Wolfpack Set to Head South for Purple & Gold Challenge

BATON ROUGE — The NC State softball team is set to travel south for the Purple & Gold Challenge host by LSU. The Pack will play five games, including two against the nationally ranked Tigers on SECN+.

Play will begin Friday at 2:30pm against Louisiana Tech before a 6pm meeting with the Tigers. Saturday will include the first ever meeting against BYU at 1pm with the final meeting against Tech to follow. The Pack will wrap up play on Sunday against LSU at 1pm before returning to Raleigh. (Game times are listed in EST)

WATCH | LIVE STATS | NOTES

Scouting Louisiana Tech

The Pack leads the all-time series 2-0 and it has been 18 years since they last met (2005)
The Bulldogs led the C-SUN East with an 18-7 conference record and 39-20 overall record
Sierra Sacco leads the Bulldogs with 33 hits on the season and an .344 batting average
Four of Tech's six pitchers record a sub two ERA with Brook Melynchuk leading the way (1.24)

Scouting No. 14 LSU

The Tigers have been in the national rankings since the release of the pre-season poll back in February
LSU leads the all-time series with the Pack 4-2 and won the two meetings that occurred in Baton Rouge
Danieca Coffey leads the Tigers with an .431 batting average and Taylor Pleasants adds eight homers to the stats thus far
Four of the five pitchers record a sub four ERA with Alea Johnson leading the way (1.12)
The Tigers defeated fellow ranked opponent Oregon State but fell to (then) No. 5 Tennessee who swept them in their second SEC series of the season

Scouting BYU

This will be the first meeting between the two teams in program history
The only common opponent the two teams have faced thus far is Long Beach State
Hailey Morrow leads the Cougars with an .354 batting average on 17 hits and four homers
Only two of the Cougars six pitchers fall below a four ERA --Kaysen Korth (3.19) and Chloe Temples (3.85)

Making Adjustments

The Wolfpack recorded four homers in the win over NC A&T Wednesday night
When the Pack records two or more home runs in a game, they are 9-2
In Wednesday's game, coach Shaner told the team to let the ball come to them and in the sixth inning they started driving the ball to record five runs with three homers
Aisha Weixlmann has continued to improve in the circle throughout the season and she recorded a season high seven strikeouts against the Aggies

Setting Her Own Pace

Junior Brooklyn Lucero made an appearance in the circle this season -- something she hadn't been able to do since March 2022
In April 2022 she had to have a pacemaker inserted and has been working to come back since
She made her debut against NC Central (G1) after surgery and faced four batters against Louisville (G2) over the weekend
Lucero has entered 10 games for the Pack as a pinch hitter this season and recorded her first hit against Radford (single up the middle)

Building the Resume

Freshman catcher Amanda Hasler can add pitch caller to her resume -- Coach Boland and Shaner said the freshman knows the pitchers better than anyone, she's a nerd of the game
The freshman called the pitches for all three games against Notre Dame and is only the second catcher to do so in program history (Alyssa Allbritten, '08-'11)
She leads the team in RBI's (18), home runs (7), and putouts (122)
She ranks first in program history for hit by pitch in a freshman campaign (10)

Inked the Record Book

The Wolfpack's 19 runs scored in game one against NC Central was the third most runs scored in program history
The 19 runs scored was one short of tying the second most scored in program history
After recording five stolen bases, three coming from Ellie Goins, the Pack tied the third most in program history in a single game
Amanda Hasler ranks first in freshman program records for hit by pitch with 10
Hasler also is only the second catcher in program history to call pitches

#GoPack | @NCStateSoftball

Wolfpack Set to Head South for Purple & Gold Challenge

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Ellie Goins

Amanda Hasler

Brooklyn Lucero

Aisha Weixlmann

Wolfpack Set to Head South for Purple & Gold Challenge

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Ellie Goins

Amanda Hasler

Brooklyn Lucero

Aisha Weixlmann

Related Videos