On a day when the offense was missing in action, Emma Lemley made sure No. 11 Virginia Tech registered the series win over North Carolina on Saturday in Chapel Hill. Lemley (12-1) scattered five hits and struck out 12 batters as she led the Hokies to a 3-1 win over UNC in the nightcap of a doubleheader.
Combined with Friday’s 4-1 win in which Lemley struck out 10, the Hokies (19-5, 5-1) took the series. The Tar Heels (9-15, 1-2) shut Tech out in the first game on Saturday, 4-0.
“Emma continues to get better and better,” Tech head coach Pete D’Amour told Tech Sideline after the game. “She’s giving us a chance to win every game she starts.”
The Hokies, who entered Saturday averaging 6.7 runs per game, never got untracked against the Tar Heels. UNC sophomore pitcher Lilli Backes limited the Hokies to just three singles in the first game of the day and a two-run homer in the fourth gave her all of the run support she needed. It was the first time all season that Tech failed to score a single run.
In spite of taking the loss, freshman Lyndsey Grein (5-2) had a solid performance for the Hokies, registering her sixth complete game of the season and striking out three.
“First off, I give a lot of credit to UNC, said D’Amour. “Their offense put pressure on us and their pitching was good all weekend. They’re a better team than their record indicates. I thought Lyndsey pitched as well as she has for a while. We just couldn’t score any runs for her which speaks to how good UNC’s pitcher was today.”
Acting UNC head coach Chelsey Dobbins tried to duplicate the magic of Backes in Game 2 on Saturday, giving her back-to-back starts, but she didn’t last a full inning. Emma Ritter led off the game and reached second on a hard hit ground ball past the third baseman that was ruled an error. Two batters later, Emma Jackson singled to left field and Ritter scored on a nice slide under the tag at the plate (she was originally called out, but it was reversed on replay).
Jackson then scored on another Tar Heel error and Bre Peck drove her home with the third Tech run by blasting a 3-0 pitch past the right fielder.
Lemley limited UNC to five hits, four of which never made it out of the infield. The one run scored against her was set up by a VT error and was unearned.
Virginia Tech, which started the day leading the nation in home runs with 48, failed to hit one out of the park for only the fourth and fifth times this season.
“We hit some balls on the screws in Game 1 today and didn’t have anything to show for it,” D’Amour said. “Our league is very good. It’s hard to win on the road. We’re fortunate to get this series win and we’ll get back to practice next week and try to continue to get better.”
Next up for the Hokies is a Wednesday game in Boone, N.C. against Appalachian State. They travel to Atlanta after that for another ACC series away from Blacksburg versus Georgia Tech.
Box Score: North Carolina 4, No. 11 Virginia Tech 0
Box Score: No. 11 Virginia Tech 3, North Carolina 1
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Chip- do you know why Payton List hasn’t played. Her high school record seems superior to Grind.
8th paragraph.
Did Jackson score on “another Tar Heel error” or Peck’s double?
I suspect UNC is better than their record, even their coach said she thought they had good pitching and hitting before the season and yeah, to make excuses, road trip in cold, nasty weather. Othoh, Lemley! I thought she was a pretty good pitcher, but this just shows us some lockdown greatness a la Keely. pitching two days in a row when she was scheduled to have a day break.
Keep Greinding Grein! (see what I did there?) We need you and those complete games matter.
At least they won an ACC series on the road. Learn from it and move on. A single loss is not the end of the season.