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ON THE DIAMOND
The Virginia Tech softball team (20-12, 1-2 ACC), coming off a sweep of Cornell at home on Tuesday, will hit the road and head to Raleigh, N.C., for a three-game series at NC State University (14-16, 0-3 ACC).

THE WEEKEND SCHEDULE
The Hokies and Wolfpack are scheduled to play a doubleheader on Saturday starting at 1 p.m. and will play the single game on Sunday at noon. Admission to all of the action is free.

FACILITY INFORMATION
NC State plays its home games at the Dail Softball Stadium, located on the corner of Morrill Drive and Cates Avenue on campus. Directions and information to the stadium can be found here. There is parking along the streets, but with a lowered field, foul balls hitting cars are a constant problem. Fans are encouraged to park in the Cates Avenue Parking Deck located down the street from the field and across the street from the track. Directions can be found in the PDF linked here.

THE WEEKEND FORECAST
Here’s the early weekend forecast for Raleigh. With the weather forecasted, be sure to check hokiesports.com and Twitter should schedule changes happen.

LIVE STATS
Live stats for every Hokie softball game this season will be available on through hokiesports.com. It will always be this link unless otherwise noted.

TWITTER
Fans can follow Hokie softball online through Twitter as well. In game thoughts, stats and notes, as well as links to articles and other miscellaneous items can be found at the official Twitter page for Virginia Tech softball, @VT_Softball.

NEW FAN GUIDE
A new online fan guide replaces the printed media guide this year for the softball team. This guide includes videos, color photos, links and much more. It will change throughout the year with new items as they happen so bookmark it and come back as the season progresses. The guide can be found at this link.

YEAR NO. 17
Scot Thomas is in his 17th season at the helm of the maroon and orange. He enters this weekend with a record of 593-402, needing just seven victories to reach the 600-win milestone. In his career, he has led the Hokies to a berth in the Women’s College World Series (2008), two ACC titles (2007, 2008), four NCAA bids (2005-2008) and a win over the U.S. National Team (2008).

SCOUTING NORTH CAROLINA STATE
NC State is 14-16 after going 2-3 at the University of Kentucky Tournament this past weekend. NCSU’s top win of the season is a 3-2 win over No. 10 Georgia, but has also lost to the likes of Utah State, Pittsburgh, UAB, UMKC and the College of Charleston. The Wolfpack relies on a two-pitcher rotation in Emily Weiman (8-11, 2.26 ERA, 121 Ks in 117.2 innings) and Morgan Peeler (5-4, 2.37 ERA, 43 Ks in 76.2 innings). The Pack bats .260 as a team with 20 home runs, 28 doubles, five triples and 14 stolen bases. Katie Mansilla is the top hitter with a .311 average while Renada Davis is batting .300. Bethaney Wells is hitting .294 with a team-leading six home runs and 26 RBIs. Four players have three home runs apiece.

The series between Tech and NC State has generally been pretty even with the Hokies leading 11-10 in 21 previous meetings. Tech has won four of the six ACC series played between the two. The series began in 2005 when the Hokies joined the ACC. Last year, the Pack took two of three from the Hokies in Blacksburg.

NCSU’s 2012 stats
NCSU’s 2012 roster
NCSU’s 2012 schedule/results

PRESEASON ACC POLL
The ACC coaches voted the Hokies sixth in the 2012 Preseason Coaches’ Poll, released prior to the season starting. Georgia Tech is the preseason favorite, according to the coaches, followed by North Carolina, defending tournament champion Florida State, Virginia, Maryland, Virginia Tech, NC State and Boston College.

TECH SOFTBALL PARK
Tech Softball Park, home of Virginia Tech softball since 1998, has been a tough place for opposing teams to play of the years. Nearly 800 permanent seats have been added, along with lights, two more press boxes and a new sound system, making the facility a fine one for the Hokies to play. Over the years, Tech has posted a 190-75 record at home.

A NEW ADDITION
This past offseason, a new scoreboard and video board were also added to enhance the fans’ experiences at TSP. The new board features a scoreboard on the bottom portion like the old one, but this one has LED lights and is capable of putting team names on the board. The new addition will be something to behold as a video board, sound system, netting, side panels and a steel tress up top will all add to the project. Virginia Tech’s video board is the fourth-largest college softball display installed by Daktronics.

The overall dimensions of the structure is 28 feet wide by 21 feet tall, and includes the Sportsound-500HD sound system speakers in the board so the sound will be directed straight to the stands as opposed to over the fans’ heads now.

The 11x18 foot video board is a HD-15mm LED video display that has 216 lines of resolution high by 360 columns of resolution wide. The display can operate as an independent display showing single large images or be divided in multiple zones (windows) to show a wide variety of statistics, information graphics, animations, and live and recorded video.

