to surpass 400 wins. She has led the Wildcats to 15 consecutive NCAA bids, one of just 14 schools that can say that.
Louisville
The Cardinals opened ACC play last weekend by taking two of three games from Notre Dame, including a 4-3 win in Sunday’s finale that went 14 innings. They also own notable wins over Wisconsin (5-1), Michigan (5-3), Minnesota (2-1 and 5-1) and Rutgers (8-2).However, Louisville has not had great success against teams from the Commonwealth of Virginia this season. It dropped opening weekend games to Liberty (9-4) and Radford (3-1) before beating Longwood (8-0) on February 28th.
Louisville, who was picked 10th in the ACC preseason poll, made the NCAA Tournament 13 consecutive years between 2004 and 2016, but has only appeared twice since then. The Hokies are 19-8 all-time against the Cardinals and have won the last nine contests.
Louisville has a slight advantage in batting average (.327 vs. .321) but the Hokies have blasted 38 home runs compared to its nine. However, the Cardinals will keep VT catchers Zoe Yaeger and Kylie Aldridge on their toes as they have stolen 62 bases this season, the 10th-most in the country.
Here is a hitting comparison of the likely starters for each school:
In the circle, Louisville is led by junior Alyssa Zabala (6-2, 2.07 ERA), who has started 12 games this season and 62 in her career. However, the Cardinals will use multiple arms during the series. They only have one complete game all season with seven different pitchers having seen time.
Here is a comparison of the leading pitchers for each team:
Virginia Tech continues to lead the ACC in fielding percentage at .978 but Louisville is a close second at .976.
Here is the tale of the tape for the week:
