University of North Carolina Athletics
North Carolina
UT Chattanooga
Tar Heels Head To Charleston For Holy City Showdown
March 9, 2017 | Softball
CHARLESTON, S.C. - North Carolina heads to Charleston, South Carolina, this weekend for the final nonconference tournament of the 2017 regular season. The Tar Heels (16-5, 3-0 ACC) will face Chattanooga, UMass Lowell, Northern Kentucky, Robert Morris and the host College of Charleston from March 10-12.
Friday, March 10
Chattanooga (6-13) vs. North Carolina, 3:30 p.m. | LIVE STATS
Charleston (8-8) vs. North Carolina, 6 p.m. | LIVE STATS | WATCH
Saturday, March 11
North Carolina vs. UMass Lowell (3-5), 11 a.m. | LIVE STATS
North Carolina vs. Northern Kentucky (1-10), 1:30 p.m. | LIVE STATS
Sunday, March 12
Robert Morris (3-12) vs. North Carolina, 11:30 a.m. | LIVE STATS
Against the Competition
North Carolina has not lost more than once to any of this weekend's opponents, going a combined 23-3 against the tournament field. UNC is most familiar with the hosts, College of Charleston, holding an 11-1 all-time record against the Cougars, including 4-0 in Charleston. UNC has won seven in a row and crushed the Cougars, 13-2, in five innings in their last meeting in 2015.
UNC is 5-1 overall against Chattanooga, with the sole loss coming back in 1994 in the first-ever meeting. The Tar Heels shutout the Mocs, 10-0 (5) in their last meeting in 2012 in their first matchup since winning four games in 2002-03.
UNC is a perfect 4-0 against Robert Morris. The pair have not faced with 2004. Carolina is 3-1 against Northern Kentucky, but all four games came in the slowpitch era from 1981-82. This will be Coach Papa's first matchup against the Norsemen.
The Tar Heels will face UMass Lowell this time for the first time in program history.
Tar Heels Go On 11-Game Winning Streak
After starting the season, 0-3, UNC went on to win 16 of the next 17 games including an 11-game winning streak from Feb. 18 to March 7. The streak came to an end on March 8 in a 6-3 loss at UNCG.
During the 11-game winning streak, UNC batted .354 with a .437 on-base percentage and a .601 slugging percentage. The Tar Heels hit 22 doubles, a triple and 18 home runs, with Katie Bailiff and Kendra Lynch both batting over .525 and slugging over 1.000.
The 11-game streak was UNC's 16th double-digit winning streak in program history and 15th under Coach Papa. UNC last won 10 games in a row from Feb. 20 - March 8, 2015, before falling to USC Upstate, 9-4, on March 10.
Carolina has posted two 20-plus winning streaks in school history, winning a school-record 28-straight games in 2007 and winning 23 in a row in 2009.
Back in the Rankings
The Tar Heels began the season receving votes in both the NFCA and USA Softball/ESPN.com preseason polls. It marked the second consecutive season that UNC had received votes in the preseason. After going 2-3 on opening weekend, UNC fell out of the rankings, but a 10-game winning streak, including a three-game sweep of No. 21/24 Pittsburgh launched Carolina back into the national conversation. UNC received votes in the NFCA and ESPN.com polls this week, now sitting just outside the top 25 at #28 in both polls. Additionally, the Heels were the top vote-getter outside the top 25 of the DI Softball News poll.
With continued success, the Tar Heels hope to return to the top 25 of the NFCA poll for the first time since April 9, 2013. UNC appeared in five weekly polls in 2013, ranking as high as No. 22.
Papa Captures 1,200th Career Victory
On March 3, 2016, North Carolina head coach Donna J. Papa became the 11th coach in NCAA softball history to capture 1,200 career wins, defeating No. 21 Pittsburgh, 5-1, in the first outing of a three-game sweep of the nationally-ranked Panthers.
Papa is the first ACC head coach to reach the milestone and did so in her 1,865th game as a head coach (.645). She ranks fifth in the nation among active DI coaches in career wins. The 10 previous 1,200 game winners are: Carol Hutchins, Mike Candrea, Margie Wright, Yvette Girouard, Eugene Lenti, Ralph Weekly, Diane Ninemire, Gayle Blevins, Jan Hutchinson and Gary Bryce.
Papa's Milestone Wins:
100 - vs. Akron - 5/16/1987
200 - at Campbell - 2/20/1991
300 - Ohio - 3/22/1993
400 - at Virginia - 4/4/1996
500 - at Georgia Tech - 4/24/1999
600 - at Florida Int'l - 3/13/2002
700 - Georgia Tech - 4/18/2004
800 - vs. Mississippi State - 2/25/2007
900 - vs. Oregon State - 2/21/2009
1,000 - Virginia - 4/2/2011
1,100 - at Hawaii - 2/22/2014
1,200 - #21 Pittsburgh - 3/5/2017
Walk This Way
Third baseman Berlynne Delamora, who ranked fifth all time in UNC history last season in on-base percentage, proved to be the hardest out at the ACC/Big Ten Challenge, reaching base safely in 12 consecutive plate appearances from Feb 18-22. The streak, which featured 10 walks and two singles, was the sixth-longest in NCAA history.
Delamora walked in all seven of her plate appearances on Saturday, Feb. 18, against Purdue and Ohio State, a streak bested by just eight players in NCAA history.
Through the first 21 games of the season, Delamora has a total of 24 walks, which leads the ACC and ranks fifth in the nation. Her mark of 1.14 walks per game ranks eighth in the NCAA and is well above the UNC record of 0.79 set by teammate Taylor Wike in 2015. The third baseman is more than halfway to Carolina's single-season total walks record, set last season by Kristen Brown at 43.
