Hokie ClubThe Virginia Tech softball team made the trip from Blacksburg to Ann Arbor on Thursday in preparation for this weekend's best-of-three series with the host Michigan Wolverines. The winner of this Super Regional round will advance to the Women's College World Series in Oklahoma City.
The Hokies' bus left campus at about 11:30 a.m. for the Roanoke airport, and the team was delighted to learn that it would be chartering for the first time this season – no waiting, no security checks, no nonsense. That wasn't the case, though, as the crew of the 30-seat crop duster took a while to load the team's plethora of luggage due to some problems with their weight scale. The Hokies were only allotted 1,300 pounds of luggage, and each bag had to be measured and added to the steadily climbing total. About halfway through the process, though, the scale reset itself to zero – at least that was the consensus on the bus as the team looked on in amusement, trying to guess whose bag weighed the most – and the crew had to unload everything and start over again.
When the bags were finally packed (with 200 pounds to spare), the team boarded the plane and was greeted by a sprightly flight attendant – we'll call her Peppy McChatterson – who loved to use her microphone and did all but give the team a play-by-play account of the journey. Though all were glad to land in the Ypsilanti airport for some peace and quiet, the pilots did give the players a unique opportunity to visit them in the cockpit during the flight and learn the ins and outs of flying a plane.
After checking into the hotel, Tech headed over to the softball field – which is right next door to the baseball stadium that is hosting the Big Ten baseball tournament this weekend – for a light workout. After some brief batting practice and taking some grounders and fly balls, the bus took the group to downtown Ann Arbor for some dinner at a Mongolian grill. It was a buffet-style stir-fry atmosphere with three bars worth of veggies, meats, seafood, and sauces. You could concoct whatever ingredients you wanted and the chefs at a 10-foot circular grill would cook it up before your eyes. Everyone had at least two heaping plates of stir-fry before heading back to the hotel and calling it a night.
A small photo gallery from the trip is available at this link.
The Hokies will hold a more lengthy practice on Friday morning before playing game one on Saturday at noon, which will be televised on ESPN.