SU Swept By RV/RV NC State In Opening Home Stand

Sunday, April 6

Syracuse, NY

11 am

Syracuse University

13-17, 6-6

NC State

22-10, 11-4

North Carolina State

Syracuse

SU Swept By RV/RV NC State In Opening Home Stand

4/6/2014 6:14:00 PM | Softball

Box Score 1 Box Score 2

Syracuse loses 5-4 lead in final inning and falls 8-6 in game one, then gets shutout 7-0 in the finale

Game 1 Box | Game 2 Box | Blog Replay | Photo Gallery

SYRACUSE, N.Y. – Playing in its first home games of the 2014 season, the Syracuse softball team was swept by RV/RV North Carolina State on Sunday, April 6 at the SU Softball Stadium.

The teams were originally scheduled to play a three-game series, but after Saturday's doubleheader was postponed, the clubs played two on Sunday instead. The loss in game, SU's inaugural Atlantic Coast Conference home contest, marked just the second time in the last nine seasons the Orange lost its home debut.

In the first game, Syracuse (13-18, 6-7 ACC) overcame a 4-1 deficit with a four-run fifth inning to pull ahead, however, couldn't hang on as NC State (23-10, 12-4 ACC) rallied for four runs of its own in the seventh inning to win 8-6. The Wolfpack had little trouble in the second game, plating four runs in the first two innings on the way to a 7-0 win in six innings.

Junior Julie Wambold led SU in the opener going 2-for-3 with a homer, three runs batted in and a walk. She was joined by senior Shirley Daniels as the only Orange women to post multi-hit games. Daniels finished 2-for-3 with a walk and added an RBI and a season-high three stolen bases. Freshman Nicole Lundstrom also provided an offensive spark with a two-run double, for her seventh multi-RBI game of the season, and scored twice.

Freshman Sydney O'Hara (10-7) wound up one out shy of a complete game effort, lasting 6.2 innings before coming out of the game. She gave up eight runs (seven earned) on 10 hits and was one-off her career high with 11 strikeouts. Entering the final frame, O'Hara had allowed just four runs on five hits.

Syracuse got things started early in the second inning, breaking a scoreless tie on Wambold's leadoff homer to give SU a 1-0 lead.

NC State evened things in the next half inning and took the lead in the top of the fourth thanks to a two-run homer by Leah Jones. Following a leadoff double by Lana Van Dyken in the third, O'Hara retired the next two batters. But Kirsty Grant's double to left center skipped off the top of freshman Alyssa Dewes' glove and rolled to the wall to plate Van Dyken.

After Sara Lippard drew a walk to start the fourth, Jones took the first pitch she saw over the fence in left center to put NC State ahead 3-1. The Wolfpack looked to add more runs when Renada Davis' double down the left field line put runners on second and third, but O'Hara got out of the jam with her third strikeout of the inning.

Jones was back at it again in the fifth, driving in her third run of the game on a two-out single up the middle that brought in Molly Hutchinson, who led off the inning taking a hit by pitch.

The Orange finally got to pitcher Emily Weiman in the home half of the fifth, plating four runs on five hits to go back on top, 5-4. The first four batters of the inning all reached base for Syracuse, beginning with a single by junior Mary Dombrowski. After a walk by Dewes, Daniels singled through the left side to drive in Dombrowski and make it a two-run game. Lundstrom followed that up with a double to straight away center that bounced off the fence, allowing both runners to score and tie the game.

Wambold continued the inning for Syracuse with as her two-out single up the middle, which drove in Lundstrom from third and gave Syracuse a 5-4 edge.

Both teams went down in order in the sixth and O'Hara trotted out in the seventh in an attempt to hurl her eighth complete game of the season. She got Grant to fly out to the warning track for out number one, but seven of the next eight batters reached base, knocking O'Hara out of the game.

Hutchinson walked on five pitches, bringing up Hanna Sommer, who drilled the first pitch she saw out of the park in straight away center to put the Wolfpack ahead for good at 6-5. With two outs, Jones added an insurance run on her second homer of the game, a solo shot to center. Three straight singles, the last by Chelsea Tate, drove in NC State's final run of the contest to extend the lead to 8-5.

Syracuse looked to rally in the bottom half of the inning as Lundstrom took a leadoff walk. She made her way to second on a ground out and went to third on senior Jasmine Watson's single to right. With runners at the corners and the tying run up to bat, Wambold hit a hard grounder to the right side to plate Lundstrom and make it 8-6. SU still had the tying run up on the next play, but Weiman tallied her eighth strikeout to end the game.

In the second game, Weiman stifled the Syracuse hitters, posting a complete game, five-hit shutout with another eight strikeouts in a 7-0 victory.

Lundstrom had two of the Orange's five hits for her 11th multi-hit game of the campaign. O'Hara had a single and finished the day as just one of two Syracuse players with a hit in both games.

Freshmen Christina Clermont had a solid outing in the relief, yielding three runs on four hits in 4.1 innings while striking out seven, one off her career high. It was Clermont's longest outing since going 4.1 innings in the series opener against North Carolina on March 8. Sophomore Lindsey Larkin (1-4) made her second start of the season and took the loss.

NC State jumped out to 1-0 lead in the first and added three more in the second and never looked back. Following a leadoff double Davis, a fly out and groundout allowed the speedy shortstop to touch home. With one gone in the second, three straight singles brought in Tate on Scout Albertson's one-bagger. A sacrifice fly by Van Dyken in the next at bat made it 3-drove in another, and a two-out single by Kirsty Grant set the score a 4-0.

This time around, Syracuse didn't have any answers for the Wolfpack as reigning ACC Pitcher of the Year Weiman was wheeling and dealing throughout the entire second game, facing no more than four batters in each inning,

In the fourth, the Wolfpack tacked on a fifth run on an RBI single by Van Dyken, after Tate got on with a leadoff double. Tate did the damage at the plate two innings late, pushing across NC State's final two runs on a two-run bomb in the final frame.

Syracuse resumes its homestand on Wednesday, April 9 in a doubleheader against in-state rival Binghamton beginning at 3:30 p.m.