Josh Lawson
N.C. State looks to redeem three recent losses as it hosts Elon on Thursday and No. 19 Florida State on Saturday at Walnut Creek in Raleigh.
“We’d like to rebound with a couple of strong wins, and we definitely have the potential to do that against a good Elon team and No. 19 Florida State,” said senior Heather Gelbard. “It’s a good opportunity to bounce back, do some good things.”
Coach Lisa Navas said “good things” include better hitting and putting the ball in play.
“Elon has had our number for a while, and they’ve played really well against us,” Navas said. “We need to come ready to play in every situation. Florida State is a pretty good program, and we need to bring our A-game.” Chamberlin said playing Florida State is a chance to establish the Wolfpack’s standing in the ACC.
“We’ve lost to three teams that we shouldn’t have,” Chamberlin said. “There’s a difference between just losing and playing well and losing. We didn’t play well in any of the games that we lost, and that’s frustrating.”
Gelbard, who was named to the all-tournament team in Alabama last weekend, contributed key hits and said she’s looking forward to stepping up to the plate.
“We saw a lot of Florida State last year,” Gelbard said. “We played them like four or five times. I want to take advantage of what I learned about them from last year — how they pitch to me, and just in general, do better at getting hits in last year. I want to take advantage of the situations they give us and hopefully score a lot of runs.”
This weekend State looks to avoid allowing runners, Navas said, and is focusing on tightening its defense.
“Things have come back to hurt us,” Navas said. “We’re pitching to a few more batters than we need to, and runs are scored. Untimely errors and untimely walks and hit batters don’t help us.”
Ultimately, Chamberlin said, the key this weekend for the Pack will be teamwork.
“We didn’t play very well as a team, so we’re kind of excited to get back out there on the field and show everybody what we’re made of,” Chamberlin said.