Pitching Quintet Limits Elon To Two Hits In Home Opener

Wednesday, February 15

Chapel Hill, N.C.

4:00 PM

North Carolina

3-3

Elon

3-1

Elon

North Carolina

February 16, 2017 | Softball

Box Score Box Score (PDF)

By: UNC Athletic Communications

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	R	H	E
Elon	0	0	1	0	0	1	0	2	2	5
North Carolina	0	1	0	4	0	1	0	6	5	0

CHAPEL HILL – North Carolina hosted Elon on Wednesday afternoon in its 2017 home opener at Anderson Stadium. The Tar Heels threw all five pitchers in the midweek contest, and cruised to a 6-2 victory over the Phoenix behind three Carolina home runs. The win was the third straight for UNC, who evens it season record to 3-3, while Elon (3-1) took its first loss of the year.

"We want to use a staff," said head coach Donna J. Papa. "So, today we were trying to see what could work for us. Kendra and Syd got a couple of innings each. Brittany got in a little sooner than we had planned, but Hannah and Kellyn also saw action. We're trying to use a staff because we have one in hopes that the other team can't make adjustments quickly enough."

Berlynne Delamora opened the scoring in the bottom of the second with a solo home run and Kendra Lynch and Katie Bailiff both went yard for two RBIs in the bottom of the fourth. Additionally, Destiny DeBerry went 2-for-3 with an RBI at the top of the lineup and stole second.

"I was really pleased with Destiny today," said Papa. "She had been struggling a little bit and I thought today she came out of her slump and did a really nice job. Leah Murray made some great defensive plays in the outfield, and Berlynne made a big play at third with runners on base. I'm really pleased with how we played those last two games in Puerto Rico and how we carried that over to today. Now to be home for a few weeks, it's really a nice feeling to be able to play here at home and feel comfortable."

Lynch started in the circle for Carolina and retired all six batters she faced, including two strikeouts over the first two innings. Kellyn Daly came in for the third inning and allowed one run on one hit and two walks with a strikeout. Sydney Matzko (1-1) earned her first victory of the season, allowing a single baserunner—a walk—over the next two innings. Hannah Nommensen came in to start the sixth but allowed a solo home run and two walks to go with a strikeout over just one third of an inning. Brittany Pickett then entered the circle with two runners on and one out in the sixth. The rookie hurler retired five straight batters for a perfect inning-and-two-thirds to pick up her first career save.

"Kendra had a lot of pressure on her last year," said Papa. "She had to carry us in the circle and at the plate; it's a lot of stress. Now she knows that if she does have a bad day, she can have a bad day. She has four other helpers that can come in and get the job done."

Elon went deep into its bullpen as well, using three pitchers in the game. The trio of hurlers limited Carolina to five hits, but three of them left the park, while five costly errors proved led to four unearned runs.

Kiandra Mitchum (1-1) got the start and gave up four runs, two earned, on three hits with two strikeouts and no walks over 3.0+ innings. Hailey Jomp took over three batters into the fourth inning and allowed one earned run on two hits over the next two-and-two-thirds innings. Kenna Quinn entered the game with two outs in the sixth and did not surrender a hit but gave up an unearned run on a walk and two hit batters.

Kristen Hoover and Hannah Olsen collected Elon's two hits, an RBI double and a home run, respectively.

The first base runner of the game touched all four, as Delamora crushed a solo home run to straightaway center to lead off the bottom of the second.

"One of our goals is to always score first," said Papa. "Whenever you score first, you have that big sigh of relief. It helps you play a little more relaxed, so [Berlynne's home run] was big. She did a great job of sitting on a changeup and drilled it. It just kind of opened the door for us."

After a pair of perfect innings by Lynch, Daly took to the circle for the top of the third. Callie Horn led off with a full count walk, and Erica Serafini bunted her over to second. Kristin Hoover then laced an RBI double to the gap in left center to tie the score at one.

Carolina took advantage of three Elon errors and went deep twice to put up a four spot in the bottom of the fourth. Delamora led off on first due to an error by the shortstop, and Lynch took advantage, driving a two-run home run to center field. Pickett then reached on an error by the first baseman, forcing the Phoenix to make a call to the bullpen. Jomp finally got the first out of the inning on a sacrifice bunt by Katelyn Shifflett, but Bailiff then crushed another two-run shot to make it 5-1 Carolina.

A solo home run by Hannah Olson made it a save situation, cutting the lead to 5-2. However, Carolina replied with a run of its own with two outs in the bottom of the sixth, as DeBerry was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded to retake the four-run lead.

Pickett returned to the circle for the top of the seventh, striking out two of the final three batters to seal up her first career save with a final score of 6-2.

"It's awesome," said Lynch. "Probably the best feeling, knowing that there's four other people capable of getting the job done and not having the sole pressure of doing it by myself. This is definitely something that I dreamed of. I think the five of us are going to be really effective all year."

The Tar Heels are back in action this weekend when they host Ohio State, Purdue and Louisville in the second annual ACC/Big Ten Challenge on Feb. 17-19. The tournament kicks off at 11 a.m. on Friday, Feb. 17, with a neutral site game between Louisville and Ohio State. Carolina takes the field for the first of its four games at 4 p.m. against the Buckeyes in the third game of the day.