Softball: Panthers aim for all-around effort in double-header at Virginia Tech

In the six-hour bus trip Pitt’s softball team made yesterday, players took different approaches to passing the time.

Junior outfielder Carly Thea wanted to catch up on either sleep or work — perhaps both if the latter induced the former. Redshirt sophomore second baseman Maggie Sevilla chose to start studying for her upcoming final exams in clinical psychology and criminology. Junior pitcher Savannah King opted to write some of her final paper for a history class and study for a kinesiology test. Other players preferred to entertain themselves by watching movies along the way.

But by the time the Panthers arrived in Blacksburg, Va., for a doubleheader today against Virginia Tech at Tech Softball Park, they all shared the same mindset: Focus on a simple game plan that they hope brings them closer to clinching a berth in the conference tournament.

“We just need to go out there and do our thing in every aspect of our game — hitting, fielding and pitching,” Thea said.

Before Pitt (13-17, 4-7 ACC) even boarded the bus, though, the players weren’t sure what to expect from Virginia Tech (22-16, 11-6 ACC), which has won six of its last eight games. Thea said they’ll usually go over scouting reports the night before a game and meet as a group before the contest starts, but the unexpected doesn’t worry her.

“Whatever [the scouting report] is going to be, I don’t think it’s going to be anything we can’t handle,” Thea said. “[We] just need to go in there and play them with intensity.”

That scouting report is likely to focus on sophomore right-handed pitchers Maggie Tyler and Kelly Heinz. Tyler, who leads the team with 21 games started, might pitch the opening game, slated for 4 p.m, while Heinz could start Game 2, scheduled for 6 p.m.

Tyler has posted a 3.36 earned run average in 125 innings pitched this year, allowing 143 hits and 29 walks against 102 strikeouts. Heinz has thrown 115 2/3 innings, posting a 4.05 ERA on 113 hits and 54 walks with 109 punchouts.

Never mind that Tyler has demonstrated outstanding control or that Heinz has shown the propensity to pile up strikeouts. Sevilla is ready to hit.

“We go into these games like [we’re facing] any other pitcher,” Sevilla said. “Our approach will be to just see the ball and swing hard.”

If that’s been the approach for Sevilla and Thea all year, there’s certainly no reason to do anything differently. Thea leads the team with a .397 batting average and .495 on-base percentage and propelled herself to a team-high .692 slugging percentage after a week in which she went 8-for-11 with three home runs. Sevilla, meanwhile, is second on the team with a .295 average and leads the team with eight home runs and 25 RBI.

Thea’s torrid week comes shortly after Sevilla was named the ACC Player of the Week on March 31. So although it seems like one is trying to outdo the other lately, Sevilla maintains that there’s no stated competition.

“[It’s] more of a camaraderie because we try and pick each other up when one isn’t doing well,” she said. “When both of us are seeing the ball and getting hits we get excited … because it means we are producing runs for our pitchers.”

And that, of course, goes back to the complete effort the team desires. It’s an approach that Pitt head coach Holly Aprile emphasized before the Panthers’ 2-0 win Sunday over Boston College, a win that kept the team in eighth place and in line for a bid to the ACC Tournament.

Even King, who should start the first game of the twin bill, didn’t seem to mind that she wouldn’t know her opponents’ tendencies until the night before the game.

“The biggest thing for us is to just go back to how we were [playing] against Boston College on Sunday,” she said. “Coach Holly gave us a little speech before, a reminder that we need to work as a team and that we need to have each other’s backs, whether it’s pitching, offense or defense.”

King will have to figure out a way to slow down Hokies junior second baseman Kylie McGoldrick, who leads the team with a .361 average and whose eight home runs leave her tied with senior outfielder Amanda Ake for the team high.

But King added that she’ll be able to hold up her end of the deal by keeping focused on a “one pitch at a time” mentality. It helps her confidence, too, that she has a pair of streaking hitters who can boost an offense, she said.

“I think our offense has been riding a lot on the home run. Carly and Maggie keep stepping up, and we’ll have a few others here and there,” King said. It’s definitely nice to know Carly’s feeling good and doing well, so it helps all of us. It’s a motivator.”

Of course, it’s also motivation that the Panthers have just 11 conference games remaining after today.

“Every game is huge at this point in the ACC,” King said. “We needed to take those three against Boston College, and we didn’t, so it just kind of puts a little more importance on every other game.”