Softball splits doubleheader

The North Carolina softball team did its best Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde impersonation in a double-header split Wednesday against Gardner-Webb at the UNC Softball Complex.

Gardner-Webb senior pitcher Stacie Reichert stifled the Tar Heel bats in a 5-3 complete game win in the opening game of the double dip. North Carolina responded in the second game by pummeling the Bulldogs 10-0 behind Tar Heel starter Alison Yin.

“We were kind of flat and didn’t play with that much emotion in the first game,” Yin said. “Unfortunately, it took losing that game to get us back in the swing of things.”

SOFTBALL Gard.-Webb 0 UNC 10 Gard.-Webb 5 UNC 3

The Bulldogs started the scoring early in the first inning of the opening game when senior left fielder Rachael Riopel smacked a two-run home run that snuck just inside the left-field foul pole. Riopel reached base four times in the game and drove in three runs.

UNC cut the Bulldog lead in half in the bottom of the inning on a two-out, bases-loaded walk drawn by sophomore catcher Whitney Gelin. The run was all the Tar Heels could muster in the frame, as they left the bases loaded to end the inning.

North Carolina junior pitcher Crystal Cox didn’t make it out of the third inning and was replaced by senior Ashley Allen after surrendering consecutive singles followed by back-to-back walks.

Although Allen kept the Bulldogs scoreless for the remaining 4 1/3 innings, the Tar Heel offense could only manage a single run in the third and a moot solo home run by Gelin with two outs in the seventh. North Carolina, which out-hit the Bulldogs 8-6, stranded 10 runners.

“You can’t win games when you’re putting runners on base and you’re not taking advantage of opportunities,” said UNC coach Donna Papa.

With the start of the second game came the emergence of a drastically different North Carolina team.

In the first two frames alone, the Tar Heels garnered five hits, five walks and one hit batsman en route to a six-run outburst. Marissa May, the spark for North Carolina’s run production in those innings, was 2-for-3 in the game and scored each of the three times she came to the plate.

Shortstop Anna Evans, who along with Gelin and May make up a lethal sophomore trio for the Tar Heels, went 1-for-2 with a run scored and an RBI in the win and was a combined 4-for-6 in both games.

“We have a very young nucleus of players, so that’s very encouraging,” Papa said. “We need Whitney to hit the ball, and we need Marissa to put the ball in play, get on base and use her speed to help us out.”

Yin coasted to her sixth victory of the year, allowing three hits, one walk and three strikeouts. Her only hiccup came in the last inning when she worked her way out of a bases-loaded, no-out jam.

“We’re more like a light switch — we can turn it on and turn it off,” Evans said. “It shows that we have a lot of room for improvement. We need to be up and playing well from the get-go every game.”

Contact the Sports Editor at sports@unc.edu.