On a day that saw the softball team lose two one-run games to North Carolina at home, frustration was the team's overriding emotion.
After blanking the Cavaliers (38-17, 0-4 ACC) 1-0 in the first game of yesterday's doubleheader, North Carolina (29-21, 2-2) led 5-2 going into the bottom of the seventh. With one out, senior centerfielder Kelly McCabe tripled to right center field. Junior Ruby Rojas followed with an opposite-field home run, her ninth of the year, over the right field fence to cut the deficit to one run.
After Carolina pitcher Shannon Walsh walked Kristen Dennis and struck out Stephanie Calhoun, first baseman Hannah Owings drove Dennis in with a double to the right field gap and knotted the score at 5-5, sending the game to extra innings.
In the top half of the first extra frame, however, the Tarheels started with two singles. With runners on first and third, Dion Streete flew out to centerfield, bringing lead runner Kelly Ramsey home for the decisive run and negating the Cavaliers' seventh-inning rally.
"It's very frustrating," coach Cheryl Sprangel said. "We should have just been very excited that we managed to come back. We were tired and hot and sweaty and all that kind of stuff, but we still should've been able to find some kind of oomph to go back out there and do the job."
McCabe, who went 4-for-4 at the plate but also was charged with two errors on the day, echoed that sentiment of frustration.
|
"The weekend was very frustrating and disappointing," she said. "We haven't lost at home in over a year - two years maybe - and we didn't want to do it this year either, so it's definitely very, very disappointing."
Attributing the loss to missed opportunities at the plate and errors in the field, the Cavaliers blamed only themselves for the loss to Carolina.
In the 6-5 loss, Virginia stranded eight runners. In a three-inning span from the fourth to the sixth inning, the Cavaliers managed only one run while leaving seven runners on base.
"If a team's ahead, you come back and score one run this inning and one run the next," Sprangel said of Virginia's inability to capitalize on RBI opportunities. "We're having people stand there and watch good pitches go by and then swing at bad pitches and then stand and watch third strikes go by ... that's really disappointing."
In the field, the Cavaliers committed five errors and at least one in the three innings that Carolina scored. In the top of the seventh, a fielding error by right fielder M.K. White allowed two unearned runs to score.
"Some errors are going to happen sometimes," said Dennis, whose pitching record fell to 20-8 on the year despite allowing only one earned run in 5.2 innings of relief. "It's part of the game."
"It's very frustrating because I think we're a better team than them. I think that we came out and we played hard but when you have five errors against a team and they don't have any and we have the same amount of hits, it's not going to go your direction," Dennis added.
Dennis put the Cavaliers on the board first with a second-inning home run to left field.
"It was the third changeup of the day that I've gotten," she said. "By that time, I was ready for it. The second time, I hit it hard to the shortstop. The third time, I was ready to wait back and drive on it."
Neither that home run nor the late inning rally was enough to spark the Cavaliers, though.
"We get down on ourselves," Sprangel said, summing up the team's performance. "And instead of believing that we can come back like we did, we continue to get down, we don't make plays, and it's just really disappointing"
Read More
Abysmal start proves too much to overcome as Virginia exits ACC Tournament early
By Ryan Weiner | YesterdayIf the Cavaliers make the NCAA Tournament, they cannot afford to play another game like this.
As the Walshes take their final bow, the swimming world pauses
By Xander Tilock | YesterdayHow could anyone possibly describe the success of this duo?
Virginia women’s track & field wins ACC Championships
By Caroline Wulff | 2 days agoThe last time the Virginia women’s track and field team won ACC Outdoor Championships was 1987 — at least until this past weekend.
