BLACKSBURG, Va. – The ACC tournament is on deck for Virginia Tech and these girls love to win--evident in their record with over 30 wins and only 11 losses. The Hokies are taking that winning mentality down to the tournament in Durham.
“Throughout the rest of the postseason, even through regionals and super regionals, everything else is double elimination at this point in the year,” said Hokies pitcher and Jefferson Forest grad Emma Lemley. “You know, you have to play every single inning. You can’t take a single pitch off because everything matters at this point.”
Virginia Tech is no stranger at performing at a peak level. They made history this season going undefeated at home and breaking multiple team records--including most home runs in a season with 112.
“First thing that popped out is our home run record and those numbers,” said Hokies head coach Pete D’Amour. “But, we also don’t strike out a lot for a team so we measure our bats pretty well. But, yeah, we can go deep 1-9 so that’s a comforting thing as a coach when you get down a little bit, you can come back really quick.
If the at-bats aren’t successful in an inning, D’Amour is now able to spread pitches out between five players rather than rely solely on the arm of the starter.
“It’s beneficial just to get the work and when we need to and they’ve done a really good job of cheering for their teammates all about getting ones here however we get it. Let’s just move on and move onto the next one,” D’Amour said.
Ranked as the No. 3 seed for the tournament, Virginia Tech will open play Thursday against No. 6 Georgia Tech in the final game of the quarterfinals round.
Virginia Tech also had a bevy of student-athletes earn All-ACC honors, announced on Wednesday.
Earning First Team All-ACC honors were outfielders Emma Ritter, Addy Greene and Cori McMillan.
Earning Second Team All-ACC honors were second baseman Cameron Fagan, pitcher Emma Lemley, pitcher Emma Mazzarone and third baseman Bre Peck.
Earning Third Team All-ACC honors were first baseman Michelle Chatfield and designated player Majia Louko.
Chatfield and Mazzarone were also named to the ACC All-Freshman Team.