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Tincher Even More Dominant This Year
by Chris Coleman, TechSideline.com

Most Hokie fans would name Branden Ore, Brandon Flowers, Zabian Dowdell or someone like that as Virginia Tech's top athlete. But in case you haven't been following the headlines the last couple of years, Tech's top athlete, regardless of sport or gender, is softball pitcher Angela Tincher.

Tincher is a junior who has posted a career 67-21 record with a 0.88 ERA in her 2+ seasons in Blacksburg. She has developed into the most feared pitcher in the ACC, and perhaps in the country. She has racked up some major accomplishments in her career. Here are just a few:

• Threw a no-hitter as a freshman against Maryland in Tech's ACC debut
• Set four ACC tournament pitching records as a freshman in 2005
• 2nd team All-American in 2006 by Louisville Slugger/NFCA, the first in Tech history
• One of ten finalists for USA Softball National Player of the Year in 2006
• One of just three pitchers nationally to top 500 strikeouts in 2006
• Already holds Tech's career strikeout record

Those are just a few of her accomplishments, most of which were recorded in her first two seasons in Blacksburg. She recently added two more honors to her growing list.

After a dominating series recently against Florida State, Tincher was named USA Softball Co-National Player of the Week, and Louisville Slugger/NFCA Player of the Week. She had two towering performances in one series against the Seminoles.

In the first game of the series last Saturday, Tincher pitched a perfect game in eight innings (softball only plays seven innings), the first time that has ever been done at Virginia Tech. The Hokies won the game 1-0 in the extra inning. Tincher struck out 18 of the 24 batters she faced during the game.

She followed that up with another 1-0 win against Florida State the very next day. She struck out 11 more batters, and her no-hitter was broken up by an infield single in the seventh inning. For the weekend, Tincher struck out 29 Florida State players in two games while allowing just one hit.

If you can believe it, Tincher is even better this year than she's ever been. The Hokies still have 24 games left to play, and she is already 20-3 with a 0.41 ERA. She is just six wins shy of her career high, and her ERA is much lower than her previous best of 1.01. She already has 330 strikeouts on the season, and 1,183 for her career. With 24 games left in the regular season, as well as the ACC tournament and the NCAA tournament, Tincher has a chance to add to her already impressive resume.

Last season the Virginia Tech baseball team finished 20-33, with a horrible 4-25 record in the ACC. Legendary coach Chuck Hartman retired following the season, and Jim Weaver went north to hire Peter Hughes away from Boston College. Hughes had a reputation of getting a lot out of his players, and so far that's exactly what he's doing in Blacksburg.

It's still early, but Virginia Tech appears to be much improved in baseball this year. The Hokies are 15-11 overall and 4-5 in conference play. It's taken just nine games to get the same amount of ACC wins as they earned in 29 games last year. That's big-time progress over the course of just one season.

In 2006, the only ACC team that had fewer overall wins than the Hokies was Duke, with just 15 wins. However, the Blue Devils still managed to win six games in the ACC, which planted the Hokies dead last in the Coastal Division. So far this year, Tech is ahead of Miami (3-5) and Duke (1-8) in the ACC. They also have a better ACC mark than Wake Forest. The Demon Deacons are in the Atlantic Division, and they are 3-6 in conference play.

Tech started ACC play with a bang by taking the opening conference series against #21 Georgia Tech in Atlanta. The Hokies took two of three games from the Yellow Jackets, and went on to earn victories over NC State and UNC as well.

The home win over #4 UNC is the biggest win of the season for Virginia Tech. The Hokies beat the Tar Heels on the arm of senior southpaw Andrew Wells, who allowed just four hits and one unearned run in seven innings against UNC. It was only UNC's fourth loss of the season.

If you know the coaching history of Peter Hughes, you shouldn't be surprised by these results. Hughes went to Boston College in 1999 and took over a program that had averaged 13 wins per season in the previous 35 years. In eight seasons with Hughes serving as head coach, the Eagles averaged 31 wins per season. Boston College won a school record 37 games in 2005 with Hughes at the helm.

With the Hokies not having the greatest baseball facilities in the world, don’t look for them to start challenging for ACC titles anytime soon. But with new blood in the program, and a coach who always seems to win no matter what situation he's in, they aren't going to be the conference doormats every year like they were in 2006.

Stick Our Your School-Colored Tongue!

The color combos offered represent a large number of the top college basketball programs in the country. Or you can just buy whichever color hats you want to match your mood or your wardrobe. In addition, you can get yourself the new Basketball Tongue Pin. If you buy the pin along with any hat or visor, you can save $3 on the pin.

This is a pre-order. All orders will ship on or around March 23. If you order anything else from the store at the same time, your whole order will wait to ship when this pre-order ships.

Rolling Stones caps in 14 different color combos

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