For the entire season, Leigh Ross didn’t have to worry about illegal pitch calls on her ace pitcher Jenna Caira. But the problem that plagued Syracuse last postseason reared its ugly head in NCAA regional play Saturday.

Two illegal pitches by Caira in the second inning put SU in an early hole against No. 16 seed Texas A&M. For Syracuse and its head coach, Ross, the calls came at the worst possible time.

‘For that to start happening again was pretty frustrating,’ Ross said in a phone interview. ‘Kind of bad timing, too. Sometimes the momentum can shift so much in a game and it can all depend on that kind of stuff.’

The Orange never had the momentum on its side against the host Aggies (43-13) and lost 13-5 in the winner’s bracket game at the College Station Regional on Saturday afternoon at the Aggie Softball Stadium in College Station, Texas. SU (45-13) then dropped an elimination game to Louisiana State (40-17) 5-0 later in the evening, ending the most successful season in program history.

Caira’s struggles in the circle, coupled with a quiet day for SU at the plate, doomed the team’s hopes for a longer postseason run.

Caira said she never found a comfort zone in the circle. She echoed her coach’s frustration with the illegal pitches, especially after throwing 11 innings without an issue in Syracuse’s win the previous night.

The first illegal pitch call came after Caira fielded a bunt attempt and got what appeared to be an easy out at first base. But the umpire ruled it was an illegal pitch and the at-bat was extended. The batter walked and the out became a baserunner.

‘Most of the time that they were calling illegal pitches was when we were getting a groundout,’ Caira said. ‘That hurt us.’

That baserunner later scored on a three-run home run that gave the Aggies a 4-0 lead. The four-run deficit forced Ross to pull Caira after two innings to keep her fresh for a possible elimination game later.

Ross said the Texas A&M lineup had Caira’s changeup sized up, too. The Aggies built their four-run lead in the second inning off of two home runs. Ross also thought SU’s No. 2 pitcher, Stacy Kuwik, could keep SU in the game when she entered.

But Kuwik also ran into trouble with an illegal pitch call and couldn’t contain the hot opposing hitters.

After giving up a two-run home run with two outs in the fourth inning, Kuwik forced a pop up to first baseman Kelly Saco to end the inning. The Syracuse players began to run off the field, but the umpire called an illegal pitch to extend the inning. The batter walked and the next three hitters singled to score two more runs and push the Aggies’ lead to 8-1.

Ross said Kuwik is never called for illegal pitches, but the official thought her foot left the rubber.

‘That stuff kind of snowballs sometimes,’ Ross said. ‘That always seems to happen there’s a call that was maybe made at the wrong time that always seems to hurt you.’

Caira was back in the circle with the season on the line against LSU. But after dominating the Tigers over 11 shutout innings Friday, Caira was hit by LSU from the first inning Saturday. Ashley Langoni battled Caira before sending the seventh pitch of the at-bat into the left-center field gap for an RBI triple to get LSU out in front early.

Langoni made it 2-0 after scoring on a wild pitch. She also put LSU up 4-0 with a two-run home run to left field in the fifth.

Caira went six innings, gave up five runs and finished the game without striking out a batter.

And as Langoni drove in the runs for LSU, pitcher Brittany Mack kept the Orange off balance. Mack threw strikes all night to put the SU hitters in tough counts.

Outfielder Lisaira Daniels said Mack used two different changeups, making it tough to adjust at the plate. Mack threw a complete-game shutout and struck out 11 in the game.

‘We didn’t do a good job of making adjustments,’ Daniels said. ‘She has a number of pitches where she can just keep us on our toes and kind of keep us guessing.’

But Ross said Langoni’s clutch hits were the difference. Caira said she didn’t miss her spots. Langoni was just better.

Said Caira: ‘After the home run, (SU catcher) Ashley (Dimon) came up to me and said to me, ‘I don’t know how much tighter and how much lower you can make that pitch go down.’

rjgery@syr.edu

Published on May 21, 2011 at 12:00 pm

Contact Ryne: rjgery@syr.edu