May 22, 2005

Box Score

ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- The North Carolina softball team's season ended Sunday evening with a 6-0 loss to top-ranked Michigan in an NCAA Tournament region championship game. The Tar Heels finished 2005 with a record of 38-29 after going 2-2 in Ann Arbor over the weekend. The Wolverines (58-4) move on to the super regional next weekend to play for a trip to the College World Series.

UM pitcher Jennie Ritter earned her third win of the weekend, striking out 10 and allowing just one hit through five innings. The junior had a perfect game through four innings before sophomore Anna Evans doubled in the fifth.

Junior Crystal Cox took the loss for UNC to end the season with a 22-20 record. She pitched four and a third innings, giving up seven hits and all six runs before being replaced by junior Alison Yin. Yin faced 10 batters and gave up one hit.

The Wolverines took charge of the game in the second inning, scoring three runs on four hits. With the bases loaded, junior Becky Marx sent a hard drive deep down the first-base line to score senior Nicole Motycka and freshman Samantha Findlay. Two batters later, junior Tiffany Haas hit a sacrifice fly to center, scoring junior Stephanie Bercaw from third base.

Michigan doubled its run output in the top of the fifth inning as Findlay tallied her 20th home run of the season -- one shy of teammate Jessica Merchant's single-season school record -- blasting a three-run shot deep over the leftfield fence to score Merchant and freshman Alessandra Giampaolo.

NOTES

Despite the loss, it was the farthest North Carolina had ever gone in the NCAA tournament. The Tar Heels were 2-2 in the 2005 NCAA Tournament after going 1-2 in 2001, 2003 and 2004.