No. 24 Virginia Tech Rides Momentum, Clinches Series Over No. 6 Clemson

A sleepy Virginia Tech crowd was resuscitated by Bre Peck lasering a two-run no-doubter a few feet to the left of the scoreboard. It halved Clemson’s four-run lead and gave the fans hope that an improbable comeback was on the cards.

The bats, which had been kept under Valerie Cagle’s (22-5) thumb for most of the afternoon, started to pick it up. Pete D’Amour reached into his bag of tricks, calling upon back-to-back pinch hitters in Morgan Overaitis and Madison Hanson. With both zinging one-out balls into left field, they reached base, which they were brought in to do.

As the roar of the crowd grew louder with each passing at-bat, the pressure fell on Kelsey Brown’s shoulders. Though she fought hard, she couldn’t dig herself out of an 0-2 hole.

With one final out and the score 4-2, all eyes turned to Cameron Fagan. Mere minutes after Cagle had convinced her head coach, John Rittman, to remain in the game, she flung a drop ball over the heart of the plate. The sound off the bat was enough for any trained ear to spot — Fagan had just walked off the Tigers with a three-run moonshot to left center.

That momentum-turning surge that Fagan provided was enough to elevate No. 24 Virginia Tech over No. 6 Clemson in both games of the Saturday doubleheader, winning 5-4 and 3-1, and clinching the series.

Despite Cagle’s late-game collapse, her second in four days, the first game of the series belonged to Clemson (44-8, 17-6 ACC) almost the entire way.

After throwing two complete innings before a rain delay forced Friday’s action into Saturday afternoon, Virginia Tech (35-16, 14-9 ACC) ace Emma Lemley got off to a rocky start to begin the third.

Following flyouts from Ally Miklesh and Cagle, Caroline Jacobsen annihilated a ball over Kelsey Brown’s head that bounced across Beamer Way, temporarily halting traffic.

Unfortunately for Lemley, Reedy Davenport had similar plans, rocketing a ball towards left center which, despite not being as powerful as the solo shot the previous inning, was still strong enough where Kelsey Brown didn’t bother giving chase, doubling the Tigers advantage.

As a result of the two solo jacks, Lemley pitched cautiously to the danger hitters, walking Jacobsen in the top of the fifth with two outs. It proved costly as Maddie Moore tattooed the ball towards left field. No cars driving along Beamer Way were safe on Saturday; Moore’s home run ball was mere inches away from shattering an innocent bystander’s windshield.

Now trailing 4-0, Tech tried to heat up the bats, which had minimal success up until that point. The Hokies had runners on the corners in the bottom of the fifth with no outs, but a strikeout by Kylie Aldridge and a double play off Meredith Slaw stranded the runners and frustrated the Hokies.

In spite of the three long bombs, Lemley continued to hammer away, throwing a near complete game before Molly Jacobson (7-2) came in to secure the final out.

It was then that the Hokies’ magic really broke through. Peck’s two-run shot, followed shortly thereafter by Fagan’s three-run shot, stole away a win for the Hokies.

The moment. pic.twitter.com/SvzYLMhYqO

— Ishan Lamba (@IshanLamba703) April 29, 2023

Tech Softball Park was buzzing and fans were grinning from ear to ear. Fagan’s hit had transformed the energy in the stadium and it felt like Tech had quite a bit of momentum going into the second game.

“I love our crowd and we could all definitely feel [the energy shift],” Fagan told reporters.

At the conclusion of the short turnaround between games, Lyndsey Grein (8-3) had a bit of difficulty settling down the excitement from the previous hour. She walked McKenzie Clark and surrendered a double to Miklesh. Two runners in scoring position with no outs in the first.

While this was ordinarily a spot Grein struggled to escape from throughout the season, her performance against No. 5 Florida State last weekend carried over into Saturday, as she focused on just getting one out at a time.

She began her fight back with a flyout from Cagle, which was shallow enough so that Clark couldn’t challenge Addy Greene’s arm on the tag up. Then chaos ensued.

Jacobsen chopped it back to Grein, who wisely held it and turned to her right, where Clark was caught between third and home. Grein threw to Kelsey Bennett, who tossed to Alridge, who followed her and returned it back to Bennett. Bennett couldn’t match Clark’s speed, so she threw to Jayme Bailey, who was covering home.

