Pack softball takes on powerful Notre Dame offense in road weekend series

Kat Peters, Correspondent • March 24, 2021

Redshirt senior outfielder, Angie Rizzi, throws the ball to second base to get a Hokies’ player out on Friday, Mar. 12 at Dail Softball Field. NCSU lost to Virginia Tech 2-4

NC State will travel to South Bend, Indiana to take on Notre Dame in its second consecutive weekend series on the road. The series will be four games, with one Friday, a doubleheader Saturday and a final game Sunday afternoon.

The Wolfpack (14-8, 10-8 ACC) is coming off a four-game series against Virginia, where it went 2-2 against the Cavaliers. Defensively, NC State didn’t allow Virginia to score more than four runs in a game. It came down to the offense to overtake those low numbers put up by Virginia. NC State was able to shut out the Cavaliers in the last game of the series 5-0, so that momentum might help against Notre Dame.

Notre Dame (12-8, 6-6 ACC) recently went 3-1 in its weekend series against Georgia Tech. The one loss came when Notre Dame’s defense was unable to keep Georgia Tech below three runs. The Fighting Irish won the last two games, so both teams are going into this weekend with a little momentum from recent wins.

Offensively, Notre Dame has outfielder Abby Sweet, who leads the team in batting average (.529), and infielder Karina Gaskins, who leads in home runs with seven on the season. Sweet and Gaskins are second and third in the ACC for batting average. Gaskins also leads the team with 20 RBIs and a 1.098 slugging percentage. In addition to those two, the Fighting Irish have two other batters with averages above .300.

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Notre Dame’s pitching staff has two members who have both pitched over 50 innings, Payton Tidd and Alexis Holloway, as well as one member who has pitched 13.2 innings this year in Morgan Ryan. Tidd and Holloway are both tied at six wins this season. The average ERA for this staff is 2.04, which is seventh best in the conference, with Tidd leading the way with a 1.70.

The Wolfpack will have to look out for a strong Notre Dame offense, led by Gaskins. But if the NC State defense is able to shut down that offense like it did with Virginia, it will be up to the offense as to how this series goes.

The weekend series will begin Friday, March 26 at 5 p.m. All games will be broadcast on ACC Network Extra.