Friday night’s 4-2 win over NC State is only one game, but it could turn out to be HUGE in the scheme of things --- IF the Hokies can build on it.

And I believe they will.

Certainly there was some rust.

Keely Rochard struck out 12, but I didn’t think she was particularly sharp, walking 4. That’s a lot for her. But NC State came into the game hitting .304 and they hit .160 against Keely. There are many, many teams that would take that kind of rusty.

The Hokies only had 5 hits, but they all occurred on the 3rd and 4th innings and resulted in the 4 runs. AND Hokie batters only struck out twice. The NC State pitching staff was averaging over 6 Ks per 7 innings prior to that.

More exciting for me was the fact that Kelsey Bennett and Mackenzie Lawter each had a hit and they had been struggling a bit before the break. Coach D’Amour told the Blacksburg Sports Club this week that Bennett had asked for a couple of extra hitting session to iron things out and it looks like that may have worked. We all know how explosive she can be when she gets rolling.

Nester sometimes has trouble finding the plate and the Hokies made her work Friday night, drawing 4 walks from her in 3.2 innings. Her replacement, Senior Abby Trahan, did shut the Hokies down, retiring all 10 Hokie batters that she faced. The Hokies will need to solve during the rest of the weekend – she certainly will get a start at some point.

Coach D’Amour also wound up the ponies and let them run Friday night – the Hokies had 3 stolen bases after having only 10 in the 9 previous games. And NC State, which had 35 coming into the game, only had one. A wise man wrote in his preview “they can’t run if they’re not on base.” Give that man a raise, Will Stewart!

One glaring observation that I noticed late was an apparent lack of hitting depth by NC State.
In the bottom of the 7th inning, State’s leadoff batter singled, bringing the tying run to the plate. Next up is the #8 hitter, freshman Haley Haislip, who was getting her first start Friday night. At that point, she was 0-5 on the season and Keely had struck her out in her two previous at bats. Pinch hitter, right? Nope, and Haislip struck out a third time.

Then, we move to the #9 hitter, Kaylee Lambrecht, who is hitting .136 for the year and had struck out and popped up versus Rochard earlier in the game. Still no pinch hitter and Lambrecht pops out to the third baseman.

Had the situation been reversed, Coach D’Amour can look down his bench and choose from Merdith Slaw, Cana Davis, Maddie Roundtree, Morgan Overaitis, or Alexa Milius, just to nanme a few. We are very, very fortunate to have such depth.

And finally, I was sweating just a little when State got a second runner on base in the 7th with their best hitter, Tatyana Forbes, at the plate. But for some unknown reason, she took three straight Rochard strikes and that was the ball game.

Afterwards, Pack Head Coach Jennifer Patrick-Swift was NOT happy. “Our game plan all weekend was to swing the bat,” Patrick-Swift told the Technician, the NC State newspaper. “Keely (Rochard) is a great pitcher, but we made her even better tonight. That was my frustration. That we beat ourselves. We went against our game plan, we had runners in situations late, on first and second at least twice, in the heart of our order and we’re taking pitches.”
Sounds like the Wolfpack will come out swinging on Saturday. Hopefully Keely and her associates will make them pay if they are overly aggressive.

Overall, it was a GREAT start to the series for the Hokies. I’m hoping it continues.

Saturday will be another beautiful day with temperatures in the 60’s.

Let’s Go Hokies.