Thursday, May 11
Chapel Hill, NC
7:30 PM
Syracuse University
31-19
4
vs
8
North Carolina
37-18
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
R
H
E
Syracuse
0
1
1
0
0
0
2
4
6
0
North Carolina
6
0
1
0
1
0
X
8
7
1
Orange Fall in Quarterfinal to #3 Seed Tar Heels
5/11/2017 11:47:00 PM | Softball
‘Cuse ends 2017 season
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. – A seventh-inning rally fell short for Syracuse (31-19, 10-10 ACC), as the Orange dropped the ACC Quarterfinal game to tournament host and No. 3 seed North Carolina (37-18, 14-9 ACC), 8-4, on Thursday night at Anderson Softball Stadium. Syracuse concluded its sixth 30-win season in program history with 31 overall wins and 10 conference victories.
"I thought our season was another step forward for us," head coach Mike Bosch said. "I thought we became more competitive. Obviously our win total was the best we've had in five years. I think the program is in an upward movement meaning that I've seen good things from where we've gone in the last two years, and I think next year will be another step forward for us.
"That's where you want to go. You want to keep improving as a program and I think that's what we did this year. I think the foundation is set for a pretty good 2018."
Despite the loss, Syracuse wrapped up a season for the record books. The Orange hit a single-season best .307 average as a whole, while tallying 433 hits to surpass the previous single-season record of 430 from 2011. SU broke a third single-season record with a team on-base percentage of .388, breaking the previous high of .376 from 2014.
Senior Sydney O'Hara rewrote a total of six individual single-season records, headlined by her .476 batting average that surpassed a previous record of .393 set in 2006 by Alexis Switenko. O'Hara broke Switenko's slugging percentage record from 2006 (.742), as she boasted an average of .833 this year. She is the new single-season record holder in walks (46), on-base percentage (.626), saves (6) and strikeouts per seven innings (12.6).
Junior Sammy Fernandez owns a pair of single-season offensive records for SU in hits (72) and at-bats (201), both of which were previously held by Lisaira Daniels in 2011.
Game Recap
North Carolina got a hot start in the bottom of the first frame, putting up six runs on four hits to establish the early lead.
Faith Cain got the Orange on the board with her sixth home run of the year in the top of the second inning. Alicia Hansen followed in the top of the third with a full-count RBI double to right center field to bring Heese home from first base and cut the UNC lead, 6-2.
Cain was 2-for-3 on the day with a home run and an RBI, while Heese was 1-for-1 with two runs and two walks from the nine-hole.
UNC pitcher Brittany Pickett extended the Tar Heels' lead, 7-2, with a solo home run over the center field wall in the bottom of the third inning.
After 3.5 innings, the game was postponed due to severe weather in the area.
With the bases loaded in the bottom of the fifth inning, North Carolina's Leah Murray laid a shallow RBI single to left field to give UNC an 8-2 lead.
The Orange used the seventh inning to add two more runs from a two-out 2 RBI double from Bryce Holmgren, but the rally was cut short to end the game.
Holmgren finished the game 1-for-3 with two RBI.
O'Hara was 1-for-3 from home plate with a walk and tallied three strikeouts from the pitcher's circle.
"I thought our season was another step forward for us," head coach Mike Bosch said. "I thought we became more competitive. Obviously our win total was the best we've had in five years. I think the program is in an upward movement meaning that I've seen good things from where we've gone in the last two years, and I think next year will be another step forward for us.
"That's where you want to go. You want to keep improving as a program and I think that's what we did this year. I think the foundation is set for a pretty good 2018."
Despite the loss, Syracuse wrapped up a season for the record books. The Orange hit a single-season best .307 average as a whole, while tallying 433 hits to surpass the previous single-season record of 430 from 2011. SU broke a third single-season record with a team on-base percentage of .388, breaking the previous high of .376 from 2014.
Senior Sydney O'Hara rewrote a total of six individual single-season records, headlined by her .476 batting average that surpassed a previous record of .393 set in 2006 by Alexis Switenko. O'Hara broke Switenko's slugging percentage record from 2006 (.742), as she boasted an average of .833 this year. She is the new single-season record holder in walks (46), on-base percentage (.626), saves (6) and strikeouts per seven innings (12.6).
Junior Sammy Fernandez owns a pair of single-season offensive records for SU in hits (72) and at-bats (201), both of which were previously held by Lisaira Daniels in 2011.
Game Recap
North Carolina got a hot start in the bottom of the first frame, putting up six runs on four hits to establish the early lead.
Faith Cain got the Orange on the board with her sixth home run of the year in the top of the second inning. Alicia Hansen followed in the top of the third with a full-count RBI double to right center field to bring Heese home from first base and cut the UNC lead, 6-2.
Cain was 2-for-3 on the day with a home run and an RBI, while Heese was 1-for-1 with two runs and two walks from the nine-hole.
UNC pitcher Brittany Pickett extended the Tar Heels' lead, 7-2, with a solo home run over the center field wall in the bottom of the third inning.
After 3.5 innings, the game was postponed due to severe weather in the area.
With the bases loaded in the bottom of the fifth inning, North Carolina's Leah Murray laid a shallow RBI single to left field to give UNC an 8-2 lead.
The Orange used the seventh inning to add two more runs from a two-out 2 RBI double from Bryce Holmgren, but the rally was cut short to end the game.
Holmgren finished the game 1-for-3 with two RBI.
O'Hara was 1-for-3 from home plate with a walk and tallied three strikeouts from the pitcher's circle.
Team Stats
Pitching:
W: Brittany Pickett (21-7)
L: Gatti, AnnaMarie (9-8)
Batting:
2B: Hansen, Alicia 1 ; O'Hara, Sydney 1 ; Holmgren, Bryce 1
HR: Cain, Faith 1
RBI: Hansen, Alicia 1 ; Holmgren, Bryce 2 ; Cain, Faith 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Hansen, Alicia 1 ; Cain, Faith 1 ; Heese, Jessica 2
HBP: Holmgren, Bryce 1 ; Dossett, Hannah 1
Batting:
2B: Brittany West 1
HR: Brittany Pickett 1
RBI: Leah Murray 1 ; Katie Bailiff 2 ; Brittany Pickett 1 ; Brittany West 3 ; Destiny DeBerry 1
SH: Katelyn Shifflett 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Taylor Wike 1 ; Kendra Lynch 1 ; Hailey Cole 1 ; Katie Bailiff 1 ; Micaela Abbatine 1 ; Brittany Pickett 1 ; Brittany West 1 ; Campbell Hutcherson 1
SB: Leah Murray 1
HBP: Katelyn Shifflett 1 ; Brittany Pickett 1
Game Leaders
dh/1b
AB
3
R
1
H
2
RBI
1
AB
4
R
1
H
1
RBI
1
1b/p
AB
3
R
0
H
1
RBI
0
AB
3
R
0
H
1
RBI
2
Players Mentioned
INF
/ Softball
INF
/ SoftballINF
/ SoftballUTIL
/ SoftballP/1B
/ SoftballSyracuse Softball
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