Jocelyn Cater wound up and delivered a hard rise ball in the upper half of the strike zone and Virginia’s Danni Ingraham hit a hard one-hopper back to the pitcher. Cater calmly fielded the grounder, spun and threw to first for the final out of Syracuse’s doubleheader.

Cater smiled, rose her arms in victory and pounded her mitt hard with her left hand. Still smiling, she jogged to meet her teammates at the plate.

“It was awesome,” Cater said. “… I think it was a great team performance and we fought all the way until the end.”

Cater struck out 12 Virginia (16-39, 4-19 Atlantic Coast) batters to lead Syracuse (19-26, 3-13) to its second conference win, 7-4, in the first game of Saturday’s doubleheader at SU Softball Stadium. Cater threw her 17th complete game in her 13th win of the season before taking over for the second game’s starter, Lindsey Larkin, in the top of the fifth to seal Syracuse’s 14-9 victory.

“Jocelyn has been great all year, no doubt about that,” Sydney O’Hara said. “It was no different today.”

The junior let up four runs on six hits in the first game, while allowing two earned runs on five hits in the second game. She controlled the zone, throwing her rise ball and change-up with confidence to both sides of the plate for 17 strikeouts on the day.

She froze UVA’s Brittany McNulla with a high rise ball on a 2-2 count for the first out of the fourth inning and rung up Heidi Velk for the third out on a high rise ball in almost the exact same spot.

Cater had the Cavaliers frozen at the plate, as five of her 12 strikeouts came with Virginia looking at the final pitch in the first game. Cater made a few mistakes, but seemed to settle down for the most part to record outs when it mattered and struck out McNulla swinging to end the first game.

But Cater’s day wasn’t over, as head coach Leigh Ross would call on her to close out a close second game in the doubleheader. Larkin pitched the first four innings of the second game, giving up seven runs on nine hits.

“Jocelyn was still warm and we told her not to ice or anything so she’d stay warm,” Ross said. “We knew that if we were going to stay in this game, let’s go for the wins now and not save (Cater) for tomorrow.”

Cater’s presence was immediately felt in the top of the fifth when she took over with SU ahead, 8-7. After letting up an infield single to Virginia’s Lauren Heintzelman, she settled down to record three straight strikeouts, two looking.

“The second game I was working more in than out, which made it hard for them to adjust,” Cater said. “I kind of had to mix it up.”

She took the mound in the top of the sixth inning with a seven-run lead and Cater wasted no time in attacking Virginia. After giving up an infield single to Virginia’s first hitter, she recorded two outs in two pitches.

Virginia battled back with a two-out RBI double from Katie Park and McNulla walked on a full count, but she finally got Heintzelman to pop up to catcher Alyssa Dewes to end the sixth.

Even having pitched 146 pitches earlier in the day, Cater still recorded five strikeouts in her second appearance. O’Hara wasn’t feeling 100 percent, Ross said, and fellow pitcher AnnaMarie Gatti was in sweatpants, so the head coach had no one else to turn to.

Cater delivered. Ross will likely pitch her ace on Sunday in Syracuse’s season finale, too.

“I think she’ll be fine,” Ross said. “We’ll rest her up, get her some treatment and see how she feels in the morning. She’s a tough kid.”

Published on April 25, 2015 at 7:02 pm

Contact Liam: lpsull01@syr.edu