Story Courtesy Western Carolina sports information

Pittsburgh 8-13, Western Carolina 3-1

CULLOWHEE, NC - Despite receiving a record outing on the mound by freshman Mendy McKenzie in game one, Western Carolina dropped its first two home games on Tuesday, falling 8-3 and 13-1 to the Pittsburgh Panthers at the Catamount Softball Complex. In the first game of the afternoon twin bill, the rookie right-hander from Clemmons, N.C., broke her own school record of 10 strikeouts by fanning 11. The Catamounts also set a school lowlight with a record six errors in the second game.

McKenzie threw six and a third in the opener, surrendering all eight runs on eight hits with four walks while striking out the record 11. Sophomore Savannah Filley pitched the final two thirds of an inning, striking out one. In the second game, Filley tossed three and two thirds giving up nine runs on eight hits with three strikeouts and one walk. Freshman Jenny Jackson came on in relief to close out the final inning and a third and allowed four runs on four hits with no walks.

Pittsburgh (5-8) plated four runs in the top half of the second inning to break open a scoreless ball game, using a leadoff walk, a ground ball out, and a single up the middle to plate the first run. Back-to-back singles scored the second run as Mary Hecker, who drove in the first run, touched home on the second one-bagger by Francesca DiMaria. She, too, would score, as would Joey Scarf for the four-run lead.

The Catamounts battled back in the home half of the third with a two-spot to cut the Panther lead in half. Freshman Samm Keppel reached on an error by the Pitt second baseman and moved to second on a sophomore Heather Pritchard walk. She was driven home when freshman Allyson McCubbins singled to center field, with Pritchard holding at third. Freshman Stephanie Beatty reached on a fielders choice that was hit into shallow right field and was fielded by the right fielder and tossed to second for the force out on McCubbins, but scored Pritchard for the second run.

Western (10-7) would add an additional run in the bottom of the fourth as Jackson belted a two-out solo homer over the wall in left center to pull Western within one, 4-3. However, the Panthers scored one in the visitor half of the sixth and three in the top of the seventh to pull away for the final, 8-3, tally.

In the second game, the Panthers touched up WCU starting pitcher, Savannah Filley, for nine runs through the first three and two thirds innings en route to the 13-1, five inning affair. Western took a short-lived, 1-0, lead in the home half of the first as McCubbins singled to left to lead things off. Two batters later, junior Ashley Adams singled, as did Filley, to load the bases with Cats. McCubbins plated the lone WCU run when Beatty reached on an error by the shortstop.

Aided by six total WCU errors, Pitt rallied in the second with six runs and eventually chased Filley by scoring three in the fourth for the 9-1 lead. The Panthers pushed its lead to 12 with four runs in the top of the fifth inning for the final tally, 13-1.

All told, Western stranded 13 batters on the day, nine in game two alone. The Catamounts also were forced to play with a patchwork infield as injuries to starters Mollie Fowler (broken leg suffered vs. St. Francis) and Samm Keppel (spiked on a caught stealing) had different players filling in along the middle infield.

McCubbins led the Catamounts on the afternoon, going 4-for-7 with two doubles and a run scored. Also tallying a multiple hit day was Filley who went 2-for-5. After recording 13 home runs in its last seven games, Western was only able to deliver one long ball, Jackson's drive in game one which was her lone hit of the afternoon.

Story Courtesy Furman sports information

Furman 11-5, Charleston 0-4

GREENVILLE, SC - Senior Jessica Mathis belted a three-run, walk-off home run to right-center field in the bottom of the seventh inning to lift Furman to a 5-4 victory over Charleston Southern and doubleheader sweep of the Buccaneers Tuesday afternoon in softball action at Pepsi Stadium. Furman blanked the Bucs 11-0 in game one.

Facing a 4-2 deficit entering the bottom of the seventh in game two, Abby Robertson started the frame with a single through the left side. Blake Murray singled up the middle to give Furman two runners on base wth no one out. Amber Kiser popped up an attempted sacrifice bunt for the first out of the inning. Mathis followed with her first homer of the season to cap the dramatic comeback.

Furman took an early 2-1 lead on the Buccaneers thanks to single runs in the first and second innings. Freshman Stephanie Cushing laced a two-out double in the first and came around to score on Amber Nelsen's RBI single to left. After CSU knotted the game in the top half of the second, Mathis delivered a bases loaded sacrifice fly to plate Robertson and give the Lady Paladins the 2-1 lead.

Charleston Southern pulled even in the top of the sixth. Jennifer Brools started the frame with a double to right field and scored on Tiffany Reid's single to center. In the top half of the seventh inning, Jill Shondel led off with a double and moved to third on Ashley Robinson's single. With one out, Robinson and Shondel executed a double steal to give the Bucs a 3-2 lead. After Furman reliever Erica Nesselroad got Dorothy Page to strike out swinging, Brooks laced a RBI single to right field to plate Robinson to up the Buccaneers advantage to 4-2.

Nesselroad (4-0) earned the victory for Furman despite allowing two runs on three its in one inning in the circle. The senior struck out three batters. Mathis totaled four RBI while Kiser and Murray each collected two base hits for Furman.

Amanda Noble fell to 2-9 for Charleston Southern after surrendering five runs in eight hits in 6.1 innings of work. Noble walked two batters and struck out four. Brooks led the Bucs at the plate going 4-for-4 with two doubles.

In the opening game of the twinbill, Nesselraod tossed a complete game, three-hitter and junior Megan Jaudon belted her third homer of the season to guide Furman to an 11-0 win in five innings.

The Lady Paladins put the game out of reach early with a seven run outburst in the bottom of the first inning. Kiser led off with a triple to left-center and Furman loaded the bases when Cushing was hit by a pitch and Amber Nelsen drew a base on balls.

Danielle Franklin and Lynn Parmer followed with back-to-back RBI singles and Robertson drew a bases loaded walk before Jaudon laced an RBI single to center to give Furman a 4-0 lead. With two outs, Kiser reached on a bunt single to score Parmer. Mathis capped the frame with a two-run single to left-center extending the Lady Paladins' lead to 7-0.

After relief pitcher Whitney James surredered a single to Cushing and issued a walk to Nelsen in the fourth, the righthander got Franklin and Parmer to pop out. With two down, Robertson drew her second base on balls in the game to load the bases for Jaudon. The Blacksburg, Va., native crushed a James offering off the scoreboard in left-centerfield for a grand slam and the final 11-0 margin.

Nesselroad struck out six and walked just two batters while hurling her second shutout of the season. Jaudon went 2-for-3 with five RBI to pace the Lady Paladins. Kiser collected three hits in three trips to the plate while Mathis batted in two runs.

Shondel (1-6) suffered the loss for Charleston Southern (4-18-1) allowing seven runs on six hits in two-thirds innings of work.

Story Courtesy College of Charleston sports information

Texas State 15-9, College of Charleston 1-6

SAN MARCOS, TX - The College of Charleston Softball team fell to the Texas State Bobcats 15-1 and 9-6 in a doubleheader Tuesday in at Bobcat Field.

With the two losses the Cougars fall to 12-10 on the season with pitcher Amber Havnar (6-4) being credited with both losses. The Bobcats improve their overall record 12-10 with the victory Texas State's Kati Trahan (7-4) earning both wins.

In the two games Jennifer Golden went four-for-five from the plate with two home runs and six runs batted in. Leshe Russell launched her third homer of the season while also scoring two runs for Charleston.