On Friday and Saturday, the North Carolina softball team (19-13, 8-4 ACC) won its first two games against Pittsburgh (5-28, 2-10 ACC) before dropping the third contest on Saturday.
What happened?
Game One
The Tar Heels took a early 3-0 lead with runs from Leah Murray, Kristina Burkhardt, and Kiani Ramsey. The Panthers answered back in the second inning with two runs.
In the third, North Carolina scored three times and added another three runs in the fourth, thanks in part to a three-run home run from Megan Dray, to secure a 9-2 lead. In the fifth, the Tar Heels continued with an RBI triple from Burkhardt and a sacrifice fly from Lexi Godwin. Pittsburgh responded with a two-run home run from Alexee Haynes to make it 11-5.
However, Pittsburgh was unable to mount a comeback, as both teams went scoreless in the last two innings.
Game Two
North Carolina’s Abby Settlemyre picked up a two-run single in the second inning to give UNC a 2-0 lead. In addition, Berlynne Delamora and Zoe Goodman both hit two-run home runs to help UNC go up 6-0 in the third inning.
While the Tar Heels did not score in the last four innings, Pittsburgh could not match UNC’s early success and only scored twice from Alexis Solak and Hunter Levesque in the fourth and fifth, respectively. North Carolina emerged victorious, 6-2.