Even after a five-game losing streak, NC State softball couldn’t manage a win on the road.
The Pack (25-23, 6-14) succumbed to the Virginia Cavaliers (36-12, 13-10) 7-4 in the final game of a blowout series. After scoring just one run across the first two games against Virginia, NC State showed offensive improvement, recording four runs, but continued to struggle defensively, surrendering a five-run first inning.
From the first batter, the Cavaliers had a high level of intensity that the Pack was missing.
Virginia Shortstop Jade Hylton set the tone early by sending a 252-foot bomb over the fence to put her team up by one. Just two hitters later, third baseman Bella Cabral followed suit and tallied her own homer, forcing the Pack to make an early pitching change.
After the switch, a double to right-center brought home two more Cavaliers, which propelled Virginia to a lofty 5-0 lead at the bottom of the first.
While things looked rough for the Pack after a two-inning dry spell, freshman infielder Lily Livingston was a diamond. In the top of the third, she launched her eleventh homer of the season, becoming the second Wolfpack to hit the 242-foot mark, and made a 2-RBI play that brought senior outfielder Maia Townsend home.
The fourth inning dried up once more as no runs were made on either side. Freshman catcher Carmen Montes de Oca recorded the only hit of the inning, tallying a double to right field, but the Pack struck out before she could make it home.
Virginia showed signs of life in the fifth, drawing blood off a wild pitch, but it wasn’t for naught as graduate righty Charli Orsini set a new career high, striking out six. Orsini held down the Cavaliers at only two runs for the remainder of the game, giving the Pack a fighting chance.
The Wolfpack clawed its way back in the sixth to make it a two-run game after hits from sophomore first baseman Taryn Massey and senior left fielder MaKayla Marbury brought home one runner apiece. But Virginia shot back and upped its lead once more in the bottom of the sixth, 7-4, which sealed the loss for NC State.
The Wolfpack will shift its focus to Tuesday’s matchup against East Carolina University at 6 p.m. back in Raleigh.
