The N.C. State softball team heads to Kissimmee Fla. to play in this weekend’s Citrus Classic at the Disney Wide World of Sports Complex, matching up against No. 17 Georgia, Lehigh, Albany, Northern Illinois and Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne. Following a 1-5 overall start to the season, the Citrus Classic will present an opportunity for head coach Shawn Rychcik’s squad to find momentum before kicking off its ACC schedule against Virginia on March 1.
State will open the tournament by facing off with the No. 17 Georgia Bulldogs on Friday. The Bulldogs (9-0) are riding a hot streak, scoring a total of 38 runs in their last six games and only giving up seven.
“We have a good opponent right out of the gate in Georgia,” head coach Shawn Rychcik said. “They’re playing pretty well. One of their pitchers [sophomore Chelsea Wilkinson] hasn’t given up a run all season.”
While the Bulldogs are the tournament’s headline team, there are other teams projected to be at the top of their conferences, including I.P.F.W. (7-2). The Mastodon’s key win came against No. 15 Texas on Feb. 14,scoring two runs in the eighth inning, knocking the Longhorns out of the top-25.
Another team that will challenge the Pack in Florida is Lehigh University. Lehigh was projected to win its conference in the preseason polls, a conference that included Rychcik’s former team, Boston University.
The Citrus Classic will allow the Pack to take on some of the best pitchers it will face this season, like Northern Illinois’ junior pitcher Jessica Sturm. Sturm is 1-1 overall this season, throwing a shutout for seven innings and striking out three batters in her season opener against Florida Atlantic.
Another pitcher the Pack has to watch out for is Wilkinson, who has not given up a run all season for the Bulldogs. Wilkinson has started five games this season, striking out 48 batters with an ERA of 0.00 in her seven appearances this season.
In order to prepare for Strum, Wilkinson and company, Rychcik said his team has been doing a lot of hitting drills. Last season’s Pack team broke 11 school records, including most home runs in a season (88), most runs batted (266) and most runs scored (288), and Rychcik said the Wolfpack is up to the challenge this weekend.
“We’ve spent the last three days doing some good work on the field,” Rychcik said, “and when it comes to the live portion of batting practice, we were right on balls and driving them all over the park.”
Due to bad weather, the Wolfpack was forced to cancel its previously scheduled tournament in Arkansas. This weekend’s tournament will be the first time N.C. State has played since Feb. 8.
Despite the Pack’s difficult start to the season, a bright spot has emerged in the form of freshman outfielder Molly Hutchinson. In her collegiate debut, Hutchinson homered twice over her first two games and produced all three runs for the Pack in its first two games of the season.
Hutchinson is just one of a host of Wolfpack freshmen who Rychcik said needs to quickly get up to speed with the college game.
“We have nine freshmen this year, and we are trying get them acclimated to this college level,” Rychcik said.