Since our last breakdown, NC State softball played a nonconference game against Campbell and a three-game series in Chapel Hill. The Wolfpack won against Campbell and took one of three against UNC.
NC State (21-12, 3-9 ACC) continues to struggle with conference opponents, but managed to secure a win against the Camels (16-11) and a win against the Tar Heels (18-14, 4-4 ACC) in Chapel Hill. The Pack won against the Camels 2-0, then lost the first game against UNC in an intense 12-11 final, followed by a 15-8 win, then a 16-4 loss.
Pack going yard to put up runs in bunches
In the second UNC game, the Wolfpack tallied nine homers as a team and had a team batting average of .424, a significant increase from the Duke and Virginia series which hovered around .100. The Pack also tallied a .387 average in the first UNC game and a .211 in the third UNC game. The increase in offense allowed the Pack to score plenty of runs.
Fifth-year third baseman Logan Morris went 0 for 3 against the Camels, a rare hitless outing for her. Against UNC however, she went 5 for 9 across the series, and in the second game, she smacked two home runs and brought in five runners, leading the charge in the 15-8 victory. Her series performance bumped up her season batting average to .430.
Graduate shortstop Randi Farricker also had a decent series against Chapel Hill, going 3 for 8. In the series opener against UNC, she went 2 for 3 with a double and a homer to add to the 11 runs that game. Against Campbell, she drilled a homer to center to help secure the win for the Pack.
Sophomore second baseman Kaylee Lambrecht is wielding another impressive bat as of late. In the most recent game, she smacked a leadoff homer to start the game, and in the second game she went 3 for 5 including a home run, a double and two RBIs.
The Wolfpack’s offense had 16 home runs in the past four games. The home run mentality works very well, but as the saying goes:
Defense wins championships (but the Pack’s needs to be better)
The Wolfpack’s pitching was not up to par with the UNC series. Against Campbell, redshirt sophomore righty Aisha Weixlmann pitched a one hitter with seven strikeouts to complete the shutout. There’s no doubt this performance was fantastic and allowed the Pack to win the game.
However, Weixlmann was challenged against the Tar Heels, giving up a total of 10 earned runs in the first two games. She only struck out a single batter and gave up three walks in the entire series, as the disciplined Tar Heels knew how to swing the bat well against her high-intensity pitching. She made an appearance in the third game to close out an inning and gave up zero earned runs. However, the five unearned runs added to the 16-4 defeat.
Graduate lefty Maddie McPherson pitched 4.1 innings in the series and gave up 14 earned runs. UNC’s scouting may have contributed an edge to scoring off of McPherson, since the southpaw pitched her previous two seasons with another ACC team in Georgia Tech, but the Tar Heels had her figured out regardless. McPherson’s season ERA jumped to 5.22 as a result, but the Pack will need to keep her in the rotation as she provides relief for its other main pitchers.
The last pitcher in the Wolfpack rotation is redshirt sophomore righty Sam Gress. Gress only pitched 0.1 innings in game one of Chapel Hill, but still gave up two hits and a run before recording her out. In game three, she pitched 2.1 innings and gave up one earned run plus four unearned runs off four hits. With the minimal pitching in the series, it is hard to conclude how well she performed against Chapel Hill, but she did provide some relief when she came in.
The Wolfpack defense as a whole committed three errors in the 16-4 loss in game three, which accounts for some of the unearned runs the Pack gave up. However, the fact that NC State only has three pitchers with more than 20 appearances contributed to opposing batters becoming more familiar with the Pack’s thin pitching staff as fewer faces translated to less variation.
In contrast, UNC has four pitchers with more than 10 appearances in games, and Virginia has five pitchers with 10 or more appearances. Virginia only has one pitcher with 24 innings and UNC’s highest is 19. Three pitchers who are continuously rotated could be scouted out and studied, giving teams like Chapel Hill an edge with how to hit and not striking out.
Back in the friendly confines
The Wolfpack enjoys a six-game homestand in the next two weeks. It will play UNC-Wilmington (20-5) March 29, followed by UNC-Charlotte (22-10) the next day. Next, the Pack will have a three-game series against Louisville (18-12, 2-4 ACC) starting April 1. The last home game in the stretch will be against Longwood (12-18) April 6.
