With only four games remaining before the ACC Tournament, the North Carolina softball team has not had the season it had hoped for. But despite sitting at 12-23 entering the final series, the Tar Heels believe they can finish the season strong.
In addition to navigating the pandemic, UNC has been riddled with injury woes this season. Two of the the team's top players — junior Hannah George and senior Brittany Pickett — have missed some time on the mound, which has forced the Tar Heels to rely on less experienced pitchers.
“It really has fallen onto pitching and not being able to close those games out because most of them have ended on big hits,” redshirt junior pitcher Katie Grace Olinger said.
Despite the team’s pitching shortage, Olinger has shown tremendous growth in recent games. In the team’s most recent series, she held No. 22 Duke to just one run in five innings in the final game.
UNC has also continued to grow offensively and defensively throughout the season, but this upward trend has not yet parlayed into more wins. The Tar Heels have been able to get some early leads on teams, but have struggled to maintain them in late innings.
“It’s a game of inches, and the inches right now aren’t going our way,” head coach Donna Papa said. “But our team is fighting like heck to get one.”
Over the last two series against Pittsburgh and Duke, UNC blew three saves, which led to walk-off losses. To make a late-season turnaround, the team knows it must close out games strong.
“While we haven’t been able to finish that seventh inning, it proves to us that we can get to that seventh inning and be winning that ball game,” Olinger said. “And the more that we create that stamina with the people we have in, we can close that out.”
In a year full of health challenges, everyone has played a critical role on the field this season. A number of young players have stepped into key positions, which could bolster the team's development moving forward.
