BLACKSBURG Caroline Stolle and some of her Virginia Tech softball teammates went to breakfast yesterday morning at Gillie's, a popular downtown Blacksburg restaurant. They sat there just as stunned as they were Sunday night, when they spent most of the airplane ride home from Michigan telling each other, "Hey guys, guess what? We're going to the College World Series!"

The achievement remains surreal for Stolle and the Hokies, who play Texas A&M at 3 p.m. Eastern on Thursday in Oklahoma City. They are just the third team in school history to reach the pinnacle of their sport, joining the 1999 football team, which played in the national championship game, and last fall's men's soccer team, which advanced to the Final Four.

Stolle, a senior from L.C. Bird High, has optimized her time in Blacksburg. She arrived as a recruited walk-on who memorized Florida State's 2004 World Series roster -- and still regards those players as "celebrities." She eventually proved her own worth. Last season she led the Hokies in batting average, home runs and RBI.

She has managed lately to make the most of this year, in which a season-long hitting slump dropped her from the middle of Tech's batting order to ninth.

Her grand slam against Tennessee two weekends ago in the NCAA Regionals helped Tech to a 4-0 victory -- the first of two wins over the Volunteers that boosted the Hokies to last weekend's Super Regionals at Michigan.

Stolle's stats have plummeted from last season, her batting average falling from .326 to .151, hits from 60 to 21, home runs from 10 to two, RBI from 47 to 13. Her confidence sunk with them.

"I felt like I had to live up to what I had done last season," she said. "I'm a thinker. That's my big problem, really. Something will happen, and I'll constantly think about it, like, 'What can I do?' It makes you nervous, if you're in there constantly thinking and you know you're not supposed to be thinking. Then all of a sudden, you're thinking you shouldn't be thinking."

Stolle sometimes struggles with discipline at the plate, Tech coach Scot Thomas said. She led the team in strikeouts last year and this year, with 46 each season. But her hesitance to swing early in counts hurt her this season, Thomas said. "I think she just never got on the right page this year," he said.

She tried everything. She stopped paying attention to her stats. She asked catcher Kelsey Hoffman, her roommate, for advice. It's your senior year, Hoffman told her, just let everything go.

Stolle called her parents, and her dad, Robert, reminded her of ways she tried to stay calm in the batter's box during high school. One of her most reliable methods is thinking about something amusing, like her mutt dog, Molly, which rhymes with Stolle's last name.

"She's kind of a big goober, so I think about stupid times with her," Stolle said.

Despite Stolle's struggles, Thomas stuck with her as his starting left fielder, though he sometimes turns to sophomore Anna Zitt because she's a better defensive player.

Stolle batted third at points last season and would have hit fifth or sixth this year. Thomas moved her to the bottom of the order, hoping opponents would underestimate her.

However she does it, Stolle just wants to find the hitter she used to be. She showed signs of progress in the Regionals at Tennessee. Bases loaded, full count in the fourth inning. She fouled off seven straight pitches, including some changeups, which often fool her. In the dugout, Hoffman turned to a teammate and said, "Gosh, she really needs a hit."

On the at-bat's 13th pitch, Stolle smacked the ball over the right-centerfield fence. Her teammates poured out of the dugout and swarmed her at home plate. She emerged from the mob with an ear-to-ear smile and a little less of the burden she had felt all season.

"Just to do that," she said, "meant the world to me."

Tale of two seasons

A year after leading Virginia Tech in home runs, RBI and batting average, senior Caroline Stolle has been mired in a season-long slump:

Year	AB	HR	RBI	Avg.
2007	184	10	47	.326
2008	139	2	13	.151