Syracuse offense sputters in doubleheader sweep against NC State
Jadyn Burney was one of few bright spots for Syracuse softball Saturday as NC State swept the Orange in a doubleheader. Charlie Hynes | Staff Photographer
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For just the fifth time this season, Syracuse scored in the first inning. Jadyn Burney was the first baserunner on either team to cross home Sunday, giving SU the first lead of the day.
Eleven innings later, the Orange’s record sits two games further from .500 then it did entering the weekend. Burney was the lone SU baserunner to reach home all afternoon.
It’s fitting the veteran batting leadoff was Syracuse’s (11-14, 0-7 Atlantic Coast) only run scored across its two games against NC State (21-14, 3-5 ACC), as it fell to the Wolfpack twice by a combined score of 15-1 and suffered its sixth run-rule loss this season.
It wasn’t lost either on Orange head coach Shannon Doepking, who called out her lineup’s inconsistency. SU managed a mere six hits all day and struggled to make regular, solid contact against Wolfpack pitchers Morgen Talley and Rylee Wyman.
“Essentially, the only consistent hitter we’ve had is Jadyn Burney most of the year,” Doepking told 247 Sports ‘Cuse Nation. “Jadyn Burney was Jadyn Burney today. We can’t win ballgames with just Jadyn, though. She’s gonna get herself on base and we need somebody behind her who’s gonna actually hit her in to help us. We’ve got to figure out a way to be a lot more consistent one through nine.”
Indeed, Burney did what Burney does best Sunday. She set the table. Burney reached base in more than half of her plate appearances, hitting 2-for-5 and tacking on a walk and hit by pitch.
Burney led off three different innings Sunday and reached base in two of them. The first time she swiped second and ultimately scored. The second time, she was thrown out on a Vanessa Flores fielder’s choice. But her single lined into right field was the first domino to fall in what became Syracuse’s best offensive inning Sunday.
The Orange went on to fill the bases with only one out on the board. Then Taylor Davison and Madelyn Lopez, batting in the heart of Syracuse’s lineup, struck out looking and grounded out to second, respectively, and the Orange exited the inning with three runners left on base and no runs.
Burney’s second hit of the afternoon came in a crucial situation as she launched a two-out double into deep left center in the bottom of the fifth inning. She then advanced to third base on a passed ball. But a Madison Knight strikeout snuffed out any shot of a Syracuse rally. The Orange needed three runs to keep the game alive.
Burney’s walk in the bottom of the third inning of the first game, after Lily Livingston had hit the first of NC State’s three home runs Sunday to put the Wolfpack up 2-1, kicked off another bases loaded situation for the Orange. An immediate response to Livingston’s lead-changing no-doubter could’ve changed the course of the entire day. Instead, Kendall Gaunt popped out to second base.
For a lineup that had hit an ACC-worst .238 coming into the weekend, it’s fitting how Syracuse scored its single run Sunday. The ball didn’t travel far off Flores’ bat. NC State’s Talley had to charge in from the circle to scoop it and throw to first, but the throw hit the back of Flores’ helmet. Burney capitalized, scoring from second. 1-0 Orange. An unearned run on the scorecard — the result not of anything Syracuse did right, but of something NC State did wrong.
A little less than two minutes after remarking that her team clearly went to the plate without a plan Sunday, Doepking offered one of what sounded like inaction.
“Some of the other people we hope eventually are gonna figure it out,” she told 247 Sports. “Madelyn Lopez has been a sleeping giant. When’s she gonna turn it around? Who knows, but we anticipate at some point (she’s) gonna wake up. I think that’s just softball.”
Patience, though, might be all that’s left for Doepking to try.
To little avail, the eighth-year head coach has tested out twenty-two unique lineups and never repeated one more than twice. Behind Burney, fifteen different batters have hit in the second through sixth spots of the lineup.
Sunday, between the two different starting lineups, nine did. They combined to hit 3-for-21, good for a paltry .143 batting average, and Doepking turned to her bench for a pinch hitter seven times. Those batters went 0-for-5, reaching base twice courtesy of a walk and a hit by pitch.
Doepking has tinkered with her lineup plenty already and can tinker plenty more with 19 games left on the schedule. But it’s quickly beginning to feel futile, as Syracuse’s lineup continues to stubbornly slumber, giving no indication it will wake from hibernation this spring.
