Virginia Tech Finishes Bama Bash On High Note, Shuts Out Evansville

By Caleb Wetzel

Staff Writer

February 21, 2022

Last season Keely Rochard pitched 244 out of the 339.2 innings that No. 8 Virginia Tech played in. She pitched tremendously, finishing 29-10 on the year with a 1.38 ERA, but that is still a workload that is a lot for one pitcher.

This season freshman pitcher Emma Lemley has stepped up and helped split some of that work with Rochard. She and Lemley have split the innings pitched close to evenly, with Rochard pitching 34 innings compared to Lemley’s 22.

On Sunday afternoon in the final game of the Easton Bama Bash for the Hokies, Lemley demonstrated why she has gotten to take over so much of the workload.

She was masterful on the mound starting the game and pitching four scoreless innings while only allowing one hit. She struck out nine Evansville batters and didn’t allow any hard contact aside from the one hit.

Virginia Tech’s offense started a bit slow with only two hits for the first three innings but it awarded Lemley with the lead in the fourth inning.

Emma Ritter started the inning off with a triple and the very next batter, Addy Greene, quickly followed up by driving her in with a single to right field. Greene then stole second and scored later in the inning on an RBI groundout by Rachel Castine.

Following up putting two runs on the board, Virginia Tech decided to try and close the door by putting in its ace, Rochard.

She did just that, only allowing one hit in the three innings she pitched while also striking out five batters.

Mackenzie Lawter added some insurance in the bottom of the sixth inning, demolishing a three-run bomb over the fence in left-center. She led the team in hitting for the day driving in three runs to go along with her two hits.

The Hokies finished off the Easton Bama Bash with a 3-2 record with the two losses coming against No. 2 Alabama.

Virginia Tech will travel back for a game at Radford on Wednesday at 4 p.m.