revenge is oh so sweet; hokies beat irish 4-1 in acc quarterfinal

Colby Talley

May 13, 2021

There was one word that kept getting thrown around in the days leading up to Virginia Tech’s first game in the ACC tournament: revenge.

The Hokies (33-12, 23-11 ACC) played nine conference series this season and won all of them, except for one. That one loss came against Notre Dame (31-13, 20-10 ACC) on a weekend where it didn’t just win the series, but swept it in convincing fashion.

But for the Hokies, the outcome of Thursday's ACC Tournament quarterfinal was very different from the previous matchups as they defeated the Fighting Irish, 4-1.

The biggest factor in the victory was Hokies ace pitcher Keely Rochard, who showed everyone once again why she was named the ACC pitcher of the year.

Rochard didn’t impress the crowd with another one of her high-strikeout performances as she only finished the game with seven strikeouts and gave up one run on four hits. Instead, Rochard came up big in clutch situations all afternoon.

For instance, Rochard was facing Fighting Irish designated player Karina Gaskins with a full count and the bases loaded in the top of the fifth inning. A hit from Gaskins would have either cut down or wiped the Hokies’ three-run lead clean.

Nevertheless, Rochard threw a riseball up in the zone for a swinging strike to end the inning and kept the Hokies in front. It was the best chance the Irish had at scoring for the rest of the afternoon as Rochard kept the Notre Dame bats scoreless for the final two innings.

The Hokies also wasted no time in providing Rochard with adequate run support as Cameron Fagan and Alexa Milius notched back-to-back RBI base hits in the first inning.

Furthermore, the second inning featured infielder Darby Trull’s RBI double that drove in Addy Greene, giving the Hokies an early 3-0 lead.

After the Fighting Irish responded in the top of the fourth inning with a run of their own, the Hokies would add their final run of the day when outfielder Emma Ritter smashed an RBI triple to drive in Greene.

With the win, the Hokies live on to play the top-seeded Clemson Tigers in the semifinal round on Friday at 1 p.m.