Fresh off one of its best weekends of the year, No. 11 Virginia Tech travels to Salem to participate in the Second Annual Hokie Invite Softball Classic. The City of Salem will be hosting the games at the Moyer Sports Complex from March 5-8.
The Hokie Invite has an impressive lineup of teams, with two from both the ACC and Big Ten, as well as two Virginia schools in Radford and James Madison, plus Bryant from the America East Conference. The games will be streamed on MuscoVision, a subscription service, and the Hokies’ games will have audio available via HokieSports.
“This is shaping up to be a high-quality event,” Hokies coach Pete D’Amour told Tech Sideline. “We’re looking forward to playing close to home in front of some Hokie fans that may not have the opportunity to see us all the time. The staff at Salem does as good of a job running events as anyone in the country, and the complex at Moyer is second to none. It’s looking like the weather should be awesome, and we’re expecting big crowds. “
Here is the schedule for the event:
The Hokies are coming off one of their best weekends of the season in Auburn. In the five games that they played, they batted .421 as a team and outscored their opponents 49-14. Of their 61 hits, 31 went for extra bases (19 doubles, two triples and 10 home runs). All nine regulars in the lineup are hitting above .275.
Virginia Tech’s pitching staff also did its part last weekend, holding opponents to a .221 batting average and striking out 34. The Hokies have a 2.80 ERA and are averaging over a strikeout per inning.
Michigan (17-5)
Michigan will open the Hokie Invite with two Thursday games against Boston College and Virginia Tech. The Wolverines will conclude their week-long stay — 10 games in eight days — in the Commonwealth with a Friday morning contest vs. Bryant.Michigan flew to Charlottesville on Thursday and played five games in Virginia’s Party At Palmer tournament, going 3-2 with both losses to the Cavaliers (6-2, 5-4). Then it traveled to Lynchburg on Tuesday, where it run-ruled and no-hit Liberty (8-0). It made its way up to Harrisonburg after that and run-ruled James Madison (8-0) on Wednesday.
Four of the Wolverines’ five losses this season have come to ranked teams: No. 8 Florida (5-1), No. 21 Arizona State (8-0) and the two games to No. 20 UVa. Michigan also dropped a 10-9 game to Houston.
Michigan won the Big Ten Tournament last season for the second consecutive year, which punched its ticket to the NCAA Tournament. All three of its leading hitters from last season returned and have picked up where they left off.
Sophomore Lauren Putz paces the team in hitting (.474) and home runs (12), junior Jenissa Conway (.444) leads the way in hits (32), and senior Indiana Lanford (.435) has been batting leadoff over the last few games and has an on-base percentage of .581.
Conway, who head coach Bonnie Tholl called “the best athlete I’ve ever coached,” leads the country in triples with five.
Junior Erin Hoehn (3-2, 3.71 ERA), who has started 44 games the last two seasons, leads Michigan in starts (9) and has struck out 47 batters in 39 ⅔ innings. She shut out JMU on Wednesday night.
Sophomore Kat Meyers (5-1, 2.07 ERA) has started seven games, striking out 37 batters in 40 ⅔ innings, and junior Gabby Ellis (7-1, 1.94 ERA) has started four games. Meyers threw the five-inning no-hitter at Liberty on Tuesday.
Tholl is in Year 4 as the head coach at Michigan and is 125-69 (.644), which included a 43-18 mark two years ago.
Penn State (16-4)
Penn State was a last-minute addition to the Hokie Invite after field conditions and pending inclement weather forced the postponement of its own tournament in State College. The Nittany Lions come to Salem with an impressive 16-4 record, with all of their games being played on the road or at neutral sites. They are ranked No. 22 by Softball America this week and No. 24 by D1Softball.
Two of their losses came last weekend in Knoxville to No. 1 Tennessee (4-1, 3-1). The other two came to Auburn (4-3) and Incarnate Word (5-4). Their best wins have been over UCF (6-5) and Missouri (7-4).
Penn State set numerous offensive school records last season, including batting average (.329), home runs (74), runs (341) and total bases (770). Although three of the top-five hitters from last year graduated, talented freshmen Allison Oneacre (.424, 9 HRs), Kirsten Finarelli (.306) and Breanna Hanik (.286) have filled the void. This season, the Nittany Lions are hitting .313 as a team.
Penn State leads the Big Ten in ERA (1.98), opponents’ batting average (.191) and home runs allowed (6). It has a very balanced staff, with five different players throwing 23 innings or more.
Junior right-hander Bridget Nemeth missed last season with an undisclosed injury, but her rookie year was one of the most impressive in Penn State history. Nemeth was named Big Ten Freshman of the Year after a season that saw her appear in 40 games (25 starts, 17 complete games), go 23-8 with a 1.77 ERA and record 202 strikeouts in 210 innings.
Penn State is coached by Virginia Tech Sports Hall of Famer Clarisa Crowell, who was inducted in 2013. She was a four-year letter winner for the Hokies and a three-time all-conference performer — twice in the Atlantic 10 and once in the Big East.
Crowell hit .289 during her Tech career with 16 home runs and 35 doubles, while also going 65-25 in the circle with a 1.39 ERA and 475 strikeouts. She also threw four no-hitters, which ranks fifth on the school’s all-time list.
As a head coach, she is in her sixth season at Penn State and boasts a 146-123 (.543) record. She spent the previous eight years at Miami (OH) and compiled a record of 214-186-1 (.535).
James Madison (9-8)
James Madison, who was picked seventh in the Sun Belt preseason poll, ventures to Salem with a 9-8 record. However, four of those losses occurred in the Clearwater Invitational, where the Dukes dropped games to No. 1 Tennessee (11-0), No. 2 Texas Tech (5-0), No. 15 Texas A&M (11-0) and then-No. 23 Florida Atlantic (13-2). JMU also lost to North Carolina (11-3), East Carolina (6-4, 3-2) and Michigan (8-0).
James Madison is third in the Sun Belt in hitting (.325) and has six batters at .340 or better. Junior infielders Madison Edwards (.438) and Kendra Lewis (.435, 5 HRs) lead the Dukes in hitting, with graduate student Kylee Gleason (.407) close behind.
However, the Dukes have struggled in the circle. They have a team ERA of 5.37 and opposing batters are hitting .321 against them.
Junior Kirsten Fleet, who hails from Riner, leads the team in starts (7) and is 6-1 with a 4.54 ERA and 29 strikeouts in 41 ⅔ innings. Former Hokie Payton List, who led the team in ERA last season (3.07), has gotten off to a rocky start this year with an 0-5 record and a 7.71 ERA.
Loren LaPorte is in Year 9 at James Madison and is 265-130 (.671), highlighted by a 41-4 mark in 2021.
Radford (5-11)
After winning the Big South regular-season title last year, Radford has struggled in head coach Kevin Fagan’s second season. The Highlanders are 5-11 with two wins over UConn and one each against Central Arkansas, IU-Indy and Liberty.
Radford is only hitting .256 with an on-base percentage of.350. It is averaging 2.7 runs per game and has just two players hitting over .300 — Longwood transfer Grace Hogle (.429) and freshman Peyton Simmons (.420). It’s only smacked four home runs as a team, too.
In the circle, sophomore Dakota Redmon (3-5, 3.34 ERA) and freshman Morgan Cooper (2-4, 4.00 ERA) have each started seven games and have combined to throw over 80 percent of the innings. An unwanted stat: the Radford pitching staff has hit 17 batters this season.
Hokie fans will spot a couple of familiar faces in the Radford dugout. Assistant coaches Cam Fagan and Addy Greene are both in the top 10 in the Virginia Tech record book for batting average, home runs and runs scored. Fagan is also in the top 10 for hits and RBI, while Greene is there for slugging percentage.
Kevin Fagan went 30-26 (.536) last year in his first season at the helm.
Bryant (7-6)
Bryant arrives in Salem with a 7-6 record. The Bulldogs have not fared well against Power Four opponents, dropping two games to North Carolina (8-1, 20-0) and one to Texas Tech (12-0). They registered a total of nine hits in those three contests. Their best win this season was over Conference USA’s Delaware, which they beat 6-3.
Bryant lost five of its top six hitters from last year. Consequently, its offense has struggled this season. It’s currently hitting .220 as a team and has been held to three runs or fewer in nine of its 13 games.
Three new faces lead the Bulldogs in hitting this season: Monmouth transfer Gabriella Gesualdo (.344) and freshmen Alissa West (.333) and Teagan Thompson (.320).
Bryant returned four of its five pitchers from last year’s team. Although the current team ERA of 5.78 appears high, it is inflated by the 37 earned runs scored in 10 innings by Texas Tech and UNC. Without those numbers, the Bulldogs’ ERA is a more reasonable 3.70.
Head coach Bianka Bell is in her third season and owns a record of 63-55 (.533).
Boston College (7-12)
Although the Eagles don’t play the Hokies in Salem, we’re including them in this preview. Virginia Tech treks up to Massachusetts for a three-game road series from March 27-29.
The Eagles opened ACC play last week in Chapel Hill and then made the trip to Greensboro on Tuesday night to play North Carolina A&T, where they recorded an 11-2 run-rule win over the Aggies.
BC dropped two of its three games to UNC, but snapped the Tar Heels’ 17-game winning streak on Sunday with a 10-2 victory. It also led Carolina in the Friday night game, but allowed three runs in the bottom of the seventh and lost 10-9.
Boston College is hitting .296 as a team, led by sophomore Abby Ptak (.444). Freshman Kae DePerio has only started 11 games, but is hitting .571.
The Eagles have a team ERA of 4.60, with 79 strikeouts in 120 ⅓ innings. Junior Kelly Colleran (4.20 ERA) and sophomore Bailey Kendziorski (7.35 ERA) have gotten the majority of the starts.
Beth Krysiak is in her first season at Boston College after spending the last two years at Saint Francis (Pa.), where she went 67-40 (.626).
Here is the tale of the tape for the Hokie Invite:
