CLEARWATER, Fla. – The St. Pete/Clearwater Elite Invitational presented by Wilson announced on Tuesday its schedule for the nonconference tournament, with the Virginia Tech softball program playing five Power Five programs.
Tech will take on a Big 12 team, two SEC clubs and two Big Ten programs during the four-day event from Feb. 13-16 held at the Eddie C. Moore Complex in Clearwater, Florida. A total of 39 games will be played and a majority of those will be on ESPN's family of networks.
Kicking it off on Thursday, Feb. 13 at 10 a.m. ET, the Hokies will take on Oklahoma State, which finished No. 13/12 (ESPN/USA Softball polls). The following day on Friday, Feb. 14 at 10 a.m., Tech will face South Carolina, which was ranked No. 21/25 in the final polls.
Playing twice on Saturday, Feb. 15 at 1 p.m. and 5 p.m., Tech will see [RV] Missouri and No. 8/8 Minnesota. On the final day, Sunday, Feb. 16, the Hokies will wrap the tourney up against No. 14/16 Northwestern.
Tournament tickets to all games have been sold out, but single-game tickets will be available to purchase in mid-October. For more information, click here.
A few of the other teams making the trek down to Clearwater are No. 5/4 Alabama, No. 9/9 Florida State, No. 14/16 Georgia, No. 16/15 JMU, Kansas, Liberty, [RV] USF, No. 15/18 Texas Tech, No. 2/2 Washington and No. 3/3 UCLA in a stacked field.
Tech put itself back on the map again this past season, being ranked for 10 weeks to tie a program record while racking up the fourth-most wins in school history with 47. The ACC regular-season champs and Coastal Division winners will look to build off the momentum the following season, playing high-level teams that will surely be a factor in RPI down in the Sunshine State. Heading into the NCAA Tournament, Tech had the 25th-best RPI nationally.
The rest of the Hokies' 2020 schedule will be announced at a later date.
