A new softball season begins Friday as the Virginia Tech Hokies begin play in the Kickin’ Chicken Classic, hosted by Coastal Carolina. The Hokies will play 5 games in the tournament as follows:

Friday, February 7
12:45 Iowa
5:15 Coastal Carolina

Saturday, February 8
4:15 Campbell
6:30 East Carolina

Sunday, February 9
9:30 Iowa

Here’s some brief highlights of their upcoming opponents.

Iowa

Last season: 19-32 overall, 5-18 in the Big Ten (12th)

The Hawkeyes are beginning their second season under Coach Renee Gillispie and will have 13 new faces in the program, eight of them coming from junior colleges.

Iowa showed glimpses of success in 2019, winning eight straight games from Feb. 17-March 1, its longest winning streak in 10 seasons. The program enjoyed that achievement and now wants to take the next step according to Gillispie.

"It is a cultural change," Gillispie said. "We worked hard last year, had quite a few injuries and we battled through. We have a healthy squad and it is working hard in the weight room. They are looking like Division I athletes now. They are getting to that point where you are seeing we can compete in the Big Ten Conference this year."

Senior Allison Doocy returns after winning 14 games in the circle in 2019 with 195 strikeouts and a 2.73 ERA. She was named second-team All-Big Ten and All-Midwest Region for a second consecutive season.

Returning at first base for the Hawkeyes is leading hitter DoniRae Mayhew, a senior. She batted .264 with eight doubles, five home runs, and 18 RBIs a year ago. Her slugging percentage of .442 was also best on the team.

One of the eight junior college additions is junior infielder Mia Ruther. Ruther spent the past two seasons at Des Moines Area Community College where she was a NJCAA All-American after batting .580 with 88 runs and 46 stolen bases.

"With her speed, she will give us a lot of opportunities offensively," Gillispie said.

Another speedster, junior Aralee Bogar, is back after leading the Big Ten in stolen bases the last two seasons. She was 26-of-30 in stolen base attempts in 2019.

Here’s an interesting sidenote: Iowa held spring training in Madeira Beach, Florida for the second consecutive year on January 9-16. Not a spring training location.

Coastal Carolina

Last Season: 39-21 overall, 13-14 in the Sun Belt Conference

The tournament host Chanticleers finished strong last season, winning four games in the Sun Belt Conference tournament and made it to the title game. They are coached by Kelley Green, who is her 11th year as the head softball coach at CCU.

Last season, Coastal led the Sun Belt with 87 home runs, but this year's roster will feature more versatility according to Green. “Our power is going to stay the same, but we're going to add a whole new dimension to our speed and aggressiveness on the bases and hopefully that translates into more runs and more wins."

Although the Chanticleers will have to replace the left side of their infield, the right side of the infield will be strong with veterans Kassidy Smith and Taylor Sweigart returning at first and second base, respectively.

Smith will be entering her senior season ranked fourth all-time in school history with 37 home runs. In 2019, she led the Chanticleers with 15 home runs and was named to the 2019 Sun Belt All-Tournament Team Sweigart, was named 2nd Team All Sun Belt and returns to the Chanticleer line up in 2020 after missing the final 23 games last season due to injury. Despite just playing 37 games, Sweigart had an excellent season in the leadoff spot for the team batting .315 batting average, including six multi-hit games, and leading the team with eight stolen bases.

In the outfield, 2020 Preseason All-Sun Belt selection Courtney Dean returns with a career batting average of .336, 28 home runs, and 75 RBIs. She has been an all-conference selection the past two seasons.

East Carolina

Last Season: 23-31 overall, 4-17 in the American Conference (7th)

Head coach Courtney Oliver enters her fifth season at ECU and is just five wins away from her 100th win with the program.

Although last season was a disappointment, East Carolina did end the year on a positive, upsetting #2 seed Tulsa in the conference tournament before the rest of the tournament was rained out. The Pirates return four of their top hitters from 2019 and their entire pitching staff. Overall, the Pirates welcome back 13 position players and two pitchers while adding eight newcomers.

When the Hokies face off with East Carolina on Saturday, they will recognize some familiar faces in the Pirate dugout. Junior outfielder Chandley Garner and junior pitcher Kama Woodall both played for NC State last season, but transferred to ECU as their playing time dropped from their freshmen seasons.

Gardner was a top 50 recruit by Flo softball when she signed with NC State and hit a team leading 11 home runs with 31 RBIs as a freshman. Woodall led the Pack in ERA last season with a 3.03 mark and pitched 3 shutout innings against the Hokies in the ACC tournament.

Other Pirate players to watch are Junior shortstop Ashleigh Inae, who led the team in batting (.322), runs scored (37), on base percentage (.447) and walks drawn (24), Senior infielder Rachel McCollum, who led the team in doubles (10), RBI (41) and total bases (71), and right handed pitcher Erin Poepping, who led the team in starts (33), ERA (3.35) and had 164 strikeouts in 215 innings.

Campbell

Last Season: 26-28 overall, 14-9 in Big South (3rd)

Sharonda McDonald, begins her second season as head coach at Campbell after spending time as an Assistant Coach at Ohio State, Florida, LSU, and Texas Tech.

The Camels, who were picked third in the Big South Conference preseason softball coaches poll, return 3 of their 4 leading hitters: Senior Kynadi Tipler (.376 average), Junior Kayla Fredendall (.346 average, team leadin 11 HRs and 31 RBIs) and Junior Bryant Perryman (.336 average).

The Camels also return their leading pitcher Senior Megan Richards (5.07 ERA and 77 Ks in 124 innings).