FanPost

Softball Still Has An ACC Tournament Shot (Not Really)

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State Softball Team in Better Days
Photograph by Sbas2.

N. C. State's softball team still has a shot at making the ACC tournament. A weak one, but still! State made it to the semifinals of the ACC tournament last season by upsetting in the first round Louisville who had just come off of a sweep of State in Raleigh. The team lost to UNC, but it was close with State losing 8-7. Had State who was leading 5-4 turned a tailor made double play, the team probably would have gotten the win but instead an error on that play led to UNC scoring 4 in the sixth to take an 8-5 lead. State fell short when the team scored only 2 in the 7th. Two seasons ago the team failed to make the ACC torunament this despite the fact that the ACC tournament was held in Raleigh and the team roster included Tyler Ross, Molly Hutchison, Courtney Mirabella and Maggie Hawkins-all players used to NCAA tournament success and an ACC championship.

The ACC tournament is a ten team tournament now as opposed to an eight team tournament of previous seasons with two play-in games between teams 8 and 9 and 7 and 10. State is in the mix for one of those 9 and 10 seeds. As of now State's conference record is 5-12. Other teams vying for one of those last two seeds are Syracuse at 5-11; Virginia Tech at 5-12 and Virginia at 3-15.

With out looking at the schedules of the three other teams in play, here is why it gets dicey for State. The team finishes conference play with three at Syracuse and three at home against mostly unbeatable Florida State. If State can take three from Syracuse they have a good shot-if not, and I think not, they do not. This team is not going to do much against FSU and because Syracuse has this, I do not seeing State doing much at Syracuse. From GoPack about Syracuse:

Bryce Holmgren leads the team at the plate with a .417 batting average along with 48 hits and 29 runs.

Alexa Romero paces the pitching staff with a 1.90 ERA and 14 wins in 144.0 innings pitched. The team is averaging 7.68 strikeouts per game and the squad owns a combined 2.70 earned-run average.

State's best pitcher is Devin Wallace who has an era of about 270 (note that Harli Hubbard's era is 086, but she hardly every pitches-especially in conference games). State's best hitter, first year player Sam Russ, is hitting 320.

One's best guess is that State finishes conference play with a 5-18 or 6-17 record. Maybe Virginia or Virginia Tech does worse and State gets in-or maybe not. State did not play Virginia or VaTech-no easy tie breaker here. In conclusion, the ONLY way State makes the NCAA tournament is to win the ACC tournament and State does not have Renada Davis and Emily Wieman anymore.

By being swept this past weekend by Syracuse, State has no chance of making the ACC tournament. The team's conference record stands at 5 and 18 while Syracuse has a 8 and 11 conference record, Virginia has a 3-18 conference record and VaTech has a 6-14 conference record.