Our State! Hokies Beat Wahoos in Ranked Weekend Series

The Hokies opened ACC play this past weekend with a series against the #23 Cavaliers of Virginia. They took the first two of three games but dropped the final game, starting 2-1 in ACC play. 

In the weekend’s first game, the Hokies worked a hard fought 8-4 win. They started Emma Lemley, who had a solid outing. She gave up 3 runs in 4 innings before handing the ball off to Sophie Kleiman. Kleiman did not give up a run and struck out six batters in her three inning performance. The bats for the Hokies were good, as per the usual under Coach Pete D’Amour, scoring eight runs. Early on the Hokies jumped on Virginia’s Eden Bigham and Ava Hodges, scoring 7 runs in the 3.2 combined innings.. The offense really spread the wealth around, with the Hokies nine hits coming from 8 different batters. Jordan Lynch had a massive outing for the Hokies. Even with just 1 hit, she had a double and three RBI. The only one with a multi-hit day was Annika Rohs, who went 2/2 with a walk and an RBI, on top of that, she scored two crucial runs for the Hokies. Player of the game honors will go to Sophie Kleiman, who went three scoreless innings with six strikeouts. She also recorded her first career save.

On Saturday, the Hokies dominated with a 6-1 win. Emma Mazzarone got the start and recorded the win, moving her to 4-2 on the year. Following her was Sophie Kleiman, who pitched 2.2 innings and surrendered just a run. She left the bases loaded with two outs for Emma Lemley in the seventh, and Lemley recorded the out by way of a strikeout to close the game. The offense was hot early, getting on top of the Cavs’ Julia Cuozzo. In just an inning against her, the Hokies scored two runs on three hits and a walk. Courtney Layne didn’t do much better, allowing three runs in two innings. Ava Hodges had her second outing of the weekend and did much better in this one, only allowing a single run in 3 innings, which would not be enough for the Cavs. The Hokies had two multi hit performances, coming from Zoe Yaeger and Emily LeGette. They combined to go 4/6 with five RBI and three home runs. Cori McMillan also hit a home run to nobody’s surprise. Player of the game honors will go to Zoe Yaeger for her two home run performance.

In the final game of the weekend, the Hokies had a chance to complete the sweep. Before Sunday, the Hokies had only lost one game to UVA under head coach Pete D’Amour. This one marked the second, where Virginia won it 9-2. Emma Lemley got the start and was solid for five innings, giving up just two runs. UVA turned it on in the 6th and Lemley finished her 6 inning performance with five ER and her third loss of the season. Cassie Grizzard relieved her and had a lot of trouble, giving up four runs and recording a single out. Sohpie Kleiman entered the game for the final two outs and got through them clean. For UVA, their pitching combo of Savanah Henley and Eden Bigham was fantastic, giving up just two runs and seven hits in seven innings. Both runs were given up by Henley, allowing a big bounce back outing from Bigham after a tough Friday outing. The Hokies had just one multi-hit day, coming from Jordan Lynch. Lynch went 2/2 with two walks. The Hokies had just one extra base hit, that came from Zoe Yaeger. 

This week the Hokies will take a trip to Kentucky to face off against the University of Kentucky on Tuesday and Louisville over the weekend. Kentucky is 17-6 and this will be the first time that the two teams face off since the electric 2022 Blacksburg regional that saw the Hokies come out on top. Louisville is 16-7 and coming off of a 2-1 series win over Notre Dame.