Softball takes Sunday win in series against Terps

One bad inning in each was all it took for the North Carolina softball team to lose the first two games of its final ACC home series, but Sunday it was determined to stop the potential sweep.

The weekend started poorly for the No. 23 Tar Heels (35-15, 9-9 ACC) as Maryland (27-18, 5-9) took both games Saturday by scores of 5-2 and 2-1.

UNC was able to bounce back Sunday in a convincing 4-0 win.

In the first game of the series, UNC was up 2-0 when senior pitcher Danielle Spaulding gave up five runs in the top of the sixth inning.

After sloppily starting the inning with a hit batter and an error, UNC gave up two runs when Maryland brought home two on a single. The eventual backbreaker was a three-run home run by the Terps’ cleanup hitter Alex Schultz that gave them a 5-2 lead.

“To have one inning where we gave up five runs, that’s very unlike us,” UNC coach Donna Papa said. “Especially with Dani on the mound.”

Schultz, who was 5-for-9 on the weekend, came up big in the second game as well, getting a two-RBI single off pitcher Amber Johnson that would lead Maryland to the doubleheader sweep.

Spaulding took the mound again Sunday and set out to prevent letting one bad inning ruin the game like Saturday.

She pitched seven scoreless innings and allowed only two hits while striking out nine.

Spaulding said the key to shutting out the Terps was focusing on her pitches, hitting her spots and believing in herself.

“Just have confidence and just know that on a good day they can’t really touch me,” Spaulding said.

Papa said a big factor was Spaulding’s ability to get the lead-off hitter out, something she did in all but two innings.

“Dani’s a great pitcher — she’s at another level,” Papa said. “I thought she did a great job coming back from having an inning that was very, very uncharacteristic of Dani Spaulding in all the years that she has thrown here.”

The scoring started for UNC when sophomore Constance Orr singled home freshman Chelsey Butler in the bottom of the second inning.

It continued the next inning as junior Brittany McKinney hit a two-run home run off the scoreboard in left field to extend the lead to 3-0. The Tar Heels would earn another run in the fifth when senior Christine Knauer scored on a wild pitch.

“We hit the ball (Saturday), but we hit it at people,” Papa said. “We left a lot of people on base, but today we capitalized more so I think that was the difference.”

Spaulding was happy to come away with the victory after the disappointing Saturday losses.

“I think obviously it was a big win,” Spaulding said. “Every game counts. We might have lost the series, but when it all comes down to it, every game counts.”

While UNC is almost guaranteed an NCAA tournament spot regardless of how it fares in its final handful of games, Papa stressed that it was important for the team to finish strong.

“Every game that we play from here on out is our ticket to get to the postseason,” Papa said. “You have to have a sense of urgency, and you cannot leave it in anybody’s hands but your own.”



Contact the Sports Editor at sports@unc.edu.