Georgia Southern 8, Grambling 0
Georgia Southern 3, Alabama State 0
BIRMINGHAM --- Georgia Southern pitchers combined for two shutouts as the Eagles softball team won twice Friday at the Magic City Classic hosted by Samford.
GSU defeated Grambling State 8-0 in five innings and Alabama State 3-0.
Georgia Southern 8, Grambling State 0 (5 innings)
The Eagles put across six runs in the first, aided by three Tigers errors. Junior Amanda Hall (Haddock, Ga.) drove in two with a double and junior Robyne Siliga (Oceanside, Calif.) added a run-scoring single. Two runs came home on a single wild pitch.
Sophomore Lindsey Hopkins (McDonough, Ga.) went 4-for-4 with two runs scored and three stolen bases. Junior Michelle Beasley (Metter, Ga.) added two more hits.
Senior Melissa Laliberte (Cobourg, Ontario, Canada) and sophomore Kristan Glover (Evans, Ga.) combined to two-hit Grambling. Laliberte (4-2) allowed no hits with four strikeouts while Glover went the final two innings and gave up two hits.
Georgia Southern 3, Alabama State 0
Freshman Megen Smith (Springfield, Ga.) allowed just one hit, a fifth-inning single, in a complete game shutout of the Lady Hornets.
Siliga came through with another key hit, this time a two-run single to score Hopkins and Beasley. Sophomore Sam Russo (Snellville, Ga.) completed the three-run outburst with a RBI single.
Smith (5-2) fanned four and walked five.
Saturday the Eagles face UAB at 4:30 p.m. EST and Birmingham Southern at 6:45 p.m. EST.
Furman 14, South Carolina State 0
Furman 9, South Carolina State 0
Orangeburg, S.C. -- Meredith Mielke and Abby Robertson each went 4-for-7 with four RBI and Furman pitchers tossed 12 shutout innings to lead the Paladins to a 14-0, 9-0 doubleheader sweep of South Carolina State Friday afternoon at Lady Bulldog Field.
Lana Mackey tossed a two-hit shutout in game one to improve to 3-6 on the season. The sophomore fanned 12 batters while issuing just one walk in seven innings. Furman took a quick lead with three runs in the top of the first inning and pulled away with 10 runs on 10 hits in the seventh.
Mielke led the Paladins going 2-for-5 with three RBI, including a two-run triple in Furman’s 10-run seventh inning. Freshman Katie Michaels went 3-for-5 with two RBI and two runs as six Paladins posted at least two RBI in the win. Stephanie Cushing, Morgan Hughey and Mackey each added doubles in game one.
TaTreka Polite (0-9) surrendered the loss for the Lady Bulldogs allowing 13 earned runs on 16 hits.
Furman totaled 11 hits and scored nine runs to win by the eight-run mercy rule in game two, 9-0.
Ullrich scattered three hits and struck out seven to notch her first career shutout and improve to 3-1 in the circle. Mielke scored three runs and Cushing and Robertson each drove in a pair as Furman plated eight runs in the first three innings.
Chennelle Thompson (0-3) allowed nine runs on 11 hits to take the loss for the Lady Bulldogs.
The sweep improved Furman, winners of five of its last six games, to 6-7 on the season while South Carolina State dropped to 0-12.
Furman returns to action Wednesday when it travels to face 17th-ranked Georgia in a 4 p.m. doubleheader in Athens, Ga.
College of Charleston 8, East Tennessee State 5
Mt. Pleasant, S.C. -- The College of Charleston softball team registered 12 hits en route to its 8-5 win over East Tennessee State in game three of the CofC Invitational at Patriots Point Field Friday evening.
The Cougars (4-13) return to action Saturday as they take on Marist at 4 p.m. followed by a game against Akron. The Lady Buccaneers fall to 3-10 on the season. They face Howard at 6 p.m. Friday evening.
After the Lady Buccaneers scored three runs in the second and two in the top of the fourth, Charleston responded in the bottom of the fourth with four runs. Freshman Alex Williams reached based on an error followed by a Christal Kotchman walk. Tiffany Harmon slapped a single to left to load the bases. Sophomore Kristie Shifflett hit a two-out single to right to bring Williams and Kotchman in for the first two Cougar runs of the game. Shannon Howard kept the momentum when she singled to left to score the second pair of runs in the inning.
Kotchman, a junior transfer from Seminole, Fla., led off the sixth inning for the Cougars with a solo homer to left. Harmon and Kristie Woodall would reach on