Hokie Club
GREENSBORO, N.C. – Virginia Tech softball's Jayme Bailey, Kelsey Bennett and Keely Rochard have been named to the preseason All-ACC team, the conference announced Thursday.
The preseason All-ACC team is voted on by the conference's coaches. The Hokies, with three honorees, tie Clemson for the second-most players of the list behind Florida State's four. Bailey, Bennett and Rochard all make the team for the second consecutive season.
Bailey started all 25 games for the Hokies last season and had a slugging percentage of .679, registering five doubles, three triples and four home runs for 21 runs batted in. The West Virginia native was named to the 2020 VaSID first-team all-state after recording a hit in 21 games, including eight multi-hit games. Softball America named Bailey the 81st-ranked played in its shortened season top 100 players at the conclusion of last season.
The 2019 ACC Freshman of the Year, Bennett continued to rake in 2020, leading the team in RBIs with 25 and tied for the team lead with seven home runs. She was named to the VaSID first-team all-state and Softball America's shortened season top 100, coming in at No. 71. Bennett led all qualifying Hokies in slugging percentage at .794 and had 13 extra-base hits in 2020, over half her total hits for the season. This month, Bennett was also named to the Softball America preseason top-100 players, ranked No. 75.
Rochard was arguably the most dominant pitcher in the country in 2020, leading the NCAA in strikeouts (183), wins (15) and shutouts (7). She went 15-3 and threw two no-hitters in the shortened season. Rochard was named the ACC Pitcher of the Week three consecutive weeks from Feb. 25 to March 10, 2020 and National Pitcher of the Week on March 3. Softball America named her a first-team All-American and listed her as the No. 14 player in the country in the shortened season, and VaSID named Rochard the state Pitcher of the Year.
Rochard has already pulled in accolades for the 2021 season on top of preseason All-ACC. Wednesday, she was among the 50 players on the USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year watchlist. Softball America also named Rochard to the preseason top 100 players (No. 9) and to the top 25 juniors (No. 2). Thursday, D1Softball named Rochard a preseason second-team All-American.
Virginia Tech is ranked second in the ACC Preseason Coaches Poll, behind only Florida State, and was the only other team to receive first-place votes. On Tuesday, the Hokies were ranked No. 15 and No. 16 in the country by the USA Today/NFCA Coaches Poll and ESPN.com/USA Softball Poll, respectively. The No. 15 preseason ranking is the highest for the program since 2008.
2021 Preseason All-ACC Softball Team
Hannah Goodwin, Clemson, Fr., INF
DJ Davis, Duke, Sr., INF
Sydney Sherrill, Florida State, Jr., INF
Katie Marino, Notre Dame, Gr., INF
Kelsey Bennett, Virginia Tech, So., INF
Marissa Guimbarda, Clemson, Jr., OF
Dani Morgan, Florida State, Sr., OF
Taty Forbes, NC State, Sr., OF
Jayme Bailey, Virginia Tech, So., OF
Caylan Arnold, Florida State, Sr., P
Brittany Pickett, North Carolina, Sr., P
Keely Rochard, Virginia Tech, Jr., P
Anna Shelnutt, Florida State, Sr., C
Valerie Cagle, Clemson, Fr., UT
2021 ACC Softball Preseason Coaches Poll
- Florida State (141 points, nine first-place votes)
- Virginia Tech (136 points, four first-place votes)
- Notre Dame (114 points)
- Duke (99 points)
- North Carolina (96 points)
- Clemson (88 points)
- Louisville (81 points)
- NC State (78 points)
- Georgia Tech (61 points)
- Syracuse (39 points)
- Pitt (31 points)
- Virginia (28 points)
- Boston College (22 points)