UNC softball team’s bats quiet against NC State

The North Carolina softball team struggled to produce at the plate in its weekend series against N.C. State in Raleigh.

That malady, combined with final-inning heroics in consecutive games by the Wolfpack, resulted in a 2-1 series loss.

After a narrow 2-1 UNC victory in the first game, in which there were only five hits between the two teams, N.C. State came back the next game in epic fashion with an 11-8, extra-inning victory on a walk-off home run.

On Sunday, the Wolfpack repeated the phenomenon after yet another back-and-forth game where UNC maintained a slim 1-0 lead until a final-inning homer lifted N.C. State to a 3-1 walk-off victory yet again.

After having a potential victory snatched from them by the last batter of the game, the deflated Tar Heels dropped to 33-15 on the season and 10-5 in the ACC.

“Obviously, it was tough,” said UNC ace pitcher Lori Spingola, who fanned 18 total batters in 18.1 innings of work in all three games combined, including two complete game efforts.

“We battled back and forth all day but at the end, they’re the ones who came up with the hit to win the game.”

In an otherwise disappointing series, freshman shortstop Kristen Brown stood out by putting together a solid weekend at the plate with four hits, three runs and two RBIs for the otherwise stagnant offense.

Brown also scored the Tar Heels’ first run of the series with a solo bomb in the top of the fifth inning.

“I was really confident at the plate, and I was just going up there, taking one pitch at a time and it felt really good to help my team out,” Brown said. “I was just glad to be able to help us score some runs when we really needed it.”

Assistant coach Boo Gillette noted the team was especially frustrated that it had suffered two straight conference losses in consecutive days.

“Our goal for every ACC series is to go in and sweep, but the cards didn’t fall our way this weekend,” she said.

“Going forward, we’re just trying to win one game at a time. We’re not going to look past any of our opponents.”

With only eight regular-season games remaining before the ACC Tournament, Brown and Spingola both said the team remains confident moving forward, despite its weekend stumble.

“We know we can do it,” Brown said. “We just need to be strong, have good bats at the plate and play strong defense and we can come out on top going forward.”

Contact the desk editor at sports@dailytarheel.com.