May 21, 2005

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. - After downing Miami University 4-1 in its first game of the day, the Virginia Tech softball team saw its season come to a close with a 6-3 loss to the College of Charleston Saturday night at the NCAA Regional Tournament at Tyson Park.

In the first game, the Hokies used three solo home runs to down the RedHawks and advance to face the Cougars. While Tech lost that game, Megan Evans provided plenty of drama. After seeing 13 straight balls, resulting in three walks, the senior from Mansfield, Pa., drove a 1-0 pitch over the left field wall for a home run in her final career at bat, coming with two outs in the bottom of the seventh inning. For Evans, it marked her 50^th career home run, 16^th of the season and 50^th RBI of the season, all school records.

Tech jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the second inning of the Miami game when Evans and Stephanie Savre hit back-to-back home runs to give the Hokies an early lead. For Evans, it was her 15^th homer of the season, breaking the school record for homers in a season and for Savre, it marked her ninth shot, tying the school mark for home runs in a season by a freshman.

In the fourth inning, freshman Caroline Stolle blasted a leadoff home run to left to make it 3-0. The Hokies added an unearned run in the fourth to cap the scoring.

Junior Katie Maynard (18-13) shut down the RedHawks, giving up just five hits and one earned run while striking out four and walking none. At the plate, Evans and Savre each had two hits and a RBI. Stolle, Caitlin Murphy, Kathleen Jones and Sarah Prosise each had a hit.

Needing one more win to advance to Sunday's championship round, Tech took to the field for a rematch against Charleston, a team it lost to Friday night. C of C took an early 1-0 lead in the first when Jayme Durand connected on a solo home run on a 0-2 count.

Tech pitcher Angela Tincher (21-9) settled down from there, retiring the next 11 batters.

Tech tied the game up in the third when Savre drove in Stolle with a single to the gap. But Tincher ran into more trouble in the fifth inning when the Cougars got three more runs. Jessica Lyness reached on a fielding error by Tech's Ciara Chaffee before Darcy Johnson ripped a two-run home run to the gap. Tincher then walked a batter, hit a batter, struck out a batter, gave up a single and walked one more batter to drive in one more. Tech head coach Scot Thomas then brought Maynard into the game and she got a pop up to end the inning.

Savre drove in another run in the fifth when she singled through the right side to score Murphy and Evans' blast in the seventh accounted for the final run.

Tincher went 4.2 innings, allowing four runs (two earned) on three hits while walking two and striking out nine. Maynard pitched the final 2.1 innings, allowing two runs on two hits while walking one and striking out one.

For Tincher, she finished the season with a school-record 349 strikeouts in 204.1 innings pitched. Her season ERA of 1.06 is the second-best in school history and her strikeout average of 12.00 per game will rank as one of the top 10 in NCAA history.

At the plate, Savre had two hits and two RBI. Stolle, Murphy, Alisia Narodowski, Evans and Prosise each had a hit.

With the loss, Tech finishes its season 44-25, picking up the second-most wins in school history. The loss also meant the end of four seniors' careers - Evans, Prosise, Jones and Chaffee.