Clark, realizing she would be thrown out, struck Bailey’s head with her elbow. Though Bailey miraculously held onto the ball for the out, she took a bit of time getting up. Clark’s action was deemed so malicious that she was ejected for it. Rittman, furious at the decision, was also ejected for her verbal confrontation with the officials.

Fagan backed up an incredible walk-off with a stellar defensive grab, tailing back and to her right to catch Moore’s liner and strand the runners in scoring position.

Although Bailey stayed in for the rest of the first and second innings, she left the game and did not return due to injury. She was replaced by Greene, who hadn’t played first base this season, since Bailey is such a mainstay at the position.

She started out well, fielding two throws as Grein stranded another two runners in scoring position in the top of the third.

“She’s so versatile,” Fagan commented on Greene, who she’s very close with. “You need someone like that on your team. You never know what’s going to happen so you need people who can fill those holes. I never doubted Addy for a second when she came in and played first.”

Meanwhile, Tech’s offense was hushed by Millie Thompson (13-2), who had great command through three innings. However, she was undone by the Hokies ability to play small ball in the fourth inning.

Brown led off by smartly popping it over Davenport’s head, who was cheating in from third. She stole second and advanced to third after Greene smacked a ball that bounced off Moore at second, rolled towards the circle and led to a collision between Moore and Thompson.

Though Thompson remained in the game, she gave up an RBI bunt to Overaitis, who entered as the designated player, along with two RBI singles from Emma Ritter and Bennett to put the Hokies up 3-0.

Like last season, she was pulled for Brooke McCubbin before tossing four complete innings. McCubbin fared well in relief, limiting Tech to just two hits in her remaining 2⅓ innings of work. This meant all the pressure was on Grein.

In the top of the fifth, Jadeyn Ruszkowski, who replaced Clark following her ejection, nailed a solo shot to cut into the lead. And the 3-1 lead was in jeopardy in the sixth, starting with an error committed by Bennett that allowed Jacobsen to reach.

After two outs were recorded, a pair of infield singles loaded the bases up. A conference in the circle was necessary between D’Amour and his young pitcher.

“Trust your defense. We’ve got this, we’re going to get out of this and we’re going to go hit,” Grein said after the game, shedding light on her conversation with D’Amour.

She answered the call, striking out Arielle Oda to bring the total Tigers left on base to eight.

Grein closed the game out emphatically with back-to-back flyouts and Cagle’s liner into Peck’s glove, marking her first complete game since Mount St. Mary’s back in early March, and her strongest performance to date.

“I just didn’t think they were squaring [Grein] up,” D’Amour explained on leaving Grein in. “It didn’t look like her velocity was faltering. The thing with her is that her command goes down a bit and that’s when you think about making the change. She’s grown a lot in the last month and I just left her in.”

Given Tech’s four-game slide after getting swept by No. 5 FSU and getting upset in the middle of the week at Marshall, Saturday was a welcome relief for D’Amour’s squad.

“I’ve been preaching for the last three weeks that we’re a good team and when we put it all together, we can play with anybody, and it all came together today,” D’Amour emphasized. “It felt great to do it on senior day.”

Saturday’s gutsy performance by the Hokies was a perfect way to honor the graduating seniors, a group who has turned the program into a mainstay on the national landscape.

“There’s too much to say,” Overaitis said. “I came from a school eight hours away where I wasn’t as happy as I could be, and [Tech] took me in with open arms. Playing on a team with girls like this and coaches like this is something that every girl wants.”

“That’s all we’ve known in the three years we’ve been here,” Fagan said, speaking about the graduating seniors. “It’s like half our team is being ripped away. It’s so sad because we love every one of them and look up to them so much. They’re not only our teammates but some of our best friends.”

Weather-permitting, Tech will aim to send its seniors off the right way with a sweep of Clemson on Sunday at 2 p.m. ET.

Box Score 1: No. 21 Virginia Tech 5, No. 6 Clemson 4 
Box Score 2: No. 21 Virginia Tech 3, No. 6 Clemson 1