Katie Bailiff’s walk-off single in the ninth inning gave the North Carolina softball team (15-4, 3-0 ACC) an 8-7 comeback victory on Sunday afternoon. The Tar Heels scored seven unanswered runs to sweep No. 21 Pittsburgh (12-5, 0-3 ACC) in their first conference series of the season.
What happened?
Pittsburgh found success early against UNC starter Kendra Lynch. With two on and two out in the top of the first, Giorgiana Zeremenko hit a fly ball that just barely sailed over the left field fence for an early 3-0 lead from the home run.
The Panthers kept rolling in the second as a pair of singles were followed by an RBI double from Alexee Haynes, scoring a run and forcing Lynch from the game in the second inning.
For the second game in a row, Brittany Pickett spelled Lynch in the pitcher’s circle, and again Pickett worked her way out of the jam, though not before Olivia Gray singled home Pittsburgh’s fifth run of the game.
Pickett helped herself at the plate in the bottom of the third, putting the Tar Heels on the board with a solo home run to center field. But Pittsburgh answered right back when Zeremenko doubled with the bases loaded, scoring two runners and extending the Panthers’ lead to 7-1 in the fourth inning.
The Tar Heels’ bats finally found their groove in the bottom of the fifth — loading the bases with only one out. Leah Murray and Taylor Wike notched consecutive two-out singles, drawing the deficit to 7-4. After a pair of walks scored another run, Bailiff came to the plate with UNC trailing 7-5 with the bases loaded and two outs.
With two strikes on Bailiff, Pittsburgh relief pitcher Sarah Dawson missed high on a wild pitch that allowed all three Tar Heel runners to advance and scoring Wike. On the ninth pitch of the at bat, Bailiff smoked a single up the middle to score Delamora and tie the score at 7. In all, UNC sent 11 batters to the plate in the fifth, ending up with six runs on five hits.
Both sides threatened in the following innings, but the pitchers stayed steady until the ninth when the Tar Heels loaded the bases for Bailiff, who roped a single between first and second, scoring Murray and securing an all-important sweep in the first weekend of conference play.
