Despite getting little going offensively throughout most of its game against Boston College Sunday, the softball team was able to overcome difficulties when it had to.
With the game tied 0-0 in the bottom of the eighth, seniors Blair Harkey and Shanna Smith reached base with a walk and a single, respectively. Lauren Peters then moved the runners to second and third with a sacrifice bunt. Freshman catcher Alyssa Allbritten then dropped a hit into shallow centerfield, bringing Harkey home for the win.
Allbritten, after saying she was thrilled to have hit the game-winner, said it was only a matter of time before the State bats got going.
“I just knew I was due for a hit,” Allbritten said. “You can’t really control much about the ball after you hit it, so I was just concentrating on fundamentals and making contact.”
Even though it was a warm Sunday afternoon at the Curtis and Jacqueline Dail Softball Stadium, coach Lisa Navas said the Pack’s bats just took a long time to defrost.
“It was a matter of time today. We were pressing too much at the plate instead of just relaxing and hitting the ball,” Navas said. “We just got a break, and it happened for us. The defense played great, and we were able to get it done when we needed to.”
State, although it had trouble producing runs, did turn in a stellar performance defensively against BC. Sophomore pitcher Lindsay Campana pitched her second consecutive complete-game shutout and has earned the victory in six of her last seven decisions.
Campana said she owed the victory to her catcher, Allbritten, as well as the solid performances of the players behind her in the field.
The strategy, according to Campana, was to keep the ball low and force the Eagles into hitting ground balls. Seven of the last nine BC batters hit ground-outs.
“We did a lot of mixing pitches today,” Campana said. “We really tried to paint the corners. We are just trying to keep the ball down so we can get a lot of ground-outs. By keeping it low, we just make them put it into play, and then our defense did a great job in the field.”
Navas said it was perhaps due to Campana’s parents’ presence during the weekend that she pitched so well. It was the first time that her parents had been to Raleigh to watch the sophomore play softball.
“She’s really determined, and I think it was special because her parents were able to come in this weekend. And this is the first time they have been here,” Navas said. “She has really come along for us and has done a great job.”
Navas went further to say that while she is happy with her team’s ability to grind out this particular win, she thinks it is indicative of how the rest of the ACC season will play out.
“We managed to squeak it out,” Navas said. “In the first game yesterday we started out hitting the ball hard. Then the second game we started to cool off. Their pitcher did a great job keeping us off balance with the change-up. That’s ACC ball right there. It’s a long season ahead of us.”
The Pack took the first game of the series with a decisive 8-0 victory. It was Mackenzie Mangum who got the offense rolling in that game with a grand slam in the bottom of the fourth inning. In the second game, State lost 2-1 despite a home run by Kristine Bechtholdt.
