The NC State softball team bounced back from its five-error, 13-5 loss at the hands of James Madison the day before with a resounding 12-2 mercy-rule win over NC A&T.

Led offensively by junior second baseman Carson Shaner (2 for 2, 2 RBI) and senior designated player Brigette Nordberg (3 for 4, 6 RBI, HR), the Wolfpack (14-6) put up five or more runs for the 12th time this season. Nordberg hit well in all her plate appearances but she came to life in the final two at-bats with a two-RBI single in the fifth and a three-run walkoff homer in the bottom of the sixth.

“I was just looking for a ball to hit out because I knew that we wanted to get out of here a little bit early,” Nordberg said. “We wanted to walk it off, so it wasn’t really anything special but I just wanted to go up there swinging for a home run.”

Shaner entered the game hitting just .143 (four hits on 28 at-bats) but against the Aggies (2-16), the junior went 2 for 2 with two RBIs on two singles and a sacrifice fly, her first two non-home run hits of the season.

“I still felt really good in the box, I just wasn’t getting all of it,” Shaner said. “But I tried to do it for my team, so I did what I had to do for my team today.”

Just a day removed from throwing a no-hitter in the Wolfpack’s 9-0 five-inning mercy-rule win over the Aggies in the first game of Saturday’s doubleheader, freshman righty Sam Gress (IP, 2 K, H) got the nod as the starting pitcher for the final game of the NC State Invitational. Across the invitational, the Pack went 3-1, with the lone loss coming to a ranked James Madison team.

“I think we did some good things,” said head coach Jennifer Patrick-Swift. “I think we have some things we have to clean up going forward, one of which is defense. We’re still giving up a lot of home runs so we have to work on that part of the ball this week.”

Gress’s attempt to replicate her exploits from the day before were cut off just three pitches into the game as a bunt from leadoff batter Eternal Fuller got the visitors its first hit of the weekend against the Pack. The leadoff bunt would be the Aggies’ only hit in the inning however as a pair of strikeouts from Gress and a fielder’s choice got her out of the inning.

Similarly to the Aggies, the Pack got a leadoff hit with junior left fielder Sam Russ (1 for 3, SB) singling into center field. Unlike A&T, the Wolfpack was able to capitalize on its leadoff hit with Russ, who stole second and advanced to third on an error, scoring on a sacrifice fly from junior third baseman Logan Morris (1 for 3, RBI). The Pack added one more in the bottom of the first with senior right fielder Tatyana Forbes (1 for 2, 2 SB, BB) scoring on another sacrifice fly, this time from senior center fielder Angie Rizzi (1 for 2, RBI, BB).

Gress came out to warm up for the second inning but near the end of her warmup pitches, Gress was replaced by sophomore righty Sydney Nester. Nester would pitch the remainder of the game, going five innings with eight strikeouts, allowing two hits and two earned runs.

“Gress is just dealing with some back issues,” Patrick-Swift said. “We’re just making sure that we take care appropriately and don’t push too much since it’s still early on.”

Nester allowed just one hit in her first inning in the circle, and in the bottom of the inning, the Wolfpack added another run with junior catcher Sam Sack (1 for 3, 2B) scoring on a single from Shaner. The single was Shaner’s first non-home run hit of the season with the junior entering the game with 28 at-bats and four hits, all homers.

In the top of the third, the Aggies cut the Pack’s lead down to just one behind a two-run homer from designated player Hailee Cutts. The Wolfpack restored its three-run lead across the next two innings with a pair of two-out runs. In the third, Nordberg drove in junior shortstop Randi Farricker (2 for 3, 3 R, BB) and in the fourth, an RBI single from Shaner scored Forbes.

“It’s super important to, when a team jumps on you, you answer right back,” Nordberg said. “That’s what we’ve really been working on and doing really well at is, when a team gets on us, we push ourselves to fight back and loosen the strains a little bit.”

With the three-run lead fully restored in the previous inning, the Pack went to work putting the game to bed in the fifth. After Rizzi and Farricker reached on a single and a walk, respectively, Nordberg brought both home with a single to left field that put her on second following an error. Freshman pinch hitter Kelsey O’Connor (1 for 1, RBI, SB) brought Nordberg home two at-bats later after she had advanced to third on a ground out from Sack. 

Shaner added to the Aggies’ problems in the next at-bat, scoring O’Connor on a sacrifice fly after the pinch hitter stole second and advanced to third on an error as the Aggies attempted to catch her stealing.

“It comes down to how we hit and what we do on offense,” Nordberg said. “… you can’t score runs on defense. We’re just trying to swing for the fence and score runs. That way to stay with other teams and mercy them in the end.”

Nordberg’s three-run bomb ended the game an inning early as the Wolfpack mercy-ruled the Aggies. All five of NC A&T’s games in the NC State Invitational ended in mercy rules.

The Wolfpack will be back in action against Notre Dame next weekend for its first ACC series of the season. The weekend will start with a Saturday doubleheader and end on Sunday with a single game. The doubleheader will start at 1 p.m. and the Sunday game will start at 12 p.m.

“We’re excited about it,” Patrick-Swift said. “We’re ready to get going. I think we’ve had a strong schedule… we did that to prepare for ACCs. Every game, every team in the ACC is going to be a dogfight. At the end of the day when you show up for a matchup, your record and their record goes out the window… On any given day it’s just about the team that shows up and plays the best ball. That’s what we’re going to set out to do every time we open up in ACCs.”