Emma Lemley has had her fair share of ups and downs in the NCAA Tournament over the course of her collegiate career to date. While last year ended with a rough pair of starts against Georgia, this year's NCAA Tournament began with possibly the best postseason performance of her career to lead the Hokies to victory.
Virginia Tech beat San Diego State 5-1 to advance to the winner's bracket championship tomorrow where they'll face either UCLA or Grand Canyon for the first spot in the regional final.
Lemley was the star of this game allowing only one base runner (via a first inning single) to reach base during the first five innings of this game on her way to a complete game victory. Only once did Lemley find herself in deep trouble during the top of the sixth inning, yet the junior navigated herself out of it just as you'd expect from a veteran ace keeping the damage to only one run.
Overall for the day, Lemley only allowed three hits and one run while striking out six over the course of seven innings. Most notably, Lemley only threw 93 pitches which should mean she's sharp for whenever the Hokies have her take the mount next, whether that's in a must-win situation tomorrow or preferably Sunday.
Tech's strong lineup took a little bit to get going in this game, but eventually found their rhythm and helped the Hokies take control. That started in the bottom of the third as the Hokies loaded the bases with no outs for Cameron Fagan who hit a sac fly to bring home freshman Annika Rohs, giving the Hokies the early lead.
While Tech was only able to get one run out of that situation, they built on their tight lead in the fourth as sophomore catcher Kylie Adridge took advantage of a two-on, one-out situation with a RBI single. The freshman Rohs followed Aldridge, who stole second to give the Hokies two in scoring position, with a ground out that brought home another run to extend the Hokies' lead to 3-0.
The Hokies built their lead further in the fifth with Cori McMillan hitting a one-out RBI double to give the Hokies a 4-0 lead. SDSU's Mac Barbara was able to drive home the Aztecs' only run via a RBI single in the top of the sixth, but Addy Greene followed that up in the bottom half of the inning with a RBI single to push the scoreline to the 5-1 final.
Greene was one of the Hokies' biggest offensive stars of this game going 3-4 with a RBI and a run scored. Emma Ritter had another strong game going 2-4 while Kylie Aldridge went 1-3 with a RBI plus a stolen base. Cameron Fagan, Cori McMillan, and Annika Rohs all added a RBI and a hit with Rohs adding a run herself.
This Virginia Tech team has been primarily defined by their offensive power, yet it was the dominant pitching of Emma Lemley that set the tone and led the Hokies to a regional-opening victory. Next up, the Hokies will look to pick up an important victory in the winner's bracket final tomorrow against either UCLA or Grand Canyon to book a ticket to the regional final where they'll only have to win of a possible two Sunday games, should they win their first game Saturday.
