Pete D'Amour on where Virginia Tech stands entering NCAA Tournament: 'We're day-to-day'

Virginia Tech softball coach Pete D’Amour does not want to get ahead of himself when it comes to the NCAA Tournament.

First up, it’s San Diego State on Friday in the Los Angeles Regional, hosted by UCLA. But D’Amour does not want to look ahead if the Hokies can get out there and get to the Super Regional.

It’s a cliche, but it’s true. One game at a time.

“I mean, you all know me well enough where we’re day to day,” D’Amour said. “And so we had coach (Huemul) Mata and coach (Mike) Lewis throw against our kids today and we scored a bunch of runs. And you just gotta keep reminding the players that the pitching we’re gonna see this weekend is not as good as that. 

“And so it’s a confidence thing now. And so I think we’re in a good spot and it kind of feels eerily similar to ‘21 where we were the two-seed out west.”

How does Virginia Tech get ahead of others in the postseason? It’s actually the opposite of defense, according to D’Amour.

“Oh, I think it’s just clutch hitting is what it is, you know, and so, we’re getting into good counts,” D’Amour said. “We’re lining out a lot. Get a lot of walks, it’s just getting hits when it matters.”

It’s been a little bit of a slide as Virginia Tech lost three of its last five games before NCAAs.

“We put the resume together,” D’Amour said. “And so every team in the country goes through ups and downs and ours just happened to be the last five games. So really good teams don’t last very long in their lulls and I don’t think we will early.

“We were going into the last couple weeks on the bubble. And we knew we weren’t gonna host, we figured we were gonna be sent somewhere. So really doesn’t matter.”

D’Amour wants to take it day by day but there is a long term plan to last in the postseason: power.

“I mean, we hit 114 homers this year and in the postseason, that’s where home runs really matter,” D’Amour said. “Because you go against elite pitching and you got to be able to score runs.”

Virginia Tech and D’Amour start out with San Diego State Friday. The Hokies will play either host UCLA or Grand Canyon in the second game of the regional on Saturday.