After being blown out in three games against North Carolina, Syracuse responded with a shutout victory over Elon (15-6-1) to round out the first half of its nine-game road trip.

The Orange (6-13, 0-3 Atlantic Coast) opened up conference play on Saturday and was swept in an afternoon doubleheader by the Tar Heels (11-10, 5-1).

In the first game of the day, North Carolina came away with a 9-1 victory in five innings.

The Tar Heels opened up a 6-0 lead by the end of the third inning. Syracuse was able to salvage one run in the top of the fourth after an RBI single by Riley Johnson, but the North Carolina scored three more in the bottom half to put the mercy rule into effect.

The second game of the doubleheader provided a similar result, as the hosts won 9-4.

The Orange hung tough for most of the game, as it took a 2-1 lead into the bottom of the fifth courtesy of freshman catcher Nicole Lundstrom solo home run in that frame. North Carolina, though, scored six runs in the bottom half to break the game wide open.

After adding two more in the bottom of the sixth, the Tar Heels virtually sealed the game. Although Syracuse managed two runs in the top of the seventh after a Shirley Daniels two-run triple, its fate had already been decided.

Sunday’s game proved roughest for Syracuse, as it dropped the final game of the three-game set against North Carolina 13-4 in five innings.

Syracuse allowed runs in all four of the innings North Carolina batted, but the Orange did have one extremely bright spot to take away.

Lundstrom added two more home runs to account for three of the four Syracuse RBIs. It was the freshman’s fourth home run of the season and third in two games. She leads the Orange in almost every hitting category, while maintaining a .983 fielding percentage behind the plate.

After a day off on Monday, Syracuse responded strong with a 5-0 victory over Elon on Tuesday.

Freshman Sydney O’Hara went the distance on the mound, striking out 10 and only walking one.

With the shutout, O’Hara became one of four pitchers in SU history to throw three shutouts, each with double-digit strikeouts, in the same season. She also raised her ACC-leading strikeout average to 8.85 strikeouts per game.

All five of the Orange’s runs came on home runs, as sophomore Corinne Ozanne, sophomore Danielle Chitkowski and Daniels all went deep.

Syracuse continues its road trip with five more games this week, one each against Campbell and Appalachian State, along with three conference games against Virginia this weekend.

— compiled by Matt Schneidman, staff writer, mschnei@syr.edu

Published on March 12, 2014 at 5:26 pm