In a season in which it dominated its competition, Virginia Tech softball swept two games from Louisburg College on Friday, Oct. 28, 10-0 and 7-0, concluding fall ball.
The Louisburg games continued a trend by the Hokie hurlers, who have been in total shutdown mode during the fall, striking out 71 batters in 42 innings. A snapshot of the domination:
Freshman Lyndsey Grein: 8 innings, no runs, 2 hits, 15 strikeouts
Freshman Payton List: 6 innings, no runs, 2 hits, 7 strikeouts
Sophomore Emma Lemley: 10 perfect innings with 28 strikeouts (and two pop outs)
“Our pitching has been another highlight of our fall,” head coach Pete D’Amour told Tech Sideline. “All of our pitchers have improved. We have a lot of options going into the spring.”
Among those options is sophomore Bre Peck, who returned to the circle for the first time since high school and struck out 9 batters in 7 total innings. Redshirt sophomore Molly Jacobsen has pitched 11 innings in the fall games and fanned 12.
Of particular interest to Hokie fans is the elimination of Lemley’s illegal pitches. Not only has the sophomore been unhittable in the spring, but the issue seems to be totally in the past.
“Let’s put that to rest,” D’Amour said on the Hokie Sports Insider Podcast. “[Pitching coach] Doug [Gillis] and Emma have really worked hard and fixed it. … She’s throwing harder with better spin. … She’s at a different level this year.”
One of the biggest questions for this year’s squad is who will replace four-year starter Mackenzie Lawter behind the plate, but D’Amour doesn’t have any worries.
“We’ve been pleased with what we’ve seen behind the plate,” D’Amour said. “Kylie [Aldridge] and Rachel [Castine] have both had great falls on both sides of the field.”
Aldridge was 3-for-3 against Louisburg and hit her first collegiate home run. Castine, who is a sophomore, started four games for the Hokies last season at shortstop and designated player. The Chesapeake, Va. native hit her first collegiate home run in 2022 at Longwood.
The Virginia Tech offense clicked away in the fall ball games, scoring 61 runs in seven outings. Returning players Cameron Fagan, Emma Ritter, Jayme Bailey, Morgan Overaitis, Meredith Slaw, and Maija Louko all hit bombs while Kelsey Brown was 10-for-13 with five stolen bases.
The fall is a critical time for freshmen to get acclimated to the college game and Tech’s group seemed to do just that. Teagan Thrunk looked good in her first few games, going 3-for-5 with a HR before the flu bug sidelined her for the four final games. D’Amour told D1 Softball that she might start at shortstop this season.
Freshmen Trinity Martin led off the Tusculum game with a home run and List later homered in the second game. Emma Jackson was solid in the outfield and smacked a 2-RBI triple against Louisburg, and Megan Furr had a 2-run RBI against UVA-Wise. None of the newcomers were overwhelmed by the bright lights.
“Our freshmen acclimated well to what we do here,” D’Amour said. “Each of them has improved in their own specific ways.”
Overall, D’Amour was pleased with the fall season Virginia Tech put together.
“We’re better now than when we were at the end of August,” D’Amour said. “I don’t think we’re as good as we could be – we need to keep getting better. We need to keep working on swing changes and swinging harder over break. Now that team practice is over, the point of emphasis is on player development.
“We need to keep improving. We can’t say, ‘We had a good 45 days of team practice, we made Super Regionals last year, we’re good.’ These next few months will determine how good this team will be. Will we be training to compete or will we be training to win? Internal motivation will be especially important in the weeks ahead. I have a hunch we’ll continue to work hard.”
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Chip, thank you for the report. Your communication skills are very good.
Our softball program is very good. It is my main sport of interest at the school.
There needs to be improvements to our softball park, and hopefully the athletic department will take some action on that soon. TSP is not keeping up with the developments that are improving our softball program.
Name, Image, Likeness deals need to be in place for our players.
My contributions to the softball program will continue to be sent to you, and that will start again soon.
Let’s go Hokies!!!
Great article. Women’s softball or Wrestling seem to be VT’s only hope of a team NC. Went to my first ever Softball game in the regionals last season. Loved it. My wife wants to go now – as do our daughter and grand daughters!!!! Lot cheaper than football games – and less painful. :-):
Grein, List & Lemley threw 24 innings and K’ed 50 batters. That’s an avg of 2-plus per inning. Folks, there’s only 3 outs per inning (usually). Extrapolate that to a 7 inning game = 14 plus, Those are Rochard numbers!!!!! Yes, the competition was who it was but the speed was outstanding.
It’s hard not to be excited about the possibilities for this year.
Good to meet you tonight – keep up the great work.
Nice to meet you as well.
Thank you for the kind comments.
Well-written article (as usual!) Chip. Man, I can’t wait until the 2023 schedule is released and especially can’t wait for the season to start! In the meantime, rest up Chip!
Saw most of the Fallball Games but did not see Kelsey Bennett at shortstop. She appears on the website roster. Is she still a member of the team and just recovering from the injury she suffered in the Super Regional versus Florida?
Still recovering from her injury. She told me she will be fine for the spring.
Kinda thought they’d just have to wait for the summer to fix Emma’s foot drag, I mean I would think it would even make her a better pitcher having the weigh go through at the same level/controlled motion.
Bre Peck is pitching? Never quite sure of the substitution rules, but can she play outfield, pitch a couple outs, return to the outfield?
I’ll check the schedule to see if i can make it to a couple games
Try to make it to a game – you will not be disappointed.
In softball a starter can leave and reenter the game. So in your example, she could start out playing the field, enter to pitch and then return to her position.
More specifically, if she didn’t come out of the lineup she could pitch to every other batter or pitch every other inning. There’s no limit to how many times a pitching change can be made with players in the line-up. That said, it would be a rare circumstance where a position player would be also pitch at several different points in a single game.
No but the exageration makes the point well, thanks. I guess I should have said she can play third base, pitch a couple outs….. I’ll make it down to the ‘burg but love those few games in and around the DC area.
Sat next to Bre’s grandfather at a few games and he said Bre played almost every position (maybe all) in high school. She is a great athlete.