Virginia Tech Softball To Travel To Baton Rouge For NCAA Tournament Regional

Virginia Tech softball's postseason destination has been crystallized. The Hokies will be traveling to Baton Rouge, La., and they will begin their stint in the NCAA Tournament on Friday, May 15, at 4 p.m. ET, against South Alabama.

REGIONALS BOUND📍

The Hokies punch their ticket to the @NCAASoftball Tournament! pic.twitter.com/KnD9ilcwJx
— The ACC (@theACC) May 10, 2026

Here are the other teams that will be in the Baton Rouge Regional:

No. 16 overall seed LSU
Akron
South Alabama

After its conference tournament, Virginia Tech sits at 44-10 (18-6 ACC). The Hokies erupted out of the gates to a 22-2 start, the team's best in program history.

However, down the stretch, the Hokies faltered. Virginia Tech dropped 6-2 and 9-7 decisions to Georgia Tech to drop the series, then followed with a 10-9 loss to Liberty on April 22. The Hokies conceded five runs in the third and three in the seventh; trailing 10-4, Virginia Tech made a five-run rally in the bottom of the seventh that ended just short of a comeback.

Virginia Tech won consecutive series against North Carolina and Syracuse, however, to close out the series. The Hokies outscored the Orange by a combined 37-4 margin across the three-game slate.

In the first round of the ACC Tournament on Thursday, No. 3 seed Virginia Tech slid by six-seed Virginia, 3-1. The Hokies plated all three of their runs in the third and fourth frame, holding the Cavaliers scoreless until the seventh. Junior left-handed pitcher Emma Mazzarone pitched her ninth complete game of the season, collecting a career-high 14 strikeouts on 128 pitches.

The following day, Virginia Tech became the first team since Tennessee (March 11, 2025) to shut out Duke, defeating the Blue Devils 5-0 to move to the ACC championship game. Redshirt freshman Bree Carrico started in the circle; the right-hander went for 5 2/3 innings, yielding three hits and two walks while striking out four. Sixty of her 92 pitches went for strikes. Carrico left the circle with two outs in the bottom of the sixth after right forearm tightness; Mazzarone entered in her stead.

Mazzarone earned her first save of the season with a 1 1/3-frame, one-hit outing. She struck out three of the six batters she faced and tossed 18 strikes on 26 pitches.

In the finals against top-seeded Florida State, the Hokies lost 2-1, failing to claim their first ACC championship since the 2008 season. Virginia Tech totaled its only run at the top of the first, conceding two runs in the bottom of the second to the Seminoles. The Hokies not hosting regional marks the fourth straight year that the team will travel for regional play.

Last year, Virginia Tech traveled to Tuscaloosa, Ala., where its season ended after a pair of losses to Alabama in the regional.

According to Natalie Honnen, Clemson University's deputy director of athletics and chair of the NCAA Division I Softball Committee, the Hokies did not meet the criteria to host for this season, though their being outside the top 16 rendered the point moot.

"From a host perspective, if there was a situation where Tech was in the top 16, they were not going to be able to host because of the locations of the hotels that were outside of our parameters," Honnen said. "But that did not come into our thought process when we were seeding the top 16."

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