In one of the biggest conference series in recent years, No. 12 Virginia Tech hosts No. 16 Stanford this weekend at Tech Softball Park. This will be the first time the two schools have met on the softball diamond.
The Cardinal ventures to Blacksburg with a record of 24-3 (8-1 ACC) and is riding a 12-game winning streak. It has swept ACC foes Syracuse and Notre Dame while winning two out of three at Georgia Tech. It outscored the Irish 29-9 in the series held in South Bend last weekend and then defeated SEC foe Kentucky 9-1 on Tuesday night. Also among Stanford’s wins this season was a 9-5 win over No. 1 Texas on February 21.
The Hokies, who were off this past weekend, are 25-5 (5-1 ACC). They are on a six-game winning streak of their own and have blasted 17 home runs in those six games, moving their yearly total to 55, good for fifth in the nation.
Here’s the schedule for this weekend. Saturday’s game will be shown on the ACC Network while the other two games will appear on ACC Network Extra.
Friday, March 28: 6 p.m. ET, ACCNX
Saturday, March 29: 4 p.m. ET, ACCN
Sunday, March 30: Noon ET, ACCNX
Stanford went 50-17 last season and made it to the College World Series, where it was eliminated by Texas (4-0 and 1-0). That was its second consecutive trip to the WCWS, a first in program history.
However, USA Softball Player of the Year NiJaree Canady transferred to Texas Tech during the offseason after signing an NIL deal worth more than $1 million. That meant some major adjustments for Stanford head coach Jessica Allister, who is in her eighth season as the head coach on “The Farm.”
Stanford uses a three-pitcher rotation in the circle with senior right-hander Kylie Chung and freshman left-hander Zoe Prystajko getting most of the starts. In its three ACC series, Chung started Game 1 while Houston started Game 2 in two of them. However, the Cardinal will often use all three pitchers during a game.
Statistically, the Hokies have a slight edge in the circle, specifically in ERA (2.22 vs. 2.71) and strikeouts per seven innings (8.58 vs. 6.44).
Stanford returned a majority of its offensive production from last season’s team, including 81 percent of its hits and 77 percent of its RBI and total bases. It started this season on a 10-game winning streak, run-ruling eight of those opponents.
The Cardinal is one of the best hitting teams in the nation. It currently ranks second in the country in slugging percentage (.657) and fourth in batting average (.367). It’s averaging 7.9 runs per game, which ranks tenth nationally. For comparison, the Hokies average 6.8 runs per game while hitting .328.
A pair of 2024 All-Pac-12 First Team selections lead Stanford in hitting: juniors Emily Jones (.466 average, 5 HRs) and River Mahler (.424 average, 5 HRs). Jones is currently third in the ACC in batting average while Mahler is sixth. Those two typically bat second and third in the Cardinal lineup while fellow junior Taryn Kern leads off.
Kern has drawn 20 walks this season, good for fifth in the league in on-base percentage. However, Kern can also hit the long ball — she is tied with freshman Joie Economides for the team lead in home runs with eight.
Eight of Stanford’s regular starters are hitting .325 or better.
Defensively, the Hokies appear to have a slight advantage. They’re second nationally with a fielding percentage of 0.983 and have only committed 13 errors in 30 games. Stanford has a fielding percentage of 0.969, which is ninth in the ACC. It has 21 errors in 27 games, led by Mahler at shortstop with seven.
All three of Stanford’s losses were to teams in the top 26 of the RPI. The Cardinal lost twice at No. 10 Arizona (4-1 and 10-2) and once at Georgia Tech (5-4) after an obstruction call changed the momentum of the game.
“This will be an exciting matchup this weekend,” Virginia Tech head coach Pete D’Amour told Tech Sideline. “Stanford is a well-coached team and is playing with a lot of confidence. We came back from break with an intense full day of practice and our players are physically and mentally refreshed after having the weekend off. We’ll have a couple more days of practice and we’ll be prepared by Friday.”
Here is the tale of the tape:
