CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — Let’s get the clichés out of the way. No. 12 Virginia Tech defeated No. 21 Virginia 5-0 on Sunday at Palmer Park in a game of inches. The Hokies strung together good at-bats. They fought hard until the end. They took it one game at a time.
All of those sentences describe the game — but, for the sake of prose, here are another 961 words describing what happened.
First, the game of inches. Tech catcher Zoe Yaeger stepped to the plate with one out in the top of the third inning and the bases loaded. The junior dribbled a ground ball to Cavaliers pitcher Julia Cuozzo, whose throw to home plate for the attempted force out sailed barely away from catcher Reagan Hickey.
“I was actually sitting on changeup that at-bat,” Yaeger said. “And of course she throws me two hard inside pitches. The first one, I didn’t mean to swing — I swung. The second one, I was like, ‘All right, I gotta swing because I don’t want to be 0-2.’ So, luckily, she threw it away.”
If the ball went a couple inches closer to Hickey, Virginia (33-8, 10-7 ACC) would have escaped with the second out of the inning without a run scoring. Instead, center fielder Addison Foster and third baseman Jordan Lynch touched home plate. Virginia Tech (36-6, 11-4 ACC) had a 2-0 lead.
“Softball and baseball are just games of luck sometimes — and inches,” Yaeger said.
Next, the good at-bats. Right before Yaeger found success, Hokies left fielder Nora Abromavage mounted a 10-pitch plate appearance. She went ahead 2-0 in the count, then Virginia’s coaches visited Cuozzo in the circle.
Abromavage worked the count full, and remained in the box via four foul balls, before knocking a single through the left side. In a weekend where the Hokies failed to hit a home run, long, draining at-bats provided them chances to win when they failed to clear the fence.
Then, fighting hard until the end. Virginia Tech starter Emma Mazzarone tossed a valiant five innings of three-hit, shutout ball. She struck out seven batters and walked three.
After 94 pitches, redshirt freshman Bree Carrico took the circle, while fighting what Tech head coach Pete D’Amour called a stomach bug. Runners reached scoring position in both of her final two innings, but she struck out two batters in each frame to strand all of them.
“[Carrico] wants the ball,” D’Amour said. “If you can play against UVa, you get the ball and make pitches. She’s having a great year all year, and just continued it today.”
Finally, the old adage to take it one game at a time. The Hokies dropped the first game of the series on Friday, then fought back to win the series and the Commonwealth Clash. On Sunday, the Cavaliers faced two pitchers they had seen before in Mazzarone and Carrico — and Tech’s arms overpowered them.
“I thought we played well, but it was more of a continuation of playing well yesterday,” D’Amour said. “I told the team that Friday night was a tough loss, but how are we going to rebound on Saturday? And we responded well [on Saturday], and we responded well today.”
Tech’s other runs came in the third and fourth innings. With runners on second and third, designated player Kylie Aldridge bunted toward first base. Virginia first baseman Macee Eaton grabbed the ball and tagged Aldridge, but Abromavage scored for a 3-0 lead. One batter later, second baseman Rachel Castine brought around Yaeger with a single.
Finally, in the fourth, Yaeger grounded a hit to Cavaliers shortstop Jade Hylton with the bases loaded. Hylton picked up the ball and tossed to third base for an attempted forceout, but first baseman Michelle Chatfield beat the throw. Foster scored in the process.
On Sunday, the Hokies thrived against pitchers that limited them to just three hits on Friday. Cuozzo chucked the first 2 ⅓ innings and gave up three hits and four runs — though none of them were earned. Eden Bigham finished the final 4 ⅔ frames and surrendered one run and three hits of her own.
But more than anything else, Tech’s arms pinned Virginia whenever the home team threatened. The Cavaliers finished with a 1-for-14 rate with runners on scoring position, including 0-for-7 with runners on base. They stranded 10 runners — seven of which came with Mazzarone in the circle.
“[Mazzarone] just dials in [with runners on base], I guess,” D’Amour said. “Just keeps making pitches. We don’t think of runners on base or nobody on base. Just keep making pitches and reset — and she did well today.”
Virginia is likely the best team Virginia Tech will face through the rest of the regular season. Ahead of Sunday’s contest, the Cavaliers sat No. 21 in the RPI with the 65th strongest strength of schedule. The Hokies, on the other hand, were No. 19 with a strength of schedule ranked 74th. However, D’Amour said he and the rest of the team don’t look at the metrics.
“We looked at it a lot last year, and it didn’t really help,” D’Amour said. “So, we just gotta keep winning.”
In a conference with fewer opportunities to play high-ranked matchups than in the SEC, Tech needs to conduct itself well when it has the chance to play upper-echelon teams. Winning a series — on the road — against a team like Virginia will boost its case to be considered for a top-16 seed and host an NCAA Tournament regional.
Before then, though, the rest of the regular season awaits. In both of the last two years, Virginia Tech has played well enough against top-ranked teams to put itself in a strong position to host, only to stumble against lower-ranked teams.
Speaking of which, the Hokies will conclude their regular season schedule against Georgia Tech (which entered Sunday No. 48 in the RPI), North Carolina (No. 39) and Syracuse (No. 112). The first game against the Yellow Jackets will take place on Friday at 6 p.m. ET in Blacksburg, with a road midweek game against Liberty beforehand on Wednesday.
“It’s always good to win the Commonwealth Clash,” Yaeger said, “but we have bigger goals this year than winning that.”
Box Score: No. 12 Virginia Tech 5, No. 21 Virginia 0