A team that has no standouts. That’s what coach Lisa Navas said she has. Navas was referring to practice and the fact that no one on the N.C. State softball team really outperforms or outworks another.
“The funny thing about our team is that, we’re pretty much on the same level,” Navas said.
After some thought, Navas said Jennifer Patterson has been doing well at the plate in practice.
“I think that Jennifer Patterson hits extremely well in practice. She’s really been crushing the ball. That’s probably about the only person,” Navas said.
The Wolfpack has spoken throughout the season about a desire to step up to the performance level of the top ACC teams. Navas said her team is not far from reaching that goal.
“I don’t think it’s a severe jump. I think with ACC play we need to keep ourselves in a good position to be in top three. We have the tournament and the winner from the tournament is the one that gets the automatic bid [to the NCAA Tournament],” Navas said. “We have 21 games left and we need to play hard. There’s nothing severe that needs to change. We just need to keep plugging at what we’re doing.”
What the team does is work on the basics and try to constantly improve on a season that has already netted 32 wins.
“We don’t want to fall into bad habits, fundamentally-wise. We try to push them hard in practice so that they make mistakes in practice and learn from that,” Navas said. “That’s not something that’s going to happen in a game. That’s our job to challenge them as a team everyday in practice.”
Pitching coach Michelle Green said she challenges her pitchers to never be satisfied.
Green added that the pitching staff needs to cut down on walks.
“We need to get better with the walk situation. We give up way too many walks [in] a game, and they turn around to hurt us. It’s a consistency factor.” Green said.
Green knows something about what it takes for a team and a pitcher to succeed after being part of SEC championship and NCAA regional teams at the University of Georgia.
She said the current Wolfpack pitching staff has the ability to be successful if it develops the right mentality.
“A lot of it’s their mentality; it’s not their physical ability. They’ve all shown brilliance at different times. It’s just a matter of them believing that they can be the best,” Green said. “When they do that, then the results will come within the whole team.”