Don't look now, but the 2026 college softball season is set to get underway. Virginia Tech and head coach Pete D'Amour will begin the season on Thursday night at South Carolina. The Hokies will play Binghamton and Winthrop on Friday, then they will play Binghamton and South Carolina on Saturday to close out the weekend.
Virginia Tech begins the season ranked in four polls and coming off a 45-13 season, where they have to replace a lot of players in their lineup and in the circle. However, they return a good amount of contributors from the 2025 team and the Hokies are looking four 40-plus win season for the fourth time in five years. Here are three questions facing Virginia Tech.
3 Virginia Tech softball questions as 2026 season begins on Thursday night
- 1. Who returns in the lineup?
- 2. How does Virginia Tech replace Emma Lemley in the circle?
- 3. How difficult is Virginia Tech's non-conference schedule in 2026?
D'Amour returns four players who hit over .300 last season. Kylie Aldridge, Michelle Chatfield, Zoe Yeager, and Jordan Lynch all return. Chatfield hit .386 with 15 home runs, while Lynch hit .381 with 10 home runs. The Hokies are going to need some of their younger players, and newcomers step up after losing 45 combined home runs from Cori McMillan and Bre Peck.
As far as the pitching goes, Virginia Tech returns Cassie Grizzard, Emma Mazzarone, and Sophie Kleiman, who are back to replace Lemley. They went a combined 25-5 last season. Kleiman and Mazzarone got the majority of the work outside of Lemley and should be the top two for D'Amour this season.
As far as the non-conference slate goes, after a weekend in Columbia, the Hokies will play in the Queen City Classic next weekend with games against Michigan State, Charlotte, and Villanova. They will then play in the Georgia Classic and two games against the Bulldogs and other matchups against Seton Hall and Utah State. Virginia Tech will play in the Jane B. Moore Memorial at Auburn, and then the Hokies get Michigan as part of the Hokie Invite.
The ACC slate begins at Duke and will include road series at Boston College, Virginia, and Syracuse. Their home conference slate includes North Carolina, Clemson, North Carolina State, and Georgia Tech. All-in-all, it's not a bad schedule.