• Freshman 3B Kelsey Mericka (Fuck yeah!) is hitting .231.
• Oh, the rest of the team? But none of them give me a reason to embed a Team America song with lots of swearing. Fine. They're 6-0 for the first time since 2006 when they started 10-0.
• They travel to Auburn, Ala., this weekend and will face three Top 15 teams that advanced to last year's Women's College World Series (Oklahoma, Oklahoma State and Alabama).
• That means we'll figure out how good this team really is. Of their first five opponents (they played UNC Greensboro twice) only one (Jacksonville) made last year's NCAA Tournament.
• Courtney Liddle and Dani Anderson are once again Tech's top two hitters, the top returning pitcher Jasmin Harrell's K/BB ratio has improved though it's early in the season and Liddle's sister Bailey looks like she's going to be the Hokies' second option in the circle.
• You should be following head coach Scot Thomas on The Twitter.

Over the next few weeks we'll count down the Top 10 moments in Virginia Tech sports in the 2010-11 sports season. Only one moment per sport is eligible for the countdown, otherwise this would just be seven or eight football moments and then it might as well have just been the football Top 10 and done in January. And since I was too lazy to do that and there isn't anything going on during the summer we're doing this. Hope you enjoy.

We begin our countdown with the zenith of Hokies softball season when the team went into Tallahassee and came away with a crucial series win. At the time, it seemed like a turning point that would lead to a successful season for the young team. Instead, it turned out to be the lone bright spot from Tech's ACC season.

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Virginia Tech was presented with a golden opportunity prior to its game against Florida State in the first round of the ACC Tournament. Unfortunately, the Hokies weren't able to take advantage and fell 9-2 to the Seminoles Friday in Atlanta.

The top seed in the tournament, Georgia Tech, was upset by UVa in the game preceding Tech's matchup with the Seminoles. Tech was looking for a repeat performance of its regular season series against the Noles, when it took two of three in Tallahassee. But the Hokies and Noles went in opposite directions since that series the first weekend in April and it showed late in Friday's game.

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A sweep at the hands of Maryland last week sealed the Hokies postseason fate. In order to make the NCAA Tournament, the Hokies are going to have to win their conference tournament May 13-15 in Atlanta and do so from the same side of the bracket as the No. 1 seed, three-time ACC champion Georgia Tech.

It's a tall order for the Hokies, who lost nine of their last 11 league games, culminating with the series against Maryland. It was the first time Tech had been swept at home since March of last year when it lost all three games in its series against UVa. 

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Virginia Tech came into its weekend series with last-place NC State hoping to get back on track after back-to-back heart-breaking series losses. Instead, the Hokies dropped their third series in a row thanks in large part to the work of Wolfpack pitcher Kayla Cox.

Cox came into the series 1-7, 3.95 in nine ACC appearances with a league-high 13 home runs allowed. That didn't matter this weekend in Blacksburg. She won both of her starts, holding the Hokies to one run on eight hits, all singles, in 14.0 IP. Tech's only run against her came on a bases-loaded walk.

The series defeat drops the Hokies to 9-9 in ACC play. They'll finish the conference schedule when Maryland and its pitching coach, former Hokie Angela Tincher, come to town this weekend. The two teams will play a doubleheader Saturday at Noon and a single game at 1 p.m. Sunday at Tech Softball Park.

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Last week against Georgia Tech we learned Virginia Tech's softball team is capable of beating any team left on its schedule. This week against Virginia we learned the Hokies are also capable of losing to any of them. 

Virginia Tech gave up six runs in the final two innings of its rubber match with UVa Saturday night to fall 6-5 and lose its series with the Wahoos, 2-1. The pressure is now on the Hokies in their final two ACC series against NC State in Maryland if they want to improve their seeding for the ACC tournament.

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Virginia Tech was one strike away from ending Georgia Tech's ACC-record of 19 consecutive conference series won. Unfortunately for the Hokies, Georgia Tech's bats came alive at the right time and the Yellow Jackets slugged their way to another series win this weekend in Blacksburg.

Game 1: Virginia Tech 4, Georgia Tech 2

The Hokies received a solid pitching performance from Jasmin Harrell in Game 1 and hung on for a 4-2 win over the Jackets. They took a 2-1 lead in the second thanks to a two-out, two-RBI single by Marra Hvozdovic. They added two more runs in the third after a two-RBI single by Courtney Liddle.

It was Liddle's first game for the Hokies since March 20 when the first baseman was cleated on a play at first against North Carolina. She finished the game 1-for-1 with two walks and two RBIs. The Hokies' chased Georgia Tech starter Kristen Adkins after she gave up four earned runs in 2.2 IP. She came into the game with a 0.87 ERA, far and away the best in the ACC.

Harrell scattered two hits and gave up one run over the final four innings to give the Hokies' a series-opening win over the No. 25 team in the nation.

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Two extra-innings victories helped Virginia Tech's softball team win its series at Florida State this weekend. The wins put the Hokies at 6-3 in the ACC and third in the conference standings behind 7-2 North Carolina and next week's opponent, 6-0 Georgia Tech.

Tech managed just three singles in a 1-0 loss in the first game of its double-header with the Seminoles Saturday. FSU pitcher Sarah Hamilton walked one and struck out 10 to out-duel Virginia Tech's Jasmin Harrell. A home run by Seminole catcher Jen Lapicki in the sixth was the game's only run.

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