first inning offense propels hokies to doubleheader sweep

Sam Alves

April 7, 2021

Game 1

BLACKSBURG, Va — Virginia Tech has climbed to No. 15 nationally due in part to its 8-1 record at Tech Softball Park, a cozy venue with the facade of Lane Stadium towering a Hokie Stone’s throw beyond the left-field foul pole, where the football team has long embraced its “Hard Hat Mentality.”

It wouldn’t have been a bad idea to actually wear one of those to the game the way Virginia Tech and Longwood were fouling off pitches in that direction early, but the Hokies kept two long balls fair enough to take a 2-0 win thanks to Keely Rochard’s business-like 11-strikeout, two-hit, complete-game shutout.

Rochard started the game with two swinging strikeouts, and after a pop-up to short on only her ninth pitch of the game, the Hokies (25-6, 16-6 ACC) were up to bat.

The offense came to the plate swinging, with all four batters in the frame swinging on the first pitch. Jayme Bailey’s solo home run lined down the left-field line was the lone time in the first Tech kept a ball fair and out of a Lancer glove, and her two-out blast ended up being the only run Tech needed.

Rochard faced the minimum through three. She did give up a single to Leah Powell in the third, but the senior left fielder was caught stealing at second following her base hit.

When leadoff-hitting Mason Basdikis came to bat to start the fourth inning, Rochard put her down swinging, and she did the same to Sydney Jacobsen next, just as she did to start the game. Alexis Wayland then popped up to third — she popped up to short her first time around — in what was almost a mirror image of the first inning.

That resemblance continued in the home half of the inning when Tech’s Alexa Milius sent a two-out home run to left — a hair more towards left-center than Bailey’s.

And that was it for the scoring in game one. Kasey Carr singled off Rochard with two outs in the fourth, but no Longwood runner advanced to second over seven innings.

To close out the game, Rochard used the seventh to work on fielding her position, calling out for a soft pop-up to record the first out and catching a softer one to end the game. While the Hokies only managed two runs, the game was never really in doubt as Rochard tossed another gem in a delightfully-quick 84-minute affair.

Game 2

Maybe the Hokies were just saving their offense for when they needed it the most. Tech again tallied all the runs they’d need to win in the first, plating eight and sending 12 hitters to bat before the inning ended in a dynamite start en route to an 11-6 win.

Longwood starting pitcher Arleigh White retired Kelsey Brown on a 1-3 putout to start the second game of the day, but she’d only record one more out before being pulled for Angelina Sherba. By then, Tech was up 7-0, and Brown would fly around the bases one more time to tack on another run.

She ran like there was no tomorrow — and you never know with scheduling during the COVID-19 pandemic — starting the play at second but finishing it by sliding into home. Meanwhile, the ball never made it past the far end of the pitcher’s circle.

Sherba couldn’t field what looked to be a simple 1-3 putout for a fielder error off a chopper from Darby Tull just enough to get by her, and Brown did the rest.

Brown drove in three runs on a double that found its way through the left side of the infield and past an over-aggressive left fielder. Before that, Jayme Bailey singled for an RBI, Grace Chavez’s double to the right-center gap scored two and Kelsey Bennett delivered an RBI single herself.

The Hokies finished their scoring on the day with Addy Greene’s two-RBI single and Brown brought a run home with her second double of the day.

But Longwood wouldn’t go quietly into that good night — it really was a picture-perfect April evening by the time it was over, so it’s understandable why the Lancers wanted to stick around. Longwood scored one run in the second, third and fourth frames, twice in the fifth and one more in the sixth to avoid a run-rule decision and force the Hokies to play a full 14-inning doubleheader.

Longwood does have a win at now-No. 20 Georgia on its resume this year, so the latter innings provided a good opportunity for younger Hokies to work some innings.

It was three freshmen — Ivy Rosenberry, Mackenzie Osborne and Molly Jacobsen — who teamed up over the latter seven innings to deliver win number two on the day. Jacobsen made her first appearance for the Hokies this year, recording the final three outs, holding Longwood’s offense scoreless.

Tech is off this weekend and will host Liberty (23-12, 4-2 ASun) next Wednesday and then Georgia Tech (10-18, 4-14 ACC) for four games on April 16-18.