The Wolfpack softball team has earned a seventh seed ranking in this week’s ACC Softball Championship. It will face the tenth-seeded UNC Tar Heels in the first round of conference tournament action beginning later this week.
The entire tournament will take place from May 12-15 in Louisville, Kentucky. If the Pack (25-24, 15-22 ACC) can advance past the first round, it is slated to play No. 2 seed Florida State (38-9-1, 26-5-1 ACC) in the quarterfinals.
NC State has yet to face the Tar Heels (14-25, 10-19 ACC) this season, last seeing them in October 2019 where NC State came out on top 5-4 through 10 innings. The Pack last saw the Seminoles at the beginning of May, losing three out of four games in that series.
In UNC’s most recent games it split its series against Louisville, losing the first game 12-7, winning Saturday’s matchup 5-0 and the first game of Sunday’s doubleheader 9-5 before falling in the final game 7-3.
Names to look out for on this UNC roster include redshirt senior outfielder Kristina Burkhardt, junior first baseman Kiersten Licea and fifth year pitcher and first baseman Brittany Pickett.
Burkhardt leads the team offensively and is currently slashing .339/.409/.559 with 20 RBIs. She also has the most success on the basepath of her teammates, stealing a successful 13 bases on her 18 attempts. Despite a lower batting average at .291, Licea has the most RBIs on the team with 24 and the second-most home runs with five. Pickett has accumulated the most homers with seven, as well as 17 RBIs of her own.
Pickett is also the team’s best pitcher with a 2.62 ERA and 117 innings under her belt this season, only allowing 17 walks while striking out 126 batters. She’s also only given up nine home runs which will be hard to maintain against the Wolfpack who is the only team in the ACC with three players with ten or more homers.
This will be NC State’s second ACC Tournament run since head coach Jennifer Patrick-Swift took over in 2019. With the cancellation of last year’s tournament, this is also the first time the Wolfpack has qualified for back-to-back ACC Championship appearances since 2014 and 2015.
After being swept in its last series of the regular season against Duke (39-10, 26-10 ACC), the Wolfpack will be looking for a big swing in momentum to begin the tournament.
The opening pitch of NC State’s ACC tournament run is scheduled for Wednesday, May 12 at 3:30 p.m. and will be aired on the ACC Network.
