NC State’s softball team will head to Indiana this weekend for a three-day competition against Notre Dame.
The Wolfpack (22-18, 3-9 ACC) will be entering this weekend with a clean slate from its last conference weekend against Syracuse, where the Pack was dealt two losses and one win.
Last season against the Fighting Irish (24-13, 7-5 ACC), the Wolfpack was destroyed in its first game 15-0 which was called in the fifth inning. Batters Katie Marino, Ali Wester and Abby Sweet accumulated six of the 15 runs.
The second game was a 4-1 win for the Pack. Junior outfielder Angie Rizzi is the only returning player for the Pack who scored one of the four runs. The third game was cancelled and never rescheduled.
This season the Wolfpack has struggled against conference teams, having been swept by both Virginia Tech and Florida State. The Pack has only won one ACC series against Boston College.
The Fighting Irish have had a slightly better conference season so far, winning all three games against Boston College during their ninth annual Strikeout Cancer weekend, taking the first game 11-0. However, the Fighting Irish faced a similar fate as the Pack against Syracuse and Florida State, losing two of the three games.
Even though the Wolfpack has managed to score up to 16 runs in a game this season during its third game against Boston College, the Pack usually scores about four runs compared to the Fighting Irish’s average of 5.4 runs a game.
The Pack’s freshman pitcher Sydney Nester has a 2.50 ERA, impressive for her first year compared to the Fighting Irish’s freshman pitcher Payton Tidd who has her team’s best ERA of 2.62.
The first game will start this Friday in South Bend, Indiana at 6 p.m.
