Preseason polls picked Virginia softball to finish second to last in the ACC. Now at the end of their regular season, though, the Cavaliers are one series away from finishing second-best. The team hosts No. 22 Florida State for a three-game series this weekend, needing just one win to clinch the No. 2 spot in the ACC.
"When you're picked to finish second-to-last in the conference, you have nothing to lose, and that's kind of the way our personality has been all year long," coach Eileen Schmidt said. "We don't do anything amazing but we keep piling up wins."
The Cavaliers have piled up 12 ACC wins, the most in program history. After Virginia's 2-15 conference record last year, the team's success has surpassed even its own expectations.
"We've far exceeded the goals that we started with, so we've revamped those goals," Schmidt said. "Once we got off [the LSU Tiger Classic], we knew we could do better in the ACC than we had thought. I had been thinking middle of the pack, but after that, we knew we could get in the top three."
The Cavaliers (32-18, 12-5 ACC) swept Boston College last weekend to grab a 2.5 game conference lead ahead of Florida State (39-14, 10-8 ACC). A win against the Seminoles could pay off big, as the ACC's No. 2 team historically has been rewarded with a Regionals Bid, meaning Virginia could very well lock down its first NCAA Tournament appearance. The team, however, is trying to avoid dwelling too much on this fact.
"We definitely know that winning one game clinches second, but we can't focus on just that one game, because it'll make taking that one game that much harder," senior third baseman Abby Snyder said. "We're going out to win the series."
Besting the Seminoles will be challenging, especially given their dual threats in the circle. Florida State's senior pitcher Terese Gober has gone 20-7 with a 2.21 ERA, while junior pitcher Sarah Hamilton is 18-7 and owns a 1.31 ERA.
"Hamilton and Gober have always been good," Schmidt said. "Hamilton is kind of heating up right now, which stinks for us, but we can get after it and scrap out runs."
But the Cavalier offense has been heating up recently, as well. The team exploded during its last series, scoring 23 runs against Boston College. Senior right fielder Sarah Tacke led that charge, with three home runs in one game, and paces the team with a .383 average.
"I think our offense has definitely hit its stride," Snyder said. "We've never really been down, down, but everyone's picked it up. We've gotten steadier, and it couldn't come at a better time."
For Florida State, senior centerfielder Carly Wynn owns a team-best .393 average and .510 on-base percentage. She'll find a difficult foe in the Cavalier's freshman pitcher Melanie Mitchell, however, whose 25 wins and 2.72 ERA top the team.
"From a mental standpoint, the attitude and swagger [Mitchell] brings really help - she's a pitcher perfectionist," Schmidt said. "She makes great adjustment, she competes every pitch, and that's what you want to have every week."
Indeed, Mitchell's addition to the team is seen as a big contributor to Virginia's turnaround this season. Still, the biggest reason for the Cavaliers' success may be the three people who have been there the longest, Schmidt said.
"You talk about a Mitchell as the fresh face, but really the consistency from the [seniors] is what's pushed us along," Schmidt said. "We fully appreciate everything that they've brought to the team."\nSnyder, Tacke and senior pitcher Nicole Koren have stuck with the team through thick and thin and are one weekend away from seeing it pay off.
"It certainly wasn't easy on them my first two years, I wasn't easy on anyone, but they bought in," Schmidt said. "So you're excited that they're going out on the high note that they deserve to go out on when they put that kind of work in"
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