“Preseason” is now over and things begin to get serious on Friday as No. 10 Virginia Tech (11-4) welcomes NC State to Tech Softball Park to open ACC play. Hokies head coach Pete D’Amour consistently said that his goal during the first three weeks of the season was to learn about his group and prepare for conference play, and he believes they did just that.
“We found out a lot about our team during these three weeks against some pretty good competition,” D’Amour told Tech Sideline after the Texas tournament.
The weekend schedule vs. NC State is below, although Friday looks a little questionable due to weather. All games are scheduled to be shown on ACC Network Extra.
Friday, March 3 , 6 p.m.
Saturday, March 4, 2 p.m.
Sunday, March 5, 12 p.m.
D’Amour and his team are happy to finally be playing at home.
“We’re excited to be heading into our first conference weekend,” D’Amour said on Tuesday. “We had a much needed off-day yesterday [Monday] and swung the bats well at practice today. I hope our fans can brave the weather and show up in full force this weekend. Our kids are looking forward to playing in front of a packed house.”
The Wolfpack had a rocky start to the 2023 season and heads to Blacksburg with a 5-10 record. It went 2-3 at its Wolfpack Classic this past weekend with two losses to JMU (5-1 and 14-11). It split a pair of games with ETSU (losing 5-0 and winning 8-2) and beat Penn (15-6), though. Earlier this season, it suffered four consecutive run-rule losses: Arizona (15-1 and 15-1), Kansas (12-4) and Iowa (11-2).
NC State, who was picked to finish 10th in the conference by the coaches, is currently last in the league in ERA (6.68), strikeouts (59 in 93 innings) and wild pitches (24). Opposing batters are hitting .359 against Pack hurlers with 15 home runs.
However, one of the bright spots for NC State has been the performance of freshman pitcher Madison Inscoe (4-2). The Chesapeake, Va. native leads the staff in starts with seven and in ERA (3.56), and she struck out 19 in 37.1 innings. Fellow freshman Rylee Wyman (0-6) has the second-most starts with five and struck out 18 batters in 27 innings.
Offensively, NC State is averaging 4.6 runs per game while hitting .253. Its four leading hitters are all new to the program: freshman Ellie Goins (.350), freshman Amanda Hasler (.323), sophomore transfer Hannah Goodwin (.318) and graduate student Rebecca Murray (.311).
The Wolfpack does not appear to be as deep as Virginia Tech as only 10 players have started four or more games. For comparison, Tech has 14. NC State is also relatively young as eight of its regular starters are either freshmen or transfers.
Head coach Jennifer Patrick-Swift is in her fifth year at NC State. From day one, she stressed the long ball.
“We have a home run mindset,” Patrick-Swift said in a 2018 interview with SiriusXM. “Offensively, every time our girls step into the box, it doesn’t matter the situation, it doesn’t matter the count, it doesn’t matter how many outs there are – our kids are trying to run it out of the yard.”
She had mixed results with that philosophy with an overall record of 114-91 (.556). By comparison, D’Amour was hired at Virginia Tech two days earlier (May 31, 2018) and has an overall record of 162-45 (.782).
The Hokies currently have a long ball mentality of their own and lead the country in home runs (27). They’re also second in home runs per game (1.80). 11 different players have blasted dingers with Addy Greene, Kelsey Bennett and Bre Peck leading the team with four each. Emma Ritter and Jayme Bailey are right behind them with three apiece. Freshman Emma Jackson got her first at bats in Texas and promptly joined the long ball party with two dingers in four games.
Virginia Tech is averaging almost six runs per game (5.9) and is hitting over .300 as a team (.303). Freshman Teagan Thrunk leads the Hokies in hitting at .406 while Ritter (.404) and Bailey (.386) are right behind her.
The Hokies ramped up their running game in Texas and have 14 stolen bags on the year to the Wolfpack’s seven. Defensively, the Hokies also seem to have an advantage, having committed only seven errors on the season compared to 21 for the Wolfpack.
In the circle, Emma Lemley (6-1, 2.33 ERA) and Lyndsey Grein (3-1, 3.67 ERA) have started 12 of the 15 games for Virginia Tech. They’ll most likely handle the pitching duties this weekend. As a whole, the staff ranks fifth in D-I in strikeout-to-walk ratio at 6.88 (110 strikeouts to just 16 walks).
Lemley was named the ACC Pitcher of the Week on Tuesday after going 2-0 in Texas, including an eight-inning win over the No. 9 Longhorns. She is currently second in the nation in strikeouts with 75 (in 48 innings).
“NC State will try to hit homers against us,” D’Amour said. “We’ll have to be sharp and make good pitches. Offensively, we need to control the strike zone and continue hitting balls hard.”
Here is the tale of the tape for the weekend:
Print
Mismatch much? All you need to know about the wuffies is contained in the paragraph summarizing the pitching stats. Patrick-Swift is likely trying to save her job this season. Doing so with two freshman pitchers will likely result in a change of address for this wife/husband coaching duo.
Great write-up, Chip!
Thank you. Much appreciated!
2023 record is wrong for NCSU
Fixed it!