NCSU looms as ACC schedule gets late start

The Virginia softball team will take on N.C. State this weekend in its first conference games of the season. Virginia was supposed to open its conference schedule last weekend against Boston College, but the games were rained out.

N.C. State (10-8) won against top-10 team Oklahoma to start the season but faltered during the Cathedral City Classic, losing all five games. The squad recently has recovered, though, coming alive to win eight of its last 10 games.

Even though the Wolfpack is playing strongly as of late, senior shortstop Carly Winger said she believes the Cavaliers will find success against the Wolfpack if Virginia (17-5) continues to play the way it has this season.

“On offense, we just need to keep putting up a lot of runs,” Winger said. “If we can do that, our defense and our pitching can definitely hold us in games.”

N.C. State, meanwhile, also has a strong pitching staff. As a team, the players have limited their opponents to less than two earned runs per game. The Wolfpack’s best pitcher, junior Lindsay Campana, has 62 strikeouts this season and an earned run average of 1.13. Virginia faced Campana twice last season, winning both games in which she started.

Virginia coach Eileen Schmidt noted that seeing Campana play last season should prove beneficial, as the Cavaliers know what they will have to do offensively against the pitcher.

“We need to bring her up in the [strike] zone,” Schmidt said, adding that Campana’s drop ball “keeps the Wolfpack in games and keeps the ball in the park. We need to keep her in the zone and hit our pitches.”

Recently, one of the Cavaliers’ strongest suits has been their reliable and consistent approach. Through steady play, senior second baseman Casey Steffan said the Cavaliers can continue to pick up victories.

“A big thing is just being consistent,” Steffan said. “We take the same approach at the plate as we always do and we don’t really change much from pitcher to pitcher. We just pick our pitches and attack.”

Because of the rain-out last weekend, Virginia has had plenty of time to rest and recover from a busy start to its season. Schmidt said the time off allowed players to better prepare for this weekend.

“Normally when we don’t play on a weekend, we would like to have games midweek but we didn’t have one scheduled,” Schmidt said. “I don’t think that it matters that the games were cancelled. It just means that we will be well-rested and healthy.”

Even though the team could benefit from the respite, some players still missed the opportunity to open conference play last week.

“We were disappointed that we didn’t get to play those games and we were looking forward to some ACC competition,” Steffan said. “We have to shift our focus from Boston College to N.C. State, but mentally, we are still the same.”

Virginia plays in Raleigh this weekend and will head to Radford next Thursday for a midweek game before returning home to play in-state rival Virginia Tech.

NCSU looms as ACC schedule gets late start