RALEIGH, NC – NC State won both games of a doubleheader with UNC Greensboro in nonconference softball action Wednesday at Walnut Creek Softball Complex. The Spartans dropped their season-opening games by scores of 4-0 and 5-3 in the debut of head coach Jennifer Herzig.
Junior third baseman Kara Clouser gave UNCG (0-2) a 1-0 lead in game two with a solo home run to right-center field to start the third inning. It was the sixth career homer for the Summerville, SC native.
Jennifer Chamberlain answered Clouser's long ball in the bottom of the third. Only this time it was a three-run blast to center that gave NC State (4-3) a 3-1 lead. The inning was created by a lead-off walk and an error and after a sacrifice bunt moved the runners up 60-feet, Chamberlain took Vanessa Oakes' (0-1) offering over the fence for the first Wolfpack homer of the year.
NC State scored two more runs off wild pitches in the fourth inning to take a 5-1 lead, before the Spartans rallied with two runs of their own to make it a 5-3 game. Lyndsey Wilson reached on an error to lead off the sixth inning and Adriane Audley followed with a single. After both runners moved up on a wild pitch, senior leftfielder Krista Judge doubled home both runs. One out later, junior first baseman Jennifer Bonilla singled to move Judge to third base, but Wolfpack starter Megan Dalthorp (1-1) got consecutive strikeouts to end the Spartan rally.
In the first game, NC State pushed across two runs in the bottom half of the first inning to take a 2-0 lead. The Spartans struggled in the season's opening inning with three fielding errors and three hit batters by freshman starting pitcher Hannah Angel (0-1) that led to one of the runs being unearned in the frame.
Angel, who made her collegiate debut after sitting out last season with an injury, allowed only two fifth inning singles in a complete game effort. The Eastbend, NC native struck out eight hitters and allowed four runs (one earned) over six innings of work. However, the UNCG defense did her no favors with seven errors.
Wolfpack starter Abbie Sims (3-1) showed dominant form as she allowed one hit, two walks and struck out nine hitters over the distance.
Kelly Allen and Leslie Furness drew consecutive one-out walks in the seventh inning for the Spartans, but Sims struck out the last two hitters to end the game. Judge had the lone hit for UNCG in the sixth inning.
NC State pushed across single unearned runs in the fifth and sixth innings to make it 4-0.
UNCG takes on Radford at 11 am and Virginia Tech at 1:15 pm on Saturday in first-day action of the Charlotte Green & White Tournament in Charlotte, NC.
AGATE
Game 1 123 456 7 R-H-E
UNCG 000 000 0 0-1-7
NC State 200 011 x 4-2-1
UNCG: Hannah Angel and Leslie Furness. NC State: Abbie Sims and Miranda Ervin.
W: Sims (3-1). L: Angel (0-1). SV: None.
Game 2 123 456 7 R-H-E
UNCG 001 020 0 3-4-1
NC State 003 200 x 5-3-1
UNCG: Vanessa Oakes, Danielle Byrne (5) and Brandi Schnute. NC State: Megan Dalthorp and Jennifer Patterson.
W: Dalthorp (1-1). L: Oakes (0-1). SV: None.
- UNCG -
