The North Carolina softball team has made its mark this year with in-game resiliency — constantly coming back in games that are seemingly out of reach.
In the team's weekend series with Virginia (12-24, 3-12 ACC), UNC displayed that same resilient quality over the course of the entire weekend.
The Tar Heels (29-9, 9-3 ACC) looked listless on Friday evening. A steady drizzle picked up just as the first pitch was scheduled, and though the two teams played through the rain, UNC struggled and fell 10-4.
Junior shortstop Taylor Wike said the team was unfazed.
“We know that we can bounce back from that,” Wike said. “We’ve lost games before — it wasn’t a huge shock to us or anything like that.”
For game two on Saturday, the Tar Heels’ fortunes improved. Under a brilliant blue sky, UNC cruised to a 12-1 victory, thanks in no small part to Wike’s bat and fielding. Seven different Tar Heels contributed hits while Katie Bailiff rocked a sixth-inning grand slam to end the run-rule victory.
Sunday brought more fireworks offensively. Despite trailing 3-0 and 7-5 over the course of the rubber-match, UNC managed just enough runs to escape with an 8-7 win and take the series.
Kendra Lynch drove home the tying and eventual winning runs in consecutive innings. Lynch, one of UNC’s two seniors, said the Tar Heels have seen deficits before and know how to avoid getting overwhelmed by the task at hand.
“I think people were still confident,” Lynch said. “We’ve been in this situation a bunch of times, earlier in the season. I think we know what we’re capable of, and we’ve always been able to come back and put together a strong rally and a fight.”
