While Thursday and Friday were nights to leave runners on base, it was nearly impossible to keep them on come Saturday night. No Virginia Tech pitcher was safe, as No. 5 Florida State erupted for a 16-7 victory over the No. 18 Hokies, completing the weekend sweep in emphatic fashion.
Tech (33-15, 12-9 ACC) put up a fight in the first two games, and more of the same was expected in Game 3. However, the Seminoles (39-8, 16-2 ACC) quickly put that notion to rest.
They quickly unsettled Emma Lemley (19-9), who didn’t have her best stuff.
“Her velocity was a little bit down,” Tech head coach Pete D’Amour remarked. “I don’t know why, I talked to her about it.”
“My speed wasn’t exactly where I wanted it to be today, which always hurts,” Lemley said, echoing those same sentiments. “I thought my rise was working alright, but it seemed like they were ready for changeups, sitting on changeups.”
After walking Kaley Mudge, she got to two outs, but grazed Mack Leonard’s leg. Things snowballed from there, with Lemley conceding an RBI single to Jahni Kerr and a two-RBI double to Hallie Wacaser.
Leading 3-0, Leonard kicked things off in the circle for the Noles. Though she walked the speedy Kelsey Brown, she masterfully struck out Cameron Fagan and Addy Greene to brush away the threat.
While a three-run lead was still manageable, FSU quickly aimed to make it tough to overcome for Virginia Tech.
In the second, Josie Muffley pummeled a ball to the center field wall, good enough for a double. Devyn Flaherty backed up the damage on her first pitch, dropping a bloop single short of Emma Ritter, playing in left field Saturday, which scored Muffley, a fourth run. Flaherty also advanced to second on the throw, highlighting Florida State’s aggressive running.
It paid off, as Mudge sacrificed herself on a fly ball and Kalei Harding zipped it past Jayme Bailey to score Flaherty, pushing the lead up to five.
Leonard duplicated Harding’s hit, which was enough to put two runners in scoring position. Once again, Lemley had to face Kerr, who had already caused plenty of trouble for the Hokies on the weekend.
She continued to wreak havoc, slotting it down the right field line to clear the bases. She finished the weekend 6-for-11 with three RBIs.
With seven runs on the board, it was clear Lemley wasn’t going to get the job done, and D’Amour made the switch to Molly Jacobson. But in case the carnage already was not enough, FSU continued to pile on.
Katie Dack grounded out to Jacobson to lead off the third, but Michaela Edenfield doubled subsequently after. Jacobson had a chance to get the second out but threw a grounder from Muffley away from Bailey’s range, which allowed Edenfield to score, making it 8-0.
Flaherty put a fast grounder in play as well, but Kelsey Bennett did the same as Jacobson, bouncing it away from Bailey and scoring the ninth run, Muffley. After Harding was walked, Leonard smoked the first pitch she faced over the wall in left center for the weekend’s first homer by either team to put the Seminoles up 12-0.
Frustrated, D’Amour turned to Lyndsey Grein to finish out the game. And although the scoreboard was far out of Tech’s range, the team never once gave up the fight.
“They never give up, it’s a hallmark of our program,” D’Amour said. “They think they’re in the game until the last out.”
After the bottom of the order got things started against Allison Royalty, with Teagan Thrunk reaching second on a fielding error and Kylie Aldridge getting on base on an infield single, Fagan got all the way to second on a fielder’s choice that scored Thrunk but picked off Aldridge in the process.
Nonetheless, Tech scored its first run and continued to threaten. Greene got a hold of one, doubling to left, and Bailey brought the crowd to its feet, sneaking a home run inside the left field foul pole to cut the deficit to 12-4.
In the next couple of pitches, Bre Peck tripled off the left field wall and Ritter got enough power to get it over the wall, cutting FSU’s original lead in half.
With the score 12-6, the ball game felt different — the Hokies fans came alive again. But the Noles sucked the wind out of their sails in a flash.
To open the fourth, Wacaser and Bethaney Keen drew walks ahead of another Edenfield double that scored Wacaser. Flaherty weakly singled to Bennett, pushing Florida State’s tally to 14. Once Mudge fouled out deep to advance the runners into scoring position, Harding added another two RBIs, singling to dead center for the 16-6 scoreline.
With the game out of hand once again, there was little Tech could do, outside of a pair of base hits in the fifth that scored a seventh run for VT.
Though the Hokies just didn’t have it on Saturday, there are clear spots of improvement for D’Amour.
“Two-out hits, clutch hitting is a big one,” D’Amour told reporters. “I think just playing cleaner as well.”
Before the Hokies host another top-10 ACC foe at home in Clemson, they travel across the border to Huntington, W.Va. on Tuesday to face Marshall at 3 p.m. ET.
Box Score: No. 5 Florida State 16, No. 18 Virginia Tech 7 (5)
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HOO WON THE COMMONWEALTH CHALLENGE, IT SURE WASN’T THE CHOKIES. GO HOOS.
This team is a shell of what they were last year….last year looking more and more like it was a fluke.
Last year, the team had a 5th year ace and a 5th year catcher who’d been playing together for roughly a decade. With COVID, they were able to play with Lemley. So, in that sense, that’s flukey, because of a once-in-a-lifetime circumstance.
However, transitioning from the No. 2 to ace as a sophomore is much harder than anyone could imagine. The pitching staff and catchers are young, there will be growing pains. But Tech will be able to reach those heights in the future.
What a a$$ beating. This team not nearly as good as I thought they would be. With this sweep, likely out of the ncaa playoffs. No way to put a good spin on this.
Though it’s undoubtedly been a tough year for the Hokies, they’ve still played quite well throughout the season. They went toe-to-toe with the #5 team in the country for 2 out of the 3 games. Even with the sweep, Tech is still very much in the NCAA tournament.
With an RPI around 30, and the fact that multiple teams above them will likely win their conference tournament, Tech would need to lose out in order to worry about missing the tournament entirely.