Softball seasons are long and grueling.
They begin in mid-January with preseason practices and every team is filled with hope. Every coach says they feel great about their roster and inspires optimism in their respective fan bases. Then comes non-conference play in February, followed by two months of conference series. The best teams qualify for the NCAA Tournament in mid-May and the best of the best advance to the Women’s College World Series in June.
The season is a full-on sprint, involving four or five games each week. Suddenly, it just ends.
Virginia Tech’s season came to a close on Sunday with a 7-2 loss to No. 16 LSU in the Baton Rouge Regional. It ended the same way the Hokies’ seasons have ended for the last four years — in a regional on the road. A season of hope — one that peaked with a No. 10 ranking in April, filled with optimism in the entire lineup and pitching staff — ended in an instant.
The Hokies (48-12) had chances against the Tigers (40-17), but couldn’t convert enough to advance to the Tuscaloosa Super Regional and a three-game set against No. 1 Alabama.
“You see the box score [that reads] 7-2,” Virginia Tech head coach Pete D’Amour said. “I see it more as certain plays in the game.”
LSU arm Paytn Monticelli allowed five hits and two runs — though only one was earned — through her complete-game effort. Generally the Tigers’ No. 3 option, she carved through Virginia Tech’s lineup, retiring the last 16 batters she faced while her offense obtained runs.
“[She was] mixing speeds,” D’Amour said. “Didn’t throw too much over the plate. I think we got a little bit too aggressive at the end, trying to get a five-run homer — but I’d rather have our kids be more aggressive than passive, so I can’t knock our kids for that.”
Tech’s only runs came in the first and second frames, a continuation of its six-run seventh inning to keep the team’s season alive against Akron the night before. Tech center fielder Addison Foster doubled down the left-field line to lead off the bottom of the first inning. Then, third baseman Jordan Lynch scored Foster with a single.
The next inning, Foster dribbled a ground ball to second base, then beat the throw to first. Hokies shortstop Annika Rohs — running with two outs no matter what — sprinted from second base to home plate, sliding in headfirst ahead of an underhand throw from Tigers first baseman Tori Edwards. Virginia Tech led 2-0.
After Foster’s single, 16 more Virginia Tech hitters stepped up to the plate before the end of the game. None of them reached base.
“I think we definitely put off the swings we wanted to,” Hokies first baseman Michelle Chatfield said. “To start, we hit a lot of hard balls right at people. … Everyone knows the wind here is tough. … But that’s just how the ball rolls, and I think we put some good swings off to start.”
Hokies catcher Kylie Aldridge slammed a deep fly ball to right field in the first inning, but it stayed within the deep confines of Tiger Park. In the fifth, LSU right fielder Alix Franklin reached up and robbed what would've been a home run for Foster. All in all, Tech flew out 15 times and struck out just twice.
“I’m not using wind as an excuse,” D’Amour said. “I mean, [LSU] played in it, too. But if [Aldridge’s knock] gets you two runs on the board … Addy smoked one. It was a closer game than what the box score indicates.”
Bree Carrico started the game in the circle — as Virginia Tech’s only regularly utilized pitcher to not face LSU during its 8-0 loss on Saturday — and the redshirt freshman sustained just her second loss of the season. The ACC Freshman of the Year surrendered eight hits, four runs and a walk in 2 ⅔ innings. She finished her first collegiate season with 15 wins and a 1.88 earned run average.
“I’m not really convinced she was 100 percent,” D’Amour said, a week after Carrico left Tech’s ACC Tournament semifinal win over Duke with forearm tightness. “She’s not going to use that as an excuse. But she went out there and gave us what she had.”
Carrico escaped the first two innings unscathed, then LSU center fielder Jalia Lassiter smacked a deep homer to lead off the top of the third. It traveled 241 feet through the wind over the left-field fence. After that, Tigers catcher Maci Bergeron knocked a two-run single to give her team a 3-2 lead.
Finally, designated player Ally Hutchins perfectly blooped a fly ball into the triangle between Chatfield, second baseman Rachel Castine and right fielder Gaby Mizelle. Castine missed the ball; D’Amour said the wind may have factored into the miscue. Either way, another run scored, and Emma Mazzarone took Carrico’s place.
Mazzarone gave up another two runs in her two frames — and walked three batters in the process. With the lefty in the circle, Lassiter singled around another run and second baseman Sierra Daniel converted another run on an RBI fielder’s choice, making the score 6-2.
Avery Layton cleaned up the final 2 ⅓ innings and allowed another run. In the sixth, Franklin scored on a fielding error to grow the regional host’s advantage to five runs.
“Not the ideal game, obviously,” D’Amour said. “I felt like we were playing really well coming into this weekend and we just didn’t play as well as I thought we would, for whatever reason. But we always fought. Didn’t feel like we quit.”
Sunday marked the last time Aldridge, Castine, Sophie Kleiman, Cassie Grizzard and Bre Warren will don a Hokies uniform.
Aldridge finished her senior season with just five strikeouts in 168 at-bats, making her the toughest player in the ACC to strike out. Castine – as the team’s last holdover from the 2022 super regional squad — finished her fifth year with a .336 batting average and 15 home runs. Kleiman made 17 appearances in the circle and struck out 23 batters. Grizzard tossed one inning in Tech’s run-rule defeat of Bryant in March. Warren did not play after the NCAA denied her another year of eligibility and a judge ruled in the organization’s favor.
Aldridge completed her senior season as one of the most impactful players on the roster. She improved her batting average from .214 during her freshman year to a .363 clip as a senior. The Hope Mills, N.C., native finished with 11 home runs, 18 doubles and 50 RBI.
“I'm proud of the way I was able to grow from my freshman year to now,” said Aldridge, who graduated with a degree in public health and hopes to run a hospital in the future. “I didn't really have great offensive stats my freshman or really my sophomore year, just being able to really develop as a player on and off the field really helped me.”
“I think she’s a little bit too modest,” D’Amour said about Aldridge a few minutes later. “Halfway through her freshman year, she was struggling offensively — and then she just kind of took off. I don’t know what her average was her sophomore year, but it was better than the freshman year — and got better and better. Just a great kid. Great ambassador for our program. … Just a good player. Sad to see her go.”
Castine and Aldridge are Tech’s only two players who consistently saw playing time and exhausted their eligibility. The Hokies are set to return the vast majority of their offensive production, plus their main three contributors in the circle: Mazzarone, Carrico and Layton.
Carrico didn’t play as a true freshman; the coaching staff opted to redshirt her to give her more time to develop. Layton’s command and velocity touching 71 mph gave D’Amour the confidence to throw her into crucial postseason innings at the end of her first season in Blacksburg.
“I think the experience that [Carrico and Layton] threw or they had this weekend will just help them get better,” D’Amour said. “You know what's expected of you now.”
The returners understand the program’s expectations going into 2027. Looking back, you could argue the Hokies met — or exceeded — them in 2026; their 48 wins were the most D’Amour has had as a coach and the program’s highest total since its 2008 Women’s College World Series run. However, that doesn’t make Sunday’s loss — and the 11 before it — painless.
“If being part of this team means something to you, then this loss will sting,” D’Amour said. “But you look back and we always fought. We won a bunch of softball games. … It’s what it is. One team is going to be happy — whether it’s this weekend or next weekend or the World Series, there are going to be teams feeling just like we do.”
Even among the best teams in the country, most of them end their seasons with a loss. Only one team takes home a national championship trophy in Oklahoma City in June. Most others have their long and grueling seasons end abruptly, just like Virginia Tech’s did. That’s just how the ball rolls.
Box Score: No. 18 LSU 7, No. 14 Virginia Tech 2