a keely rochard -- a new super standard in blacksburg

Nick Cheshire

Staff Writer

August 23, 2021

Inside Keely Rochard’s magical season, including a timely no-hitter, a dedicated fanbase, and a super-regional run that pushed the defending national champions to the brink of elimination.

A dark sheet of clouds blanketed the Syracuse sky in late April on an unusually brisk spring afternoon, denying Keely Rochard and an already defeated Virginia Tech team a symbolic ray of sunshine.

On the heels of a sweep at the hands of the Fighting Irish, compounded by a heartbreaking extra-inning loss to Liberty earlier that week, a downtrodden Virginia Tech squad traveled to Upstate New York for an intimidating four-game weekend series.

The five game slide put a noticeable dent in the Hokies’ impressive campaign, which up until that point had been a model of consistency, and the series against Notre Dame the weeknd before marked not only the first time they had been swept, but also the first time the Hokies had lost a series all season.

The Hokies had hit their lowest point of the season and were quickly running out time to secure a top-four seed in the upcoming ACC Tournament.

Enter: First Team All-American Keely Rochard.

“We have to play each game to the best of our ability, we can’t really take any games off, we can lose to anybody,” the Hokies’ ace said to 3304 Sports in an interview in June.

Rochard had lost her previous three starts, an uncharacteristic blip in what had been an otherwise otherworldly season for the ACC pitcher of the year.

She delivered a masterful no-hitter, her second of the year, against the Orange on April 30 that sparked a timely turnaround for the Hokies. It marked the beginning of a red-hot stretch that began with a sweep in Syracuse and extended deep into the postseason.

Blacksburg was selected as one of twenty potential host sites for the first round of the NCAA Tournament, an honor awarded to 16 of the top teams in the country, but in order to achieve that, the Hokies needed a strong showing in the ACC Tournament.

Naturally, the quarterfinal round presented a daunting challenge in the form of an all too familiar opponent, the only team who had the Hokies’ number all year: Notre Dame.

The Hokies picked up where they left off in Syracuse, and the 4-1 Virginia Tech victory reversed the narrative between the squads and served as the birth of a new story for the Hokies: Keely Rochard’s dominance in the postseason that led her to national prominence.

“Really, my mentality was just to mix all my pitches, I think as a team our mentality was to make adjustments to their pitchers and we did a really good job of that,” Rochard continued.

The Hokies would fall to Clemson in the conference semifinals and were ultimately not selected as a host for the NCAA tournament regional round, but after exercising their demons against the Fighting Irish, the Hokies were prepared to write a new chapter, this time on a national stage.

They were selected as the two seed in the Tempe regional in Arizona, the home of Arizona State, a region that also included BYU and Southern Illinois.

“Honestly we were really excited to go out west,” Rochard said. “I think what we liked about it most was that nobody really knew much about us out there, so we kind of did have a little bit of an advantage, even though most people would have thought that would be a disadvantage.”

If Virginia Tech truly entered the Tempe regional as a virtual unknown, Rochard’s dominant performances quickly placed the Hokies at the forefront of the NCAA softball scene. Rochard and her squad flexed the muscles of the program in Blacksburg and put the rest of the nation on notice, not only of the Hokies, but the entirety of the ACC along with Florida State, who lost to Oklahoma in the Women’s College World Series.

“I think it just speaks to not only the success of our program, I think in general the success of the ACC, like the ACC tournament, all of those games were close, and that’s not because we’re all bad, it’s because we’re all so good. I think it just kind of shows that the ACC is really good and they can compete with anybody,” Rochard said.

Rochard became a household name in the softball world after the Hokies blew through the Tempe regional, only surrendering seven runs in 19 innings of work against fierce competition. She became the only pitcher to pitch every inning to that point in the postseason.

Her stoic demeanor and poised appearance in the circle night after night on the biggest stage consistently impressed broadcasters, fans, and legends of the sport alike, as Rochard routinely shook off mistakes, always refocusing and returning to form without batting an eye.

“That’s just who I am, when something happens, you can’t change it, so I don’t see the point in reacting to things that can’t be changed,” Rochard said. “It definitely helps, then I’m not thinking about what just happened and I’m focused on the next pitch just naturally. It’s definitely something I was blessed with and I’m very grateful for.”

Part of her ability to focus on her next pitch is in part courtesy of her longtime friend and teammate Mackenzie Lawter. She and Rochard grew up together, and Lawter knows her arsenal and instincts like no one else, keeping things simple for Rochard when times get tough.

“Mac is just a workhorse back there, she isn’t lazy, she works really hard and we just communicate so well without even saying anything,” Rochard said. “We played travel ball together and when she graduated early she was my roommate freshman year, second semester, when she came in.”.

“We’re super close, I would consider her one of my best friends, and on the field we just click. She knows exactly what I want to throw, and if she doesn’t, when I shake her off she knows what to go to. We just work really well together.”

Along with Lawter, another piece of Rochard’s incredible supporting cast includes the coaching staff, led by head coach Pete D’Amour, as he enters his fourth helm later in the spring.

“I probably wouldn’t have been here for four years if it wasn’t for him, or any of the coaching staff,” Rochard said. “I probably would’ve quit because there’s no way I would’ve stayed after my freshman year.”

“There aren’t even enough words I could say about how great they have been and the amount of success they have brought to this program, the mentality that they’ve brought, I respect them so much and like I said, there’s just not enough to say, they are great coaches and even better people.”

Beyond the coaches and players, the entirety of Blacksburg has rallied behind the team, packing the bleachers at Tech Softball Park and supporting the team off the field as well.

In April, an organized auction of Virginia Tech Softball memorabilia raised funds to support the program, including big-ticket items like Keely Rochard game balls that often sold for substantial prices.

“That’s really cool, especially because it shows our fanbase,” Rochard said. “People know that if they were to come to the field and be like, hey will you sign this ball, I would do it, and they do that for free, so I think it shows that people really want to support our program and they’re willing to do that by investing money into us.”

“It goes a long way, especially in the softball program, and it’s just kind of cool seeing how much people support us and that they’re willing to spend that much money on something that they could get for free,” She added.

With the overwhelming support of Blacksburg, Rochard elevated her game to a level that no Virginia Tech pitcher had attained since the glory days of Angela Tincher in the late 2000’s: First team All-American.

Her outstanding 29-10 record, 1.38 ERA, and nation leading 348 strikeouts cemented her status as one of the best pitchers in the nation, especially when you consider her daunting workload of 244 innings pitched, which was among the top totals in the country through the postseason.

The Hokies sweep of the Tempe regional led to a longer west coast swing than most expected, and the road didn’t get any easier as the Hokies traveled to Los Angeles for the Super Regional to face the defending national champion the No. 2 UCLA Bruins in a win-or-go-home best of three.

Rochard and the Hokies stormed into Los Angeles and stunned the defending champs in Game 1, a 7-2 rout that shocked the softball world and positioned the Hokies within one game of the Women’s College World Series.

While they fell just short of their second WCWS in program history after back-to-back losses in games two and three, not only did they make a name for themselves, but Rochard believes that a new standard of excellence was set for the program.

“I think the expectation now is to always make it to supers, because we know that we’re more than capable of that,” She said.

Rochard will return for her senior season, as will her young, talented supporting cast, and led by Coach D’Amour, the Hokies are poised to be a powerhouse once again in 2022.