Despite a doubleheader win, UNC softball team's mistakes surprised Coach Papa

The North Carolina softball team's Wednesday doubleheader was a tale of two different games.

The Tar Heels won both non-conference games against Longwood. The first leg of the series ended with a score of 7-5, while the latter game ended with a 9-1 UNC win.

The story of the first game was defensive errors and missed calls in the eyes of Coach Donna Papa. The Tar Heels committed four defensive errors in the first game.

“It was ugly. It was so uncharacteristic of our team,” Papa said. “The errors were just so odd. It was so freaky, I couldn’t believe it. We haven’t even done that in practice.”

Errors weren't the only things that shocked Papa. She had multiple heated arguments with the home plate umpire regarding the way the game was being called. 

“You’re always going to argue some calls if you feel like you have a chance of winning — it’s part of the game,” Papa said. “I can’t really comment on that a whole lot. (The umpires) have their opinion, I have mine.”

The umpiring that was the source of Papa's frustration culminated on a play at the plate with two outs in the top of the seventh inning of Game 1. 

Longwood scored the game-tying run off a single. Papa and the Tar Heels thought senior catcher Amber Parrish made the game-ending out at the plate — but the umpire saw it differently. 

Parrish also believed she made the tag at the plate.

“I thought I (tagged her out), but obviously it didn’t go my way," she said. "You just got to move on from it.”

With the Lancers' seventh-inning run, the game was tied 5-5 going into the bottom of the inning.

Although everything seemed to be going wrong for the Tar Heels, Parrish redeemed them in the bottom of the seventh inning when she crushed a two-run, walk-off home run to left field to end the first game.

The second game of the doubleheader was a lot more controlled for UNC. The Tar Heels quickly got out to a 4-0 lead through three innings thanks to two more home runs from Parrish. 

UNC eventually mercy-ruled the Lancers on a game-ending single by senior first baseman Jenna Kelly in the sixth inning. 

"The last couple innings is more like what we are in terms of trying to find ways to move our runners," Papa said.

Junior shortstop Kristen Brown expressed her satisfaction with UNC’s execution in the second game.

And even with a sloppy first half of the doubleheader, the Tar Heels left satisfied.

“Doubleheaders are long days and we just have to have a good mindset and prepare ourselves for playing two games," Brown said. "We did that right (Wednesday)." 

sports@dailytarheel.com