SOFTBALL
UNC-Wilmington – 0
UNC – 8
Early in the fourth inning UNC-Wilmington second baseman Morgan Walters boomed a double off the outfield wall.
As Walters stood on second moments later Tar Heel pitcher Danielle Spaulding simply smiled.
And why not? It was about the only mistake she made all evening.
For four innings the sensational southpaw struck out 12 Seahawk batters leading the Tar Heels to an 8-0 victory. Her fastball was all but unhittable and her pitches thumped all the customary outside corners.
In fact” about the only thing keeping Spaulding from continuing her dominance might have been her own coach — Donna Papa.
““Danny has come off surgery from last summer” said Papa. She’s probably at 80 percent of where she needs to be. She was a little bit tight today” and we didn’t want to take any chances and push that too far.
““Plus”“ we definitely wanted to get Constance (Orr) experience. She was able to come in and be a little bit more relaxed because she had a lead.”“
Rightly so” but it didn’t look as though Orr needed it.
The freshman continued right where Spaulding left off only allowing two hits in two innings.
Not that pitching has ever been the concern for the No. 23 Tar Heels (4-2) the last several years.
Papa has looked for hitting and Wednesday” her team delivered.
““I’m pleased with that because over the weekend we didn’t score a lot of runs”“ she said. It was nice to win getting hits.”“
Leading the barrage was junior Christine Knauer” who got on base twice in the first three innings.
A sweet-stroking leadoff Knauer actually used a different approach to start off the day’s play. On one of the first Seahawk pitches” Knauer sprung into a bunt position and laid down an infield single.
““I’ve been working on my short game” Knauer said. For me” it’s better to keep things simple.”“
It certainly was a sign of things to come” as the Tar Heels continued their success in the batter’s box all day en route to 12 hits.
Third baseman Alyssa Francona garnered a fourth of them as the senior crept out of a mini-slump to start the season. With only one hit in five games this year Francona fought off several inside pitches before reaching base safely.
It was the type of dominating offensive performance UNC has lacked in the early going” having only reached five runs once this season.
““Pitching is one of our strengths” but we felt going into the season that hitting was going to be our other strength” Papa said. We’re just starting to put it together.”“
Contact the Sports Editor at sports@unc.edu.
