The North Carolina softball team fell 2-1 to ACC leader Florida State in a two-day series.
The Tar Heels entered the Sunday-Monday set coming off a 9-0, 8-0, 9-0 winning streak, but weak play in all areas rendered them unable to hold off the Seminoles.
“We just couldn’t make adjustments and we couldn’t get breaks,” senior Ally Blake said. “Our defense just wasn’t strong, and at the plate we couldn’t make adjustments. Our pitchers threw great games, but we couldn’t back up.”
UNC lost the first game against Florida State Sunday morning 8-3 and redeemed itself with a 4-2 win in the afternoon, but weaknesses in every part of game play prevented the Tar Heels from winning the series.
Blake, who typically starts at catcher, was moved to third base during Monday’s matchup and sophomore Logan Foulks was brought in to catch to bulk up UNC’s hitting. But Foulks’ presence helped more than just the at-bat list despite the Tar Heels inability to come away with anything better than a 3-1 loss.
“Logan did good job, but our defense on the whole didn’t show up today,” junior Constance Orr said. “She got runners out on base when we needed her to and stopped (FSU) from coming home. We needed her to step up so Ally could play third and she really did.”
“It was also good to know that we walked away with one win with eight plus errors over the weekend.”
Even through Foulks’ strong performance at catcher, good pitching performances and giving FSU what was only the team’s sixth loss of the season, the Tar Heels still understand that they have a lot to work on.
“The good thing is that we do know we didn’t play our best,” Blake said. “We know that the team that performed this weekend isn’t the team that we are and our performance doesn’t show what kind of team we are, so we can move forward and know what to fix.”
“You’re going to have weekends like this where nothing clicks, we just have to get past it.”
North Carolina recognized not only its weaknesses, but also the strengths of the No. 22 Florida State squad.
“They were definitely very, very confident in themselves,” Orr said. “They played smart, took advantage of their space when they had it and moved runners when they should have. They did everything we couldn’t do.”
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