Sometimes, good high school pitchers can totally dominate their competition because they are so much better. As a point of reference, Avery Layton had 816 Ks in 370 innings in her career and Keely Rochard struck out 670 batters in 363 innings. Still, those are impressive number and it's exciting to have Angelina coming to Blacksburg next year.

. . . sail through the lineups. Sometimes that's fools gold because arm talent alone can dominate in high school and even most travel ball hitters. The problem comes when that pitcher hasn't developed much else besides her 65+ mph 'rise ball' that's really just high fast ball that high school hitters can't lay off of. They get to college and batters are just taking that pitch and, uh oh, there's no 'Plan B'. So they bring that pitch down and it starts being launched over the OF fence. Proper learning sequence: (1) fast ball to all four quadrants with absolute accuracy, (2) drop ball, (3) change off the drop, then (4) one more pitch. I don't care if you ever throw a rise. Drop ball misses are balls in the dirt. Rise ball misses sail over the fence. You can actually be a successful D1 P with just the first three if you can throw them for strikes when you wish.

I get your intent, and if you replaced D1 with P4, I mostly agree. There are plenty of effective pitchers in the MEAC who were very mediocre in HS/Travel. There's a ton of talent differentiation from the top of D1 to the bottom. Not that you have to be P4 for your statements to apply, as there are teams that sit solidly in the middle. Pitchers on teams that are at RPI 300+ might be nothing special at all. ** Edited by Hokie4Life_89 at 5/22/2026, 12:51:12 PM

. . . scholarships for pitchers than there are exceptional pitchers.

Tall athlete with the option to be a pitcher or hitter in college. Will be interesting to see how Pete decides to use her. ** Edited by Raleigh Hokie at 5/21/2026, 6:49:29 PM

BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM for pitching!

It's a bit dated, but it nicely details her commitment process: "Following her sophomore season, Eakman attracted the attention of some colleges, including Virginia Tech. “They saw me in Tennessee back in 2023 during a travel softball game. They were very interested in me. I went to a camp in August of 2024, and I just loved the coaches and the campus,” Eakman said. “They couldn’t reach out to me until Sept. 1 of last year because of an NCAA rule. So they reached out to me at 12:03 to set up a call for the next day at 12. I called with the head coach, we set up a visit, and I committed.” "Eakman said the coaching staff and the beautiful campus were enough to win her over."