BRIGHTON, Mass. – Facing a deficit for the first time in its three-game series with Boston College, the No. 24/23 Virginia Tech softball team scored eight unanswered to win 8-1 on Sunday at the Harrington Athletics Village, finishing with the best conference record of all 12 teams in the ACC.
The Hokies (43-8, 20-4 ACC), who were picked to finish 10th in the ACC standings in the preseason poll, earned their second regular-season ACC title in school history (2007), while their sweep over the Eagles (16-32, 4-17) marked their fourth road ACC series sweep, a first in program history.
After clinching the ACC Coastal Division on Saturday, Tech bolstered its résumé with finishing with a school-record 20 ACC wins, securing the No. 1 seed in the ACC Championship in Tallahassee, Florida on May 8-11.
Outfielder Cana Davis led the way at the plate, hitting a three-run home run and collecting a stand-up double, too. Shortstop Caitlyn Nolan and catcher Mackenzie Lawter also went deep, as both were two-run homers.
In the circle, pitchers Carrie Eberle (24-5) and Keely Rochard (19-3) both pitched for a combined one-run, seven-strikeout performance.
QUOTING TECH HEAD COACH PETE D'AMOUR
On if he would have imagined when he took the job in his first year he would be the No. 1 seed in the league tournament and how the team bought in from Day 1:
"It's really unbelievable," Tech coach Pete D'Amour said. "I almost have to pinch myself every time I come to the park because everything has been clicking this year. The buy in has been huge and there are really good players here, so it's a combination. When you have those two things, you have the season that we're having."
On going 12-0 on the road in ACC play and the team's ability to lock in away from home:
"I think it's a combination with being more focused on the road than we are at home, just for a multitude of reasons," D'Amour said. "There are less distractions so when we go on the road, we're there just to play softball. When we're at home, there are more things competing for our attention. On the road it's just more all about softball."
On one more week of the regular season with nonconference games and the mentality leading up to ACCs:
"The mentality will be to take it day by day and stay healthy," D'Amour said. "We are going to recover tomorrow. You cannot overlook Longwood. I respect their program a lot and Coach [Kathy] Riley has been good there for a long time. So, we have to show up on Tuesday and then take the rest of the week as it comes."
HOW IT HAPPENED
The Hokies started in a hole in Game 3 of the series, as Boston College plated a runner in the bottom of the first thanks to an RBI single to right field off Eberle. But Tech responded in the top of the third, getting a two-run home run by Nolan to left center to give Tech the 2-1 lead.
With runners on second and third after an infield single by third baseman Kelsey Bennett and a walk to Lawter, Davis lifted a no-doubter to center for her first home run of the season, giving Tech a 5-1 advantage.
In the top of the fourth, first baseman Jayme Bailey and Nolan would both be hit by a pitch and Strouth singled through the left side, loading up the bases. Lawter took four straight balls, getting an RBI on a bases-loaded walk to push Tech's lead to five.
Lawter would see a strike in her next at-bat, though, taking the second pitch she saw to center for a two-run homer, following a double to right center by Bennett. BC, on its Senior Day, would have one more chance to complete the comeback, but Rochard, who came in as relief in the fifth, made the Eagles go three up, three down by finishing with a swinging strikeout in the seventh to win it.
NOTES
- Eberle picked up her ACC-leading 24th win in the circle, allowing four hits, 0 earned runs and four strikeouts, while walking just one on 66 pitches. Rochard pitched three innings and allowed only one hit and struck out three batters with no walks on 36 pitches.
- Tech got a little beat up at the plate today and this weekend, earning five hit by pitches Sunday and 11 on the weekend. The previous high in a game before its time at The Heights was two.
- Trull improves her hitting streak to a team-high eight games, while Bailey now owns a team-best nine-game reached base streak.
- The 43 wins on the year mark the fifth-most in program history, passing the 42-mark set twice in 2012 and 2002.
TWEET OF THE GAME
With our win over Boston College, we finish with the best conference record (20-4) in the ACC! 💪#ThisIsHome | #Hokies 🦃 pic.twitter.com/nJk1yVdOOn
— Virginia Tech Softball (@HokiesSoftball) April 28, 2019
UP NEXT
- Tech will head back to Blacksburg and play host to Longwood (33-16, 19-4 Big South), which, like Tech, won its regular-season conference title this past weekend, on Tuesday at 4 p.m. ET in a doubleheader at Tech Softball Park. The two games will be broadcast on ACC Network Extra.Gallery: (4/28/2019) 2019 SOFTBALL at BOSTON COLLEGE SUNDAY