Spingola pitches well in win over Penn State coming off no-hitter

Coming off the fifth no-hitter of her collegiate softball career and her ninth ACC weekly honor, North Carolina junior pitcher Lori Spingola faced the daunting task of following her own act.

Striking out nine in Thursday’s 4-0 win over North Dakota State for no-hitter number five, Spingola came just one walk short of throwing a perfect game.

Despite the quick turnaround, the 5-foot-11 public relations major out of Atlanta said she felt ready for the challenge of getting back on the mound Sunday night against Penn State.

“I just kind of approached today like any game, just coming in, trying to get strikeouts just like usual,” Spingola said.

She didn’t quite match her stats from Thursday, but she still fanned six and delivered a consistent performance on the mound for a 10-2 win against Penn State in the third and final game of the Carolina Classic at Anderson Softball Stadium.

“Today I felt like I wasn’t getting as many strikeouts as I usually do,” Spingola said. “My pitches might not have been breaking as much, and they were hitting me a little more than usual, but my teammates really were behind me, and they played really well on defense and got some hits and some runs on the board.”

After last year’s school record-setting 33-win season, in which Spingola struck out 333 of the batters she faced, the two-time All ACC first-teamer is used to never letting up and remains optimistic about her team’s chances of making a run in the postseason.

“We’ve played some really good competition in the beginning of the season, and we’ve shown that we can hold our own with them,” Spingola said. “I think we can definitely beat those really good teams.”

Freshman infielder Erin Satterfield said the Tar Heels stand a better chance as a team just by having Spingola in the lineup.

“Every time she’s on the mound she always talks to us about how we need to have that swag and that confidence so we can get the job done, and she does that, and she always seems to get the job done for us,” Satterfield said.

Tar Heels’ coach Donna Papa pointed to Spingola’s competitive spirit and what she brings to the mound each night as one of the primary contributors to the team’s success.

“She’s solid,” Papa said. “When she gets on the mound, we know that we’re in there — we should win the game as long as we support her with hits, ‘cause she’s that good.”

Papa pointed to games like last weekend’s 14-strikeout performance against Pittsburgh and Thursday’s near-perfect outing as prime examples of what sets Spingola, the returning ACC Pitcher of the Year, apart as a special part of her squad.

“She’s got good poise on the mound, and I think she does a really nice job handling batters,” Papa said. “She’s a competitor, she’s tough, and I love when she’s on the mound because I know that she’s going to battle every hitter.”

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