Papa Earns 800th Career Win

Saturday, February 24

Columbus, Ga.

3:30 PM

North Carolina

Hofstra

February 24, 2007 | Softball

By: UNC Athletic Communications

Feb. 24, 2007

Box Score

COLUMBUS, GA. --- North Carolina's 3-1 victory over Hofstra gave head coach Donna J. Papa her historic 800th career victory Saturday at the South Commons Complex, securing her place in a select club of coaches to achieve the feat. With a career record of 800-475-4 in 24 seasons of coaching, Papa joins an elite cadre of just 15 active coaches to reach the lofty 800-win plateau. Papa has now won 771 of those games during her 22-year tenure at Carolina.

UNC dropped its second game of the day to No. 13 Michigan, 10-2, falling to 1-3 in pool play at the Leadoff Classic. North Carolina will be a No. 4 seed and will play at 9 a.m. against Coastal Carolina, UMass or the winner of Nebraska/Mississippi State when bracket play starts Sunday, pending possible weather issues as rain is in the forecast.

Cassie Palmer wasn't in her usual leadoff spot for Papa's benchmark win against Hofstra, instead batting third in the order. But she got Carolina's offense untracked in the top of the first nonetheless, smacking her second home run in two days to stake the Tar Heels to a 1-0 advantage. Jennifer Jacobs caught a bit of the magic as well, following Palmer's shot to left center with a drive of her own over the right field wall, and UNC led 2-0 early.

Carolina starting pitcher Amber Johnson worked her first three innings with little issue before first running into serious trouble in the bottom of the fourth. Two walks and an error put three Hofstra runners on base with just one out, but Johnson responded by striking out the next two batters to get out of the inning, preserving the Tar Heels' two-run lead.

Johnson gave up a walk and two hits to start the bottom of the sixth, which brought Lisa Norris into the circle in relief. Norris quickly induced a ground ball that came right to her, and she threw home to record the first out of the inning. She hit the next batter to bring home a run, making the score 2-1, but answered with another force out at home and a groundout to second to escape further damage.

UNC picked up a key insurance run in the top of the seventh to push their lead back to two. A Jennifer Jacobs RBI single brought home Breanna Brown, who had singled to leadoff the inning, giving UNC a 3-1 lead heading into the last half-inning.

Norris worked a flawless 1-2-3 seventh to pick up her second save of the year. Johnson went five innings to secure the win (3-2) as she held Hofstra to one run on four hits.

The second game of the day pit UNC against No. 13 Michigan. The Wolverines' bats were on fire to start the game as three straight hits to open the top of the first quickly gave Michigan a 1-0 lead. UM also used a walk, a hit batter, a Carolina error and a two-run single in the inning to score four more runs, jumping out to a 5-0 lead.

Brown scored her second run of the day for Carolina in the bottom half with Jacobs again picking up the RBI - bringing her season total to 15 - to narrow the gap to 5-1. But Rebekah Milian led off the top of the second with a home run to chase UNC starter Lisa Norris and restore Michigan's lead to five at 6-1.

North Carolina fought back with a run in the bottom of the second, but UM tacked on two two-run home runs with two outs in the fourth to extend its lead to 10-2.

Carolina couldn't scratch the scoreboard in the either the fourth or the fifth, and the game ended after five innings due to the eight-run rule. Norris took the loss, moving her record to 4-6.