With the luxury of playing in its home ballpark, the third-seeded North Carolina softball team opened up the ACC Softball Championship with a much-needed 8-4 quarterfinal victory against No. 7 seed Syracuse on Thursday night at Anderson Stadium behind a huge first inning.
With the win, UNC (37-18, 14-9) will face No. 7 seed N.C. State in Friday’s semifinals. The Wolfpack enter the contest after pulling off a 5-2 upset win over No. 2 seed Louisville on Thursday afternoon.
Taking the field for the first time since April 30, the Tar Heels played like a group eager to start anew after losing seven of their final eight regular season games.
The way they began against the Orange showed as much.
A two-RBI single by sophomore catcher Katie Bailiff and a bases-clearing double from first-year right fielder Brittany West helped UNC put a six-spot up on the scoreboard in the first inning.
“They were kind of hungry because we hadn’t played in almost two weeks,” head coach Donna Papa said. “And so, we just really stressed keeping everything simple and fun and I think that’s what we did.”
Syracuse responded with a pair of runs during the second and third innings against UNC pitcher Brittany Pickett, the ACC Freshman of the Year, but she helped her own cause when she homered to center field in the bottom of the third.
From that point on, UNC was able to manage the game and protect its lead, even through a lightning delay that started during the fourth inning and spanned about 70 minutes.
Trailing by six with one inning to go, the Orange pulled within four on an RBI-double by sophomore left fielder Bryce Holmgren, but Pickett didn’t let them get any closer than that.
