Syracuse softball’s season ends after being no-hit in ACC Tournament

The 2021 Syracuse Orange softball season has been an up-and-down affair throughout, and the team needed something special to happen in this week’s ACC Tournament to get into the NCAA Tournament conversation.

Unfortunately, they suffered a 6-0 loss to the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets in the 8 vs. 9 game on Wednesday, getting no-hit by Tech pitcher Blake Newman. Syracuse had just two baserunners the entire game — on a hit by pitch and a sacrifice bunt. Otherwise, Newman struck out nine and was otherwise pretty locked in all afternoon.

The Yellow Jackets started the game off with a homer in the top of the first, and that’s really all they needed here, clearly. Tech wouldn’t score again until the top of the sixth, when rightfielder Breanna Roper singled in two runs to right. Emma Kauf drove in two more on a triple right after, Crosby Huckabay tacked on one more in the sixth to get to the final 6-0 score.

All six runs were tagged to Orange starter Alexa Romero, who allowed just five hits in five and a third innings, but walked nine while striking out four.

So Syracuse’s season comes to an end with a 20-24 record. After a 15-9 start to the season, the Orange went just 5-15 the rest of the way, losing eight of the final nine games. Certainly not ideal, though also hard to draw too much from this weird and disjointed season.

Hopefully better times are coming next spring. Congrats to the team on a hard-fought year.