Virginia Tech Sneaks By Akron with Six-Run Seventh to Earn Trip to Regional Final

LSU and Akron spent 12 innings Saturday keeping Virginia Tech backed into a corner.

But Virginia Tech eventually sneaked away with a heroic seventh inning as the sun was setting on Tiger Park, taking down the Zips, 7-6, to keep its season alive.

Final: (16) LSU 8, Virginia Tech 0

The Hokies face the winner of Akron/South Alabama tonight at 6 p.m. ET.#Hokies pic.twitter.com/S7d9s4pAgr
— Virginia Tech Softball (@HokiesSoftball) May 16, 2026

Game 1: LSU 8, Virginia Tech 0 (6 inn.)

To no suprise, the Hokies (48-11, 18-6 ACC) matched up with the regional host in the winner's bracket in the second day of action.

The pairing in the circle for the afternoon affair was mirrored, with both Tech starter Emma Mazzarone and Tigers arm Cece Cellura both possessing high velocity with a sharp off-speed mix.

LSU stayed patient through Mazzarone's wild deliveries, but the Tigers' sole walk in the first spelled what came in the second frame for Tech's junior starter.

Mazzarone suffered a leadoff walk in the second on a full count, and as she tried to regain control of the zone on her next delivery, catcher Maci Bergeron beat her to the zone, sending it over the head of Addison Foster in center for a two-run shot.

After LSU had its lead, the patience grew from there. The Tigers watched 13 of Mazzarone's next 15 deliveries go by, earning three straight walks. That forced a pitching change, and Virginia Tech turned to freshman Avery Layton.

Layton entered and found three outs on as many LSU trips to the dish, yet entering with the bases loaded comes with a price. That price being that even a fly ball can hurt you, as center fielder Jalia Lassiter lifted a sacrifice fly into right to plate one more Tiger in the frame.

LSU pushed its advantage up to four in the fourth after a small two-out rally against Layton. It opened with a full-count walk, before shortstop Kylee Edwards tiptoed an RBI double down the left field line.

The Hokies yielded their best trip to the plate after, looking to rebound off the Tigers buzzing momentum with a leadoff single from first baseman Michelle Chatfield. She eventually skirted up to second on a grounder from junior Zoe Yaeger.

That went as the only time all contest that Tech placed a runner past first base against Cellura, who kept that 'it' factor away from the Hokies at the plate.

Cellura kept Tech off the balls of their feet, often putting herself into friendly pitcher's counts as the Hokies tried to be as patient as the Tigers were.

LSU sent eight batters to the dish in the bottom of the sixth, with an RBI train looming after the Tigers had two runners in scoring position following Layton's second and third walk allowed.

Kylee Edwards saw a 3-0 count to possibly load the bases, but two pitches later, she bounced a single up the middle to start the game-ending rally that Tech was sensing.

The Hokies switched arms to senior Sophie Kleiman, looking to stop the Tigers and get their own bats up for one final chance at Cellura in the seventh, but an E6 and a sacrifice fly two batters in placed Tech in a very unfamiliar spot.

The Hokies hadn't been shutout or run ruled all season, as Tech plated at least two runs in all but two contests this season. Yet, the run rule came on Kleiman's 3-2 delivery to left fielder Char Lorenz, who rolled over the ball under the diving mitts of Jordan Lynch and Annika Rohs in the 5-6 gap, sending Tech down to the loser's bracket.

Game 2: Virginia Tech 7, Akron 6

The Hokies looked to shrug off the offensive lull against the champions of the MAC conference, the Akron Zips, as they were starting junior Madie Jamrog, who had just tossed 135 pitches in eight frames over South Alabama not even an hour before.

Jamrog pitched as if that wasn't the case. She attacked the zone early against Tech just as it saw against LSU, and Jamrog found the first seven outs of the contest in succession with one strikeout to open the third frame against Yaeger.

Nearly up and down the Hokies' lineup, they pencil batting averages well over the .300 mark, with that production showing through in the bottom of the lineup for Tech against Jamrog.

Back-to-back singles from freshman Gaby Mizelle, and Rohs in the nine-hole, put runners on corners for Tech's best look at scoring all day (until the seventh).

As Foster stepped up, plating a run would be crucial for the Hokies' mental aspect, and they found it as Foster rolled over to second, allowing Mizelle to race home.

Mazzarone, however, did find her way out of her down swing right away against the Zips, as she fired three scoreless frames.

Akron had just taken down South Alabama in a 1-0 extra-innings victory, so a bases-loaded scenario in the bottom of the fourth against Mazzarone was not exactly expected from the Zips. But two walks and Tech's first of two errors in the frame did just that against the southpaw.

Back-to-back RBI singles from Akron leapfrogged the Hokies' one-run third inning, and Mazzarone exited in the fourth after tossing 75 pitches — 41 of which were for strikes.

ACC Freshman of the Year Bree Carrico entered to wrangle in the Zips with one out.

A shallow fly ball looked to be the end of the Zips' short scoring frenzy, but a wild throw from Lynch plated two more Akron runs, instantly doubling its run total to four.

The energy was radiating from the Zips dugout, and it spilled over into the fifth as well when left fielder Haley Glass smacked a two-RBI double against Carrico into left that left fielder Lyla Blackwell just narrowly missed for crucial insurance.

That explosion just never came, like a dormant volcano; through 12 innings on Saturday, Tech was 5-for-41, and 0-for-12 with runners in scoring position.

To borrow from the video game world, it seemed like the Hokies had been playing on expert difficulty all afternoon. That mode suddenly changed to rookie difficulty, as Tech opened the seventh with seven straight hits.

Chatfield knocked a two-run homer on the fourth pitch of the contest. Then, Yaeger and Rachel Castine were right behind her to give the Hokies more base runners on back-to-back base knocks.

"Just looking middle and trying to hit it hard, good things happen," Chatfield said on her approach. "We hit the ball so many times today it just didn't fall."

Just as they did in the third, Mizelle and Rohs went back-to-back, this time both for RBI-worthy singles which cut the deficit to one and brought up Foster.

"We all came together and really fought for each other in that last inning," Rohs said. "It wasn't just one person. We needed the whole team, and everyone stepped up."

The Stetson transfer, in her first NCAA tournament action, was 0-for-9 before her seventh-inning at-bat. But her first hit of the regional gave the Hokies the lead on a two-run gapped double into left center.

Teams that entered the seventh inning down four or more runs in the last 25 NCAA tournaments, were a combined 4-858 before the Hokies heroics added a fifth tally to the left side of that statistic.

The Hokies haven't made it to the past the regionals with a two-win Sunday since 2022, but the three season drought can end if Tech drops off LSU two times, but the Tigers only need one win to advance on. The first contest is Sunday, May 17, at 2 p.m. ET.

"We got to Sunday," D'Amour said. "So when you get to Sunday, you wake up and see how you feel and try to continue what we did that seventh inning the first inning tomorrow."

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