It also has non-lit sponsor displays on the side and features the accomplishments of the program. The video board allows for an introduction video, player spotlights, replay and other in-game enhancements. The board is protected by a 21x28 foot net that drapes over the front.

Up top is a steel truss with “Tech Softball Park” illuminated for night games.

UP NEXT
The Hokies will play a doubleheader at home on Wednesday against James Madison University (10-17) starting at 4 p.m., before hitting the road again for a three-game ACC series at Maryland the following weekend.

RANDOM STATS AND NOTES
Did you know: When Betty Rose blasted a walk-off grand slam to beat Cornell Tuesday night 8-4, she joined an exclusive club that now has just three members. In Tech’s 16-plus years of playing, only three players have hit walk-off grand slams to win games: Rose, Megan Evans and Stephanie Savre. Evans beat Virginia in 2004 with a grand slam in the eighth inning to lift Tech to a 6-3 win in a game played in Salem. It was also head coach Scot Thomas’ 300th career win. A year later, Savre ended a game against No. 18 Georgia Tech with a grand slam in the bottom of the seventh inning to lift Tech to a 9-5 win. In all, there have only been 14 walk-off home runs in the program’s history after Tuesday night. We’re defining walk-off as a home run that ends the game and gives Tech the win, not one that ends a game because of the mercy rule. See the full list below.

Career Grand Slams (active)
K. Froehlich vs. Charlotte, 2/12/11
B. Rose vs. Liberty, 3/27/11
K. Banks vs. UNCG, 3/29/11
K. Mericka vs. Wagner, 2/24/12
B. Rose vs. Cornell, 3/20/12 (walk-off)

Career Walk-Off Home Runs (active)
M. Hvozdovic vs. Western Michigan, 3/8/09 - solo home run in B7 with 1 out to win 1-0
B. Rose vs. Cornell, 3/20/12 - grand slam in B7 with 1 out to win 8-4

Career Games Stated - by position (active)
K. Froehlich: 175 total - 51 RF; 46 2B; 24 3B; 20 1B; 19 LF; 14 DP; 1 SS
B. Smith: 138 total - 113 2B; 24 SS; 1 LF
C. Liddle: 132 total - 69 1B; 56 C; 7 DP
B. Rose: 94 total - 80 C; 9 DP; 5 LF
M. Hvozdovic: 68 total - 41 LF; 23 RF; 2 CF; 2 DP
D. Anderson: 82 total - 53 SS; 23 LF; 6 DP
K. Banks: 62 total - 48 CF; 11 RF; 3 LF
J. Harrell: 59 total - 59 P
L. Gaskill: 32 total - 32 CF
K. McGoldrick: 32 total - 32 2B
K. Mericka: 32 total - 27 3B; 3 DP; 2 C
L. Spaw: 22 total - 22 DP
B. Liddle: 13 total - 10 P; 3 RF
L. Wolff: 8 total - 6 RF; 2 CF
I. Corrao: 5 total - 5 P
K. Smith: 3 total - 3 DP

Hokies by States (22)
Virginia: 9
North Carolina: 4
California: 2
New Jersey: 2
Florida: 1
Georgia: 1
Missouri: 1
New York: 1
Tennessee: 1

Hokies by Class (22)
Seniors: 2
Juniors: 4
Sophomores: 5
Freshmen: 11

Walk-Off Home Runs in Program History (14)
Bronwyn Blair vs. Charlotte, 3/25/98 - two-run home run in B8 to win 8-6
Tiffany Hurt vs. Radford, 2/21/01 - two-run home run in B7 to win 2-0
Amy Voorhees vs. Connecticut, 3/31/01 - solo home run in B10 to win 3-2
Megan Evans vs. Seton Hall, 5/5/02 - solo home run in B9 to win 1-0
Megan Evans vs. Virginia, 4/27/04 - grand slam in B8 to win 6-3
Stephanie Savre vs. Georgia Tech, 4/23/05 - grand slam in B7 to win 9-5
Caroline Stolle vs. Winthrop, 5/5/05 - solo home in B7 to win 2-1
Stephanie Savre vs. Radford, 3/1/06 - two-run home run in B9 to win 3-2
Beth Walker vs. North Carolina, 4/26/08 - three-run home run in B10 to win 5-2
Misty Hall vs. Louisville, 5/16/08 (NCAA Regionals) - solo home run in B7 to win 1-0
Jessica Everhart vs. Appalachian State, 2/21/09 - three-run home run in B8 to win 5-4
Misty Hall vs. Florida State, 4/17/10 - solo home run in B7 to win 5-4
Marra Hvozdovic vs. Western Michigan, 3/8/09 - solo home run in B7 to win 1-0
Betty Rose vs. Cornell, 3/20/12 - grand slam in B7 to win 8-4

For updates on Virginia Tech softball, follow the Hokies on Twitter (@VT_Softball).