Syracuse softball ends season with another heavy ACC loss, run-ruled by VT
After losing the first two games of the series, SU's season concluded Sunday with a 12-1 run-rule loss and sweep to No. 17 Virginia Tech. Keenan Sawada | Contributing Photographer
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Shannon Doepking didn’t scrutinize Syracuse’s 10th run-rule loss of the season. Instead, SU’s head coach kept her analysis simple, giving credit where she felt it was due to VT.
“I mean they’re just unbelievable,” Doepking told CitrusTV postgame Sunday. “They’re just a better team.”
After the Orange fell 12-1 Friday and 13-2 Saturday to the Hokies, Doepking also praised the opposition and said VT was just a “better team” than SU.
When you lose three games in three days by a combined 33 runs, giving the opponent credit isn’t unusual. But the Orange also shot themselves in the foot, as Doepking put it, in their first two losses to the Hokies. Between Friday and Saturday, SU’s fielders committed four errors and its pitchers walked a combined 15 batters.
“A lot of freebies,” Doepking told CitrusTV Saturday. “A lot of miscues.”
And in its season finale Sunday, Syracuse (18-26, 4-18 Atlantic Coast) lost to No. 17 Virginia Tech (44-9, 18-6 ACC) 12-1. VT’s lineup shelled Orange pitchers Julianna Verni and Madison Knight, scoring 12 runs on 14 hits, tied with Syracuse’s 14-0 loss to Texas on Feb. 13 for the most hits it’s allowed this season. The Hokies also smoked five home runs, the most SU’s allowed all year.
Unlike earlier in the weekend, nothing was handed to Virginia Tech.
You can argue shortstop Jadyn Burney should have left VT third baseman Jordan Lynch’s single popped up to shallow left field in the top of the fourth for left fielder Kendall Gaunt, who had an easier route to the ball. But outside of that, Syracuse played a clean game defensively, and for the most part strung together competitive at-bats.
SU’s nine base runners and four hits Sunday were its most all weekend. Syracuse walked nearly as many times (four) as it struck out (five). Kiara Bellido walked to load the bases with only one out in the bottom of the fourth, and in three of the five innings played, the Orange put multiple runners on base.
In the pitcher’s circle, Verni and Knight threw strikes at a higher rate (56.6%) than Virginia Tech’s Emma Mazzarone, Avery Layton and Sophie Kleiman (55.8%). Verni walked Addison Foster to lead off the top of the first and Michelle Chatfield in the top of the third. Foster and Chatfield were the only two Hokies hitters who walked, and neither scored after walking.
Syracuse didn’t bungle Sunday. Virginia Tech was simply, like Doepking said, better.
For the first two innings, the Orange’s outfield caught almost everything on a fly. In the top of the second, Zoe Yaeger and Gaby Mizelle each drove balls into deep right field that Vanessa Flores caught by the warning track, her second catch a high-effort snag on the run.
Then VT started pouring it on with homers. Nora Abromavage opened Sunday’s scoring in the top of the third with a two-run shot to right, and Virginia Tech blew the game open in the top of the fourth with seven runs.
Syracuse entered the fourth inning Sunday down just one after Burney lined an RBI single over Lynch’s head and down the left field line in the bottom of the third, scoring Gabby Lantier from second. It exited it down eight.
Rachel Castine led off the top of the fourth with a solo shot to center field. Then, Yaeger homered over the Skytop Softball Stadium scoreboard in left. Emma Mazzarone then singled and Annika Rohs doubled her home with a hit that nearly left the park.
The Orange replaced Verni with Knight, but the onslaught continued. Chatfield bounced a two-run, two-out double down the line in left and Kylie Aldridge hit a line drive over the wall before Syracuse secured a third out. Seven runs on seven hits, including five extra base knocks and three round-trippers.
“They put a crooked number quickly on us,” Doepking told CitrusTV.
And SU? The Orange filled the bases with only one out in the fourth before Doepking turned to her bench, pinch-hitting Peyton Schemmer for second baseman Lauren Fox.
Layton fooled Schemmer with a riser, getting her to swing under the pitch, before baiting Lantier into whiffing on a breaking ball low and away, striking both out to escape the bases-loaded jam.
“We didn’t have an answer for anything,” Doepking told CitrusTV.
Lynch launched the Hokies’ fifth and final long ball to right field in the top of the fifth, scoring three to make it 12-1 Virginia Tech.
SU got two runners on base in the bottom of the fifth, with Knight walking on four straight balls in the dirt and Burney lining her second hit of the day to the opposite field in left.
But Rohs halted SU’s chances of playing more softball in 2026, initiating a double play on Flores’ high-bouncing grounder to short before fielding a Gaunt grounder back up the middle of the field to end Syracuse’s season.
