Hokies softball #25
It didn’t take too long in the Pete D’Amour era to garner a national ranking, 28 days to be exact – following Week 1’s poll on Feb. 12.
The No. 25 Virginia Tech softball team finds itself in the ESPN.com/USA Softball Top 25 Poll for the first time this season, as announced on Tuesday. The last time the Hokies (18-4, 2-1 ACC) were ranked in the poll was on March 24, 2015, when they were tied for 24th.
Tech was receiving votes in the poll the first five weeks of the season and finally got over the edge after winning its opening ACC series against Georgia Tech (15-10, 1-2).
RU golfers win tourney
Freshman sensation Beatriz Mosquera Quintas won her first career tournament as the native of La Coruna, Spain defeated 50 competitors at the 2019 Benbow Invitational, which was held at Blue Sky Golf Club.
Mosquera Quintas fired a 73 (+1) on the par 72, 6,143-yard course to grab a share of a four-way tie for the top of the leaderboard yesterday and was even better on Tuesday, finishing with a 71 (-1) for a two-day score of 144 (even). She finished five strokes ahead of her closest competitor, Laila Fortsmane from Eckerd College.
Radford University finished second out of eight squads with a combined total of 617 (311-306). Youngstown State won the event with a score of 606 (298-308). The squad has four Top 3 finishes, including two runner-up finishes over their last four tournaments.
Beamer to be honored
A first-ballot selection to the College Football Hall of Fame, Frank Beamer will add another honor to his growing list of lifetime accolades in June when he receives the 23rd annual Dick Enberg Award presented by CoSIDA at its annual convention in Orlando.
Established in 1997, the Dick Enberg Award is given annually to a person whose actions and commitment have furthered the meaning and reach of the CoSIDA Academic All-America® Teams Program and/or the student-athlete while promoting the values of education and academics.
The award was created in part to recognize the late broadcaster’s passion and support of the Academic All-America® program and more importantly, his dedication to education for more than four decades. Past winners have included President Gerald Ford, Tom Osborne, Pat Summit, Dean Smith and Mike Krzyzewski.
Blackshear regional honor
Just a day after being named All-ACC, Kerry Blackshear Jr. has been tabbed U.S. Basketball Writers Association (USBWA) All-District, as announced by the organization on Tuesday.
Blackshear makes the District III Team along with 10 other players, including nine from the ACC. It marks his first time making the team and the first since Justin Robinson making the team last year.
The Florida native has been a key reason for the Hokies’ (23-7) success this season, tallying 14.5 points, a team-best 7.2 rebounds and 2.3 assists per game. Blackshear has posted seven double-doubles this year, a team high as well.
Falk freshman of week
Radford University freshman Malin Falk has been named the Big South Conference’s Freshman of the Week for matches played between March 3-9, the league announced Tuesday morning. The Stockholm, Sweden native was the only Highlander that picked up two wins in both matches last week as she picked up a pair of 6.1, 6.1 innings. The first came against Megan Kauffman from Winthrop and the second was over Ekaterina Vorobeva from Savannah State. The pair of wins improved her season record to 7-3 – the second most on the team and most of any No. 3 player in the Big South. Falk is also 3-0 in the Big South, which is the most conference wins on the team.
Gerard pitcher of week
After taking a no-hitter into the seventh inning against previously unbeaten and No. 1 Florida State, striking out 10 Seminoles over seven frames and combining on a 6-0 shutout, Virginia Tech pitcher Chris Gerard has been named the ACC Pitcher of the Week.
Collegiate Baseball, who has the Seminoles ranked as the No. 1 team in the nation this week as well, also announced a dozen National Players of the Week powered by Diamond-Sports and Gerard was one of six pitchers named to the squad.
Against Florida State on Saturday, Gerard threw a perfect first frame before walking a pair in the second. He retired the next 13 Seminoles in order – with perfect innings in the third, fourth, fifth and sixth, including striking out the side in the third.