UNC softball's Britton Rogers pitches perfect game against Drexel

Pitcher Britton Rogers is no stranger to perfection.

She pitched a perfect game in her first start in Carolina Blue last February.

A year later, the redshirt senior notched her name in the UNC record books for the second time.

“If she's confident in the circle, she can beat anybody,” head coach Megan Smith Lyon said.

On Thursday evening in the Tar Heel Invitational, Rogers became just the second pitcher in North Carolina history to throw multiple perfect games in an 8-0 shutout of Drexel at Anderson Stadium. The right-handed pitcher recorded eight strikeouts and gave up zero hits, leaving the Dragons scoreless in the five-inning game. She now holds both the ninth and 10th perfect games in program history.

But her journey to Chapel Hill was unexpected.

After attending Cypress Ranch High School in Texas, Rogers committed to pitch for the Georgia Bulldogs, recording 100 career strikeouts and an 11-6 record over two seasons. At the beginning of her junior season, she suffered an arm injury and decided to medically redshirt for the 2023 season. Then, Rogers entered the transfer portal.

“UNC took a chance on me as a transfer out of the portal,” Rogers said. “I didn't know where I would end up.”

In 2024, Rogers pitched 57 innings, recording 55 strikeouts and tallied an 8-5 record for UNC.

And this season, Rogers achieved perfection again in just her second start of the year. 

“It was just an opportunity given and an opportunity taken,” Rogers said. "Just a lot of hard work paid off."

It took a four-year career for this breakthrough to happen. Reflecting this fall, Rogers knew that growth would only result from taking tangible action steps towards improvement. She trained with assistant coach Maddie Holub to perfect three of her pitches: change, rise and screw. 

She utilized these repetitions to focus on consistently executing each pitch against Drexel.

As the game carried on, Rogers maintained an aggressive approach, knowing the prospect of the Dragons breaking through for a hit continued to loom at any moment.

“There's still a team that has the potential to swing the bat and hit the ball just like we do,” Rogers said.

After nearly giving up a hit in the second inning, she struck out the next two hitters in her second consecutive three up, three down of the game. Rogers continued to be a steady presence on the mound while the UNC defense, led by sophomore outfielder Sanaa Thompson and graduate third baseman Shelby Barbee, made a few vital catches to keep the Dragons scoreless. 

After years of fine-tuning, the hours of behind-the-scenes work proved worth it.

“Britton is the type of person that you root for, because she just does the right things and works so hard and is so dedicated to everything,” Lyon said.

Sophomore catcher Rayna Blackwell described Rogers as a “little firecracker." Whether the team is competing against each other in scrimmages or bullpens, Blackwell said Rogers doesn’t mess around. She competes with a consistent intensity.

“You can tell when she goes out there, she wants to win, and I love that, the team loves that,” Blackwell said. “It's just a whole different environment whenever Britton is pitching.”

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