Winners of 10 straight, the Virginia Tech softball team headed to Raleigh on Friday night to open a three-game ACC series against North Carolina State who entered 4-8 in conference play, but at 21-16 overall, this was a big series for them in terms of building a résumé for the NCAA Tournament.
They were hosting the perfect opponent to do that as the Hokies entered the game ranked 11th in the country and one of the hottest teams in the country. After sweeping Stanford last weekend in Blacksburg and beating Liberty on Wednesday night, Virginia Tech avoided a letdown in Game 1 of the series with an offensive explosion.
Virginia Tech softball run-rules NC State to open ACC series Friday night
As has been the case this season with Virginia Tech, they wasted little time in opening the scoring in their first at-bat. They plated four first inning runs when Rachel Castine had an RBI double, and two outs later with the bases load, Zoe Yaeger cleared the bases with a three-run double for a 4-0 lead,
NC State got on the board in the bottom of the inning with a solo home run from Kendall Simmers off of Emma Lemley. The score stayed that way until the top of the fourth when Cori McMillan had an RBI single and a sac-fly from Michelle Chatfield made it 6-1. The Wolfpack got a run back in the bottom of the inning, but the Hokies put the game away with four runs in the top of the fifth.
Bre Peck scored on a wild pitch before McMillan blasted a three-run homer to left field for a 10-2 lead. Lemley, who finished allowing two runs, and two hits while walking four and striking out three, retired the side in the bottom of the fifth to end the game. Game 2 of the series will be on Saturday at 5 p.m.