Virginia Tech Softball 2007 Quick Facts SCHOOL Location: Virginia Tech is located in Blacksburg #24 South Carolina Virginia Tech (pop. 39,000) in scenic southwest Virginia. 2007 Record: 23-3 2007 Record: 21-7 The campus lies on a plain between the Blue vs VT: 4-5 at South Carolina: 3-1 Ridge and Allegheny Mountains, 2,100 feet Last Meeting: 2006 series streak: VT won 4 above sea level. History: Founded in 1872 as the land-grant virginia tech HOKIES at #24 south carolina GAMECOCKS university of the state Wednesday, March 14, 2007 Enrollment: 28,000 Colors: Chicago maroon & burnt orange Beckham Field; Columbia, S.C. Nickname: Hokies Live Stats: http://live.hokiesports.com/softball/live/ Conference: Atlantic Coast Broadcast: http://www.uscsports.com President: Charles W. Steger Scouting the Gamecocks: The Hokies will travel to Columbia, S.C., for a mid-week doubleheader Director of Athletics: Jim Weaver against a white-hot South Carolina team. The Gamecocks are 23-3 overall, 3-0 in the SEC after sweeping COACHING STAFF Arkansas last weekend and moved into the top 25 this week at No. 24. Ashton Payne, from Richmond, Head Coach: Scot Thomas leads the way with a .368 average and six stolen bases. Whitney Wierzbick is second with a .357 average Alma Mater: East Tennessee State, 1991 while three others are also hitting .300 or higher. McKenna Hughes leads the Gamecocks with seven home Career/VT Record: 406-279 (12th year) runs and 19 RBI. In the circle, Kate Pouliot is 12-1 with an impressive 0.39 ERA, giving up just four Assistant Coach: Al Brauns earned runs in 71.2 innings. Melissa Hendon is 9-1 with a 0.91 ERA and 123 strikeouts in 84.2 innings. Alma Mater: Penn State, 1973 (9th year) As a team, USC hits .279 and has an ERA of just 0.89. Assistant Coach: Tiffany McVay Alma Mater: East Tennessee State, 2004 (1st year) The Series: The Virginia Tech-South Carolina softball series has been a close one over the years with the Volunteer Assistant Coach: Alan Bayse Hokies leading 5-4. Tech has won the last four to take the lead in the series. The two first met in 2000 with USC sweeping a doubleheader, 3-0 and 3-1. The following year, Tech split with the Gamecocks in FACILITY Columbia, winning 4-1 in nine innings before losing 2-1. After dropping two neutral site games, Tech Home Field: Tech Softball Park (500) swept USC in 2005 at Columbia, 6-5 and 3-0 before winning 1-0 and 2-1 last year in Blacksburg. Dimensions: Lines 200’; center 220’ Press Box Phone: (540) 231-6061 Starting Strong: The Virginia Tech softball team enters the USC doubleheader with a 21-7 record after winning the Georgia State First Pitch Classic its opening weekend in Atlanta, the Tiger Invitational the SPORTS INFORMATION Asst. SID/Softball Contact: Bryan Johnston second weekend in Auburn and the Knight Games two weekends ago. Three weekends ago, the Hokies Office: (540) 231-3387 won their bracket at the prestigious NFCA Leadoff Classic before dropping a tough 1-0 decision to No. Office Fax: (540) 231-6984 13 Michigan in the semifinals. Last weekend, Tech went 6-2 at the USF-adidas Invitational, winning the Cell: (540) 392-1994 Silver Bracket. Tech has already picked up 11 wins over teams that made the NCAA Tournament a year E-mail: [email protected] ago. Tech has three wins over Tennessee Tech, and one over Georgia, Illinois State, Lehigh, Auburn, Notre Web Site: http://www.hokiesports.com/softball Dame, Ohio State, Hofstra and Tulsa. TEAM INFORMATION Climbing the Charts: Junior pitcher Angela Tincher (Eagle Rock, Va.) is threatening the obliterate the 2006 Record: 39-21 Tech record books, but now she’s starting to make some noise in the ACC and NCAA record books. She 2006 ACC Record/Finish: 12-8/3rd has 1,043 career strikeouts, third-best in ACC history. She is also the NCAA’s No. 2 pitcher in terms of Starters Returning/Lost: 7/2; 3/2 pitchers career strikeouts per seven innings, averaging 13.4 per game. That total trails only the all-time strikeout Newcomers: 5 leader, Cat Osterman of Texas, who averaged 14.3 Ks per seven innings. This year, she has 253 strikeouts in just 117.0 innings of work, an average of 15.1 per seven innings. Against Ohio State last weekend, she ADDITIONAL RESOURCES became just the 25th in NCAA history to reach 1,100 Ks for her career. ACC Web Site: theacc.com NCAA Web Site: ncaa.org 400: Virginia Tech head coach Scot Thomas reached a milestone last weekend, picking up win No. 400. NFCA Web Site: nfca.org When the Hokies beat Stetson on March 4 to win the Knight Games title, he picked up the milestone USA Softball Web Site: usasoftball.com victory and now stands with a 406-279 record in 12 seasons. Did You Know?: Sophomore Charisse Mariconda does not have a middle name … Sophomore Inside the Numbers Jessica Everhart has a twin sister, Jennifer, who plays softball at Radford … Head coach Scot Thomas was in the same fraternity as country music star Kenny Chesney at ETSU … Assistant coach Al Overall: 21-7 Brauns served in the Vietnam War … Angela Tincher is the first female from her high school to Home: 0-0; Away: 4-0; Neutral: 17-7 ever earn a Division I scholarship and is the only player to wear jersey No. 1 in Tech’s 12-year softball history … At seven letters, Erin Ota has the shortest name of anyone in the history of Tech softball Atlantic Coast Conference: 0-0 while at 17 letters, Charisse Mariconda’s name is tied with Christine Trunnell as the longest in Tech Home: 0-0; Away: 0-0 softball history … Ashley Thatcher is the first player from the state of Montana to play for the Hokies … Erin Ota’s father, Blair, went to dental school with Kelsy Rokey’s dad, J. Ray, at the University of When leading after five: 12-0 Southern California … Assistant coach Tiffany McVay was married while she was in college … Both When trailing after five: 1-5 Kelsey Hoffman and Caroline Stolle have pet ferrets … Erin Ota was all-league in golf at Northwood When leading after six: 16-0 High and is an avid surfer when back home … Beth Walker has a poodle named Louisville Slugger … Anna Zitt was a standout basketball player in high school, scoring 999 career points … Caroline When trailing after six: 1-7 Stolle had surgery last summer to remove bunions from both feet and was in walking boots for When tied after five: 7-2 over a month … Karie Morrison and Ashley Thatcher are both from Great Falls, Morrison’s is in When tied after six: 3-0 Virginia while Thatcher’s is in Montana …Steffanie Massetti made the Dean’s List last spring while Record in extra innings: 1-0 at Tech, but not a member of the softball team, making her a sophomore academically and a freshman When scoring first: 13-1 athletically … Whitney Davis was president of her sophomore, junior and senior classes. When scoring in first inning: 7-1 When scoring six or more runs: 5-1 A New Class of Hokies: The Virginia Tech athletics department and head softball coach Scot Thomas When holding opp. to two runs or less: 21-2 announced on Nov. 8, 2006 the 2007 signing class for the Hokies. Chasity Covington (Midland, N.C., Central Cabarrus HS) is the sister of Tech freshman Record in one-run games: 8-2 Destiny Covington, and was named a second-team All-American last year in the outfield after hitting Record in two-run games: 4-1 .422 with seven home runs, eight doubles and three triples. Record in five-run or more games: 4-1 Jess Hodge (Vancouver, B.C., Canada) will get her first look at shortstop. She attends Point Grey When committing one or fewer errors: 16-5 Secondary — which does not have softball — and plays travel ball with the White Rock Renegades. When committing two or more errors: 5-2 She was named Athlete of the Year 2002-2006 and has been on the honor roll all throughout high school. In 2005, she was named a Canadian Softball National all-star shortstop. Her travel team posted vs. lefties (starters): 3-2 a record in 2005-2006 of 88-23-3. vs. righties (starters): 18-5 Kenzie Roark ([pronounced RO-ark] Old Hickory, Tenn., Mt. Juliet High) is a right-handed pitcher who was named second-team all-state in 2006 as a junior after leading her team to a state runner-up finish. She was named the MVP of the district tournament and went 16-2 on the season In February: 12-4 with a 0.68 ERA and 99 strikeouts. In March: 9-3 In April: 0-0 Working Summer Vacation: Angela Tincher spent part of her summer vacation donning the red, In May: 0-0 white and blue of the United States as part of the World University Games. She was one of four pitchers selected by USA Softball for the team which competed in Taiwan last July. For the 12-game Day games: 16-6 tour (the U.S. went 9-3), she made seven appearances with three starts. She gave up four earned runs Night games: 5-1 in 22.2 innings for an ERA of 1.24 with 23 strikeouts. The team started with a scrimmage against the U.S.