George Brett is a Major League Baseball legend. He spent 21 years on the Kansas City Royals and finished his career with a .305 batting average and 317 home runs — and he’s in the Hall of Fame because of it.
“I love when you go and speak someplace and they introduce you and they say, ‘He’s got 3,154 hits’ — and everybody goes, ‘Wow, that’s a lot,’” Brett said on a recent podcast. “And then my first line is, ‘I made over 7,000 outs. … So, let’s say I got 500 at-bats a year. That’s 14 seasons without a hit.”
The point is diamond sports are full of failure. It’s a cliché, but it’s true. Brett, one of the best hitters of all time, struck out 908 times in his career, averaging 54 punchouts per season. It’s how the game works.
That makes Kylie Aldridge’s 2026 season at Virginia Tech even more impressive. The senior designated player has walked away without putting the ball in play five times in 157 at-bats. That’s once every 31.4 at-bats. In the ACC, she trails just Louisville’s Chelsea Mack, who has struck out six times in 191 at-bats.
She credited her contact rate to growing up as a slapper. Slap hitting in softball is when hitters — often lefties — stand toward the back of the batter’s box, then shuffle toward the circle to build speed and hopefully beat a throw to first base. Aldridge started slapping when she was around 11 or 12 years old and, by her own admission, was not great at hitting right-handed. Her coaches moved her to the other side and taught her to start slapping.
Aldridge was still a slapper when Hokies head coach Pete D’Amour recruited her during her junior year at Gray’s Creek High School in Hope Mills, N.C.
“Coach Pete actually told me when I committed here, he was like, ‘All right, your slapping is good, but you’ve got to figure out how to hit, too,’” Aldridge told Tech Sideline.
Progressively, she found more success in hitting for power. Aldridge knocked five home runs in both her freshman and sophomore seasons, seven in her junior year and has 10 as a senior entering the NCAA Tournament. Plus, her 17 doubles in 2026 rank third on the team, trailing just Jordan Lynch and Addison Foster — both of whom have 18.
“I really think being a slapper has helped me become a better power hitter — because when you’re slapping, all you’re really trying to do is make contact with the ball,” Aldridge said. “I think that has allowed me to shorten up my stride sometimes, when I get two strikes or get something like that, and just be able to put the ball in play.”
Aldridge’s 10th blast of the season provided two much-needed insurance runs in the ACC Tournament semifinal against Duke on Friday. In the top of the seventh inning, she roped a line drive into Tech’s bullpen in right field, transitioning a three-run lead into the decisive 5-0 final score.
T7 | Career hit no. 150 & it's her 10th HR of the season. 🤯
Hokies 5, Blue Devils 0 pic.twitter.com/0cPew29IKu— Virginia Tech Softball (@HokiesSoftball) May 8, 2026
Virginia Tech lost in the ACC Tournament championship game to Florida State and will travel to Baton Rouge, La., for a regional at No. 16 LSU. Its first game will take place against South Alabama on Friday at 4 p.m. ET on ESPN+.
The stakes are higher now than they were when Aldridge began playing tee ball at 3 years old, but she is grateful for the pressure.
“My friend a few weeks back, she’s a student at NC State,” Aldridge said. “She texted me and was like, ‘I can’t believe you’re playing a silly little game that we would play when we were little kids. Isn’t that awesome?’ I shared that story with my teammates and were like, ‘We should be grateful for the opportunity to go out there and play — because my high school teammate that texted me definitely still wants to be out there on the field if she could.’ I think putting it in perspective. It’s still the silly little game of play catch that we were playing when we were little kids.”
Before Virginia Tech swept North Carolina, the team held a players-only meeting. The Hokies had lost three consecutive home games to Georgia Tech and Liberty, causing them to drop in the rankings. As a result, the team adopted a new tradition: before everyone steps up to the batter’s box, they must tell teammate MJ Abernathy why they are grateful.
“Find something small,” Aldridge said. “It could be as little as I’m grateful the sun is not in my eyes. I think one of mine this weekend was Jordan just got on and Addy got hit by a pitch, so they’re on base for me to go up there. I think it really makes me appreciate my teammates. Every little moment has really built up in these past four years.”
Zooming out with only a few collegiate softball games remaining, Aldridge focused on the people around her.
“I’m really grateful for the people that have poured into me for the past four years. Coach Pete, Coach Mike [Lewis], Coach Josh [Johnson], [Huemul Mata] and all of our support staff — they’ve really helped me grow from my freshman year to now,” Aldridge said. “I don’t think I would be able to be without them and my teammates. I mean, I came in with a whole bunch of the fifth-years — the Kelsey Bennett, the Jayme Bailey, the Kelsey Brown.
“I think getting to play with them my freshman year helped me mature a little bit faster and kind of figure it out. Also, they were there if I had a bad game or they were there if I had a bad series, and they really poured into me my freshman year.”
Once her softball career concludes, Aldridge hopes to utilize her public health degree to run a hospital. Last summer, she interned at Cape Fear Valley Medical Center near her hometown in North Carolina and enjoyed the experience.
Playing softball helps in that realm. Softball and working in public health require problem-solving and working well within groups.
“I think keeping my mind engaged really helps, and being able to go out and talk to people and ask for their opinions and then being able to take it back and figure out, OK, this is best for all of these people,” she said. “So, I definitely think softball has a lot to do with it — because I do like solving problems. I’ll come in on a Monday and be like, ‘OK, my swing is this, I need to put my bat up a little more and I’m good.’ Little things like that.”
Living in rural Southwestern Virginia also helps. Much of Virginia Tech’s public health curriculum connects back to Appalachia and other rural areas, which she can apply wherever she lives next.
“Being able to go into a rural area and help people there really does mean a lot to me, because a lot of our classes here at Virginia Tech with public health are about rural health in Appalachia,” Aldridge said. “I can go back home and definitely apply most of it there, too. Being able to help people and help underserved populations — and even helping my community back home — is something that I’m very passionate about.”
Before then, though, comes at least another weekend of softball. Aldridge is a key contributor on a team that has aspirations to qualify for the Women’s College World Series and beyond, and can credit her success to her growth.
“I put my head down and I worked my absolute butt off the past few years to try to get where I can be my senior year,” Aldridge said. “So, I’m the best version of myself now, especially compared to when I was a freshman or a sophomore.”