If it were a beauty contest, the second game of Saturday’s doubleheader against Virginia might have ended sourly for the North Carolina softball team.
But the score doesn’t say “how” — it just says “how many.”
The pixelated glow of the Anderson Stadium scoreboard read 2-1 UNC in the waning afternoon light. That was good enough for coach Donna Papa.
“The wins don’t have ‘win pretty,’ ‘win ugly,’ ‘ugly win,’ pretty win’ (next to them) — it’s a win,” Papa said. “And the game doesn’t know whether it was pretty or ugly.”
At times late Saturday, things were rather unsightly for Carolina.
After seizing the afternoon’s opening tilt 5-1, UNC (30-13, 8-3 ACC) turned its steady offense into a scene from Castaway. The Heels stranded 14 runners on base in the second game. They left the bases loaded twice without pushing a run across the plate. Their second-most productive hitter, Haleigh Dickey, squandered seven base runners by herself.
The Tar Heels would load the bases a third time in the bottom of the seventh with two outs and the score knotted at 1-1. Pinch hitter Lauren Fuller stepped into the batter’s box in place of second baseman Erin Satterfield. Fuller didn’t need to perform any miracles, Papa insisted after the game.
Just put the ball in play.
“We don’t care if it’s ten hops, twenty hops, thirty hops, whatever — as long as you find a hole, use the ground, do whatever it takes,” Papa said. “And that’s kind of what Lauren did.”
Fuller hit a ground ball into the hole between third and short. UVa. shortstop Alex Skinkis hurried a throw to third for the force out, but third baseman Marcy Bowdren saw the ball skim off the webbing of her mitt. UNC’s Kristen Brown scurried home to score the winning run as the ball bounced away.
“I’m proud of them for battling,” Papa said of the Tar Heels. “I feel like we’ve been a team that’s never given up on ourselves.”
The demonstrative Papa had far less reason for concern during the opening game. UNC ace Lori Spingola struck out seven Cavaliers (16-18, 3-8 ACC) and retired the last 13 batters she faced, while third baseman Constance Orr belted her team-leading 10th home run and drove in two runs.
There were no extra style points for a win, no approving looks from judges — just two more wins.
It didn’t have to be pretty. It just had to be enough.
And for UNC, it was.
NOTES: The Tar Heels have won 18 of 19 games at Anderson Stadium in 2013. For UNC, “home-field advantage” means something more than an announcer’s throwaway line.
“I think it’s just the atmosphere,” outfielder Tisha Mahon said when asked about the team’s success in Chapel Hill. “We absolutely get hyped every time we have home games.”
The Heels are in the midst of a ten-game home stand, which wraps up Wednesday against Elon.
“It’s the comfort of being home,” Papa said. “That’s huge.”
And the crowds clad in Carolina blue have had plenty of reason to pour through the turnstiles to muster a legitimate advantage for the home team.
“We love playing here,” Mahon added. “Our fans are great.”
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