As AJ Kaiser rounded the bases, the Syracuse bench poured onto the field from the third-base dugout. A few feet from them, up the baseline, SU head coach Shannon Doepking scowled.

Doepking wasn’t mad at the freshman: She knows that Kaiser can hit a ball like that any time she steps to the plate, Doepking said. But Syracuse, down 6-1 in the fifth inning, had yet to find a solution to the sinking change-up. And Kaiser’s home run was an anomaly, rather than a tendency-breaker.

“We had a long ways to go,” Doepking said of her mindset in the moment. “We’re still five runs off. Next batter needs to get on and we need to make something happen.”

The Orange’s inability to hit the change-up in the last two games against Pittsburgh ultimately cost them. Despite small adjustments, Kaiser’s fifth home run of the season was just one of two hits for Syracuse (19-25, 8-10 Atlantic Coast) in its 6-1 loss to Pittsburgh (9-38, 4-14). Junior Alexa Romero also uncharacteristically struggled, allowing six runs in 5.1 innings.  

SU obtained a .500 conference record after beating Pitt last Friday. Then, the Orange rocked Sarah Dawson for five hits and six runs in only three innings. But they’ve dropped the last two games of the series and were no-hit through the first four on Sunday.

“I don’t have really an answer for the change-up,” Doepking said. “The more you see it, the more you’d think we can adjust to it, but we’re not adjusting to it. In practice, before games, we’re doing the same thing. I don’t really have an answer for that.”

Syracuse tried to adjust to the off-speed pitch, waiting longer in the box to swing and looking for slower pitches, junior catcher Gianna Carideo said. SU then had better contact on the ball, not striking out in the last two frames, but it didn’t matter.

The first few times through the order, the Orange only hit two balls to the outfield. Contact resulted in lofted foul balls or slow bounces to an infielder’s glove. Even sophomore Gabby Teran, who had three hits and three RBIs against Dawson on Friday, resorted to bunts or check-swings.

Yesterday, SU fell to Brittany Knight’s similar arsenal. After facing change-ups for a second-straight day, Syracuse wasn’t prepared, Doepking said.

In fact, when gathering the team after its most-recent loss, Doepking reiterated that sentiment, saying that the previous five-run outburst against Dawson made the Orange complacent. They expected to win and didn’t do enough before or during the game, Kaiser said.

“We just let her throwing the change-up get in our heads,” Kaiser said. “It’s all mental right now.”

After the third inning, the Orange began to recognize the change-up more. Coaches stole the Panther signs and relayed it to players. Expecting the pitch, Syracuse waited longer to swing, Romero said. It resulted in better contact, but the lineup couldn’t string together hits.

On multiple at-bats, SU fouled off a barrage of change-ups before grounding out. Sophomore Lailoni Mayfield’s bouncing single in the final inning bounced off first-base and gave Syracuse a lead-off runner. A few pitches later, however, Mayfield was caught stealing second. Two groundouts later, SU handed Pittsburgh the series.

“(Dawson) put it over the plate,” Carideo said. “She was getting strikes. We just have to swing.”

Even facing a pitcher who entered with an 5.25 ERA, SU failed to score outside of the Kaiser home run. Postgame, Doepking asked her players if they had a solution to the pitch that routinely “frazzled” them. A few responded “‘We don’t know,’” Doepking said.

So, Doepking plans to keep the same tactics in place. She’ll keep using graduate student Logan Paul in practice to throw change-ups. Doepking again repeated to the team that they had to adjust and not panic every time it’s thrown. But a solution hasn’t appeared yet.

“I don’t understand why they’re not hitting it. I don’t know what they want from us,” Doepking said. “A lot of growing needs to happen this week.”

Published on April 21, 2019 at 5:07 pm

Contact Adam: adhillma@syr.edu | @_adamhillman