Special Bond Leads To Success In The Circle For Emma Lemley At Virginia Tech

Bryan Lemley has watched his daughter Emma pitch in approximately 1,000 softball games. But last Friday night, something unusual happened – she brought him to tears when she led Virginia Tech to a 6-5 victory in eight innings over No. 9 Texas.

It wasn’t that Emma Lemley necessarily had her best stuff – she actually surrendered two home runs and a double in the first three innings to put the Hokies in a 5-2 hole. But it was the way she battled back in the final five innings that made Bryan a proud father. Emma held the Longhorns to just two hits over the final five innings and struck out the final two batters with the tying run perched on third base. 

“I was just so very proud of her,” Bryan Lemley told Tech Sideline. “She had given up five runs, was on the edge of being pulled, but she turned it around, let her teammates help her, and took it to the next level. … It was the accumulation of all the hard work that she’s put in over the years.”

Bryan knows much about that hard work – he assisted Emma with her pitching mechanics since she was eight years old. Although he was a pitcher himself in high school – he threw “a lot of junk” – he didn’t know much about the mechanics of pitching a softball. Then, one day when Emma was eight, his wife, Ginny, called and told him that Emma’s coach had moved her from catcher to pitcher and she responded by promptly striking out the side. 

“It was just too hot being a catcher,” Emma laughingly recalled, “but I still wanted to touch the ball every play.”

Based on her pitching debut, Bryan correctly surmised that Emma had caught her last game. He and Emma started studying pitching videos from players such as Amanda Scarborough and Jenny Finch. “We learned how to pitch together,” Emma recalled.

Emma eventually attended one of Finch’s pitching camps – that’s where she decided that her uniform number would be 27 – and she has since met Scarborough since coming to Virginia Tech.

Bryan decided to go all in as Emma’s pitching coach and eventually purchased shin guards, a chest protector and a mask so he could catch her. Emma laughed when she remembered that he only got the mask after one of her errant pitches hit the plate and then hit him in the face. 

Even though she’s a sophomore with the Hokies, he still catches her today. And he joked that if he ever has to go to the “bucket” method of catching (sitting on a bucket while catching), he is going to officially retire.

A West Virginia alumnus, Bryan once told Emma that she could go to any college except Pittsburgh or Virginia Tech. An excellent basketball player in addition to softball, Emma actually considered going to West Virginia to pursue a hoops career.

However, fate had other ideas. “Against my will,” she said, a friend talked her into attending a softball camp at Virginia Tech. She got noticed in travel ball circles, too. By eighth grade, she had committed to Virginia Tech, coached at that time by Scot Thomas.

A change in NCAA recruiting rules (no contact by colleges until her junior year) as well a change in Virginia Tech coaches created a bit of uncertainty for three years, but as soon as NCAA rules permitted, new head coach Pete D’Amour confirmed Lemley’s scholarship offer. She was officially a Hokie.

Along the way, Bryan Lemley continued to work with his daughter to refine her pitching skills. 

“We sometimes argued in the teenage years,” Lemley said, but now “we listen to each other better” and have “a ton of mutual respect. He’s my biggest fan.”

“Both of us have matured through the years,” Bryan added. “We talk about a lot of things, and she’s always learning and trying to get better.” 

Interestingly, the Lemleys didn’t do a lot of traditional pitching drills. Instead, they practiced “situational simulations.” 

“I’ve always told Emma that ‘between the ears is the best weapon you’ve got,’” Bryan said. “So, instead of pitching drills, we’ve done situational pitching – pressure situations where I would tell her, ‘OK, the bases are loaded, one out, 2-0 count, what are you going to throw?’ And then she would have to execute it.”

“He not only put me in tough spots,” Emma said, “but he would actually heckle me as well. I almost walked off a time or two. He gave me a harder time than most of the opposing teams do. It certainly made me tough.”

That thick skin and training served her well for Virginia Tech in the recent trip to Texas. But she didn’t have her best start.

“I knew what I had done wrong,” Lemley shared. “After the third inning, I said, ‘I’m done with this.’ … I just needed to stop leaving too many balls over the plate, mix in some drops. I knew my team could get the three runs back – we’ve come back from much worse – and we did. My teammates had my back and in the last inning, I needed to have theirs.

“I needed a strikeout with the runner on third. I felt there was more pressure on her than me, and I was able to get her to chase a pitch outside the zone. In some ways, it reminded me of our comeback in the regionals last year.”

“Emma is good at adjusting during the game,” Bryan said. “She has that ‘Rocky’ mentality. Just keep her team in the game. … She hung in there and let her teammates help her and they did.”

Lemley is excited about this year’s Virginia Tech team, and for good reason. The No. 10 Hokies (11-4) returned the majority of their pieces from last year’s top-four super regional team.

“There is something different about this year’s team,” Lemley said. “We all hang out together. We usually go to the performance facility together. Our team is very close and much more comfortable in hitting this year. As a pitcher, that makes me more comfortable.

“We have a ‘no give up’ mentality, and I know if I give up a run, we’ll be fine. … I would much rather win 6-5 than lose 1-0.”

And although she is quick to mention the confidence that she has in her fellow pitchers, she isn’t worried about being the staff’s workhorse. Before Virginia Tech, she had weekends while playing travel softball where she pitched five games in two days since she was the only one available.

Lemley played on Team USA during last summer’s Canada Cup and helped the team win a gold medal. She pitched three innings against Korea, giving up just one run and striking out seven. That game occurred on her dad’s birthday, which resulted in a very timely birthday present.

After the tournament, she and her dad worked hard on overcoming the illegal pitch calls of last season. 

“We didn’t work full speed, we just focused on my back foot and getting to my spot quicker,” Lemley said. “By the time I got back to school, I felt more comfortable and then the VT coaches worked on my hip movements and getting my knee to bend more. After 2-3 weeks, it was completely behind me.” 

Bryan Lemley estimated that he has driven over a million miles to watch Emma play softball. But he wouldn’t miss it for the world.

“One day it’s going to be over and we’re going to miss it,” he said.

For her part, Emma is just thankful that her parents are able to see her play as much as they do. It’s a tight-knit family, and she calls her parents at least once a day.

“I can talk to them about anything,” she said. “Last year, I got really frustrated about the illegal pitch calls, but they were always there to listen.”

Lemley does have one ironclad rule during the game, though: dad can’t sit behind home plate. Meanwhile, her mom’s voice is the only one that she hears while in the circle, even if she’s in the zone.

“I sat behind the plate one time,” Bryan said. “Emma told me that I had to move because she could see my facial expression. … Now, her mom and I sit down one of the baselines and I catch her eye coming out of the bullpen and tip my cap just to let her know that we’re there.”

Her father believes that there’s a lesson to be learned in all the efforts that he and Emma put in: “It’s not how you start, it’s how you finish. And it’s not just ball – it’s life. You’re going to have setbacks; just keep working. And if you do, fun turns into dreams, dreams turn into goals and goals then turn into reality.”

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For more about Emma, check out her recent appearance on “Triumph Spotlight” on TSL Today.