The softball team lost game two of a double header 4-0 Wednesday at Curtis & Jacqueline Dail Stadium against No. 15 Ohio State. Under rainy conditions, starting pitcher Mendy McKenzie (6-4) did not get off to a good start, giving up a leadoff home run to Buckeyes’ catcher Sam Marder.
McKenzie’s woes continued as she served up a three-run home run in the top of the third to right fielder Courtney Pruner. The Wolfpack were held hitless until the bottom of the sixth when center fielder Lauren Peters singled up the middle off of Buckeyes’ starter Megan Miller (4-0).
“We were being no-hit and the pressure’s on coming into the sixth inning,” Peters explained. “I just wanted to put the ball in play hard somewhere and see what happens.”
Peters said she recognized that the pitch wasn’t what Miller intended it to be.
“It was actually just a pipe down the middle, it should have been a curveball, but it hung pretty high,” Peters said.
Ohio State had its hitting woes as well, scattering three hits but managed to get knocks when they count. Catcher Alyssa Allbritten collected the only other hit for the Wolfpack in the bottom of the 7th with a single into shallow center field.
The two games were like night and day for N.C. State as they accumulated seven hits off of the Buckeyes. Game one starter Lindsay Campana (7-5) threw eight innings of three-hit ball, giving up only a solo home run to Sam Marder.
“We knew [Ohio State] was ranked pretty high and my pitching coach [Leigh Ann Ellis] came into the bullpen and told me that if I got the ball anywhere close to the plate, they would hit it,” Campana said. “So my strategy basically was to hit really white corners, like white to white line basically and just try to get them to swing over it and get ground balls for our defense.”
Despite pitching into extra frames, it did not stop Campana from slowing down.
“I wasn’t getting tired — obviously we knew it could go both ways,” Campana said. “I just wanted to make sure I was keeping the same plan that I had been keeping with all game. I didn’t want to make adjustments closer to the plate where they could hit it.”
In the bottom of the seventh, with one out and the pressure on, Wolfpack left fielder Kristine Bechtholdt hit a solo shot to right-center off of Buckeyes’ starter Lindsay Bodeker (8-2) to tie the game.
“I knew what she did last time and she went outside when I had two strikes so I was looking for that and that’s what she threw, so I took it that way,” Bechtholdt said about the outside-high pitch that she crushed into right-center.
Game one ended dramatically as State’s Claudia Cooper was hit by a pitch from reliever Kim Reeder with the bases loaded in the bottom of the eighth.
The Wolfpack (15-11) will face off against the Maryland Terrapins Saturday afternoon in College Park, Md.
