Picking up three ACC awards, five first-team All-ACC selections and two ACC All-Freshmen Team members, the No. 22/20 Virginia Tech softball team received many honors by the league office on Tuesday after getting the No. 1 seed in the ACC Championship.
Under the guidance of the 2019 ACC Coach of the Year, Pete D’Amour, the Hokies (45-8, 20-4 ACC) also boasted the ACC Pitcher of the Year in pitcher Carrie Eberle (25-5, 1.66 ERA) and the ACC Freshman of the Year in third baseman Kelsey Bennett (.397 BA, 44 RBIs).
The three awards mark the first time in school history of winning three major awards from the ACC. The previous high was two in a season set twice in 2006 and 2007. Bennett’s award was the first ACC Freshman of the Year by a Hokie since 2016 (Lauren Duff) and just the second time in program history.
Eberle’s honor was the fourth time a Tech player has earned ACC Pitcher of the Year and first since 2008 (Angela Tincher 2006, ’07, ’08). D’Amour’s ACC Coach of the Year nod was the second in school history (Scot Thomas, 2007).
Eberle and Bennett were joined by first baseman Jayme Bailey (.406 BA, 16 RBIs), outfielder Emma Strouth (.413 BA, 66 RBIs) and pitcher Keely Rochard (20-3, 1.73 ERA) on the first-team All-ACC squad, giving Tech the most players on the first-team of any club in the league. It marks the first time for any of them making the prestigious list and the most-ever Hokies on an All-ACC first team since the league broke up its all-conference team into first- and second-team in 2005.
Bailey and Bennett, who both made the NFCA Freshman of the Year Top 25 list, made the ACC All-Freshmen Team. They join Eberle (2017), Duff (2016) and Maggie Tyler (2016) to make the team in Tech’s history.
All five players and Coach D’Amour will be back on the field on Thursday at 11 a.m. ET in Tallahassee, Florida for the quarterfinals of the ACC Championship. The Hokies will play the winner of the 8-9 game between NC State (29-26, 9-15) and Syracuse (21-31, 8-16).
2019 ACC Softball Player of the Year: Cait Brooks, Sr., DP, Notre Dame
2019 ACC Softball Pitcher of the Year: Carrie Eberle, Jr., Virginia Tech
2019 ACC Softball Defensive Player of the Year: Sydney Sherrill, So., 3B, Florida State
2019 ACC Softball Freshman of the Year: Kelsey Bennett, Fr., 3B, Virginia Tech
2019 ACC Softball Coach of the Year: Pete D’Amour, Virginia Tech
2019 All-ACC Softball First Team
Carsyn Gordon, Sr., 1B, Florida State
Meghan King, Sr., P, Florida State
Sydney Sherrill, So., 3B, Florida State
Katie Krzus, Sr., 3B, Georgia Tech
Kristina Burkhardt, So., OF, North Carolina
Brittany Pickett, Jr., P, North Carolina
Cait Brooks, Sr., DP, Notre Dame
Melissa Rochford, Sr., 3B, Notre Dame
Payton Tidd, Fr., P, Notre Dame
Lacy Smith, Sr., 1B, Virginia
Jayme Bailey, Fr., 1B, Virginia Tech
Kelsey Bennett, Fr., 3B, Virginia Tech
Carrie Eberle, Jr., P, Virginia Tech
Keely Rochard, So., P, Virginia Tech
Emma Strouth, Sr., OF, Virginia Tech
2019 All-ACC Softball Second Team
Lexi DiEmmanuele, Sr., OF, Boston College
Emme Martinez, So., 3B, Boston College
Peyton St. George, So., P, Duke
Elizabeth Mason, So, UT, Florida State
Anna Shelnutt, Jr., C, Florida State
Cameron Stanford, So., CF, Georgia Tech
Sidney Melton, Sr., SS, Louisville
Megan Dray, So., C, North Carolina
Leah Murray, Sr., 2B, North Carolina
Kiani Ramsey, Sr., OF, North Carolina
Sam Russ, So., OF, NC State
Emma Clark, Fr., OF, Notre Dame
Katie Marino, Jr., 2B, Notre Dame
Olivia Gray, Sr., SS, Pittsburgh
Hunter Levesque, So., OF, Pittsburgh
2019 ACC Softball All-Freshman Team
Makinzy Herzog, P, Florida State
Kathryn Sandercock, P, Florida State
Bailee Zeitler, SS, Georgia Tech
Charley Butler, LF, Louisville
Rebecca Chung, C, Louisville
Hannah George, P, North Carolina
Emma Clark, OF, Notre Dame
Payton Tidd, P, Notre Dame
Jayme Bailey, 1B, Virginia Tech
Kelsey Bennett, 3B, Virginia Tech
–VT Athletics
