AnnaMarie Gatti stood at the back of the circle and faced the outfield. She had just completed the second strikeout of the fourth inning and needed just one out to get out of a two-baserunner jam. She threw up two fingers.

The ensuing groundout got SU out of trouble and contributed to the second shutout of her career in Syracuse’s (25-18, 7-11 Atlantic Coast) 2-0 win over NC State (22-24, 5-14). She struck out eight batters in seven innings, tying her career best.

“I thought (Gatti and Romero) just competed,” head coach Mike Bosch said. “That’s the one thing I really saw out of both of them. They really went to batters and they took it kind of personally.”

It was a continuation of Syracuse’s pitching dominant who won the first game of the doubleheader, 3-1, behind Alexa Romero’s career high 16 strikeouts.

Syracuse got off to a quick start. An error in the first inning by third baseman Timberlyn Shurbutt on Hannah Dosset’s line drive scored freshman Miranda Hearn. But SU slowed afterwards. That was their only run until the sixth inning when a Michala Maciolek single scored Gabby Teran.

But the runs were on the board for SU, so it was up to Gatti to perform.

The first batter she faced set the tone for the rest of the game. NC State center fielder Jade Caraway went out swinging, the first of many batters to do so.

Gatti wasn’t aware she was close to a career high, she said. It wasn’t until after the game someone told her she struck out eight batters to tied her career best. Previously, she had only thrown that many against Savannah State during a tournament in February of 2017. It was the first time she reached that mark against a conference opponent.

“I’m not a strikeout pitcher so like just to be able to get that amount of strikeouts against an ACC school is the biggest win for me,” Gatti said, “whether we would’ve won or not.”

Gatti slowed a bit, starting the sixth inning by walking the first batter. She got behind on the next count and NC State’s Sam Russ stole second to get into scoring position with no outs.

Maciolek, the catcher, approached the circle. She told Gatti to relax and reminded her that the team had her back. The next play, Gatti got a strikeout.

“I think I would have been a little more worried if we would’ve gone 10 straight balls or something like that,” Bosch said, “but she came back with a good pitch, got a good strike.”

Gatti also played a role fielding. Multiple batters hit the ball directly toward her. Each time she would pick the ball up, and do what associate head coach Alisa Goler calls her ‘sassy walk’. After picking the ball up, Gatti paused for a moment and watched the batter run to first before tossing the ball to the first baseman.

“Gabby (Teran) told me she holds her breath every time,” Gatti said.

But, this game, she completed the toss each time.

It was her third complete game of the season as the regular season comes to a close, and the ACC Tournament awaits.

“Anna did unbelievable. It was great catching her,” Maciolek said. “It was a lot of fun. She was hitting her spots, she was striking people out, it was great.”

Published on April 21, 2018 at 8:01 pm

Contact Kaci: klwasile@syr.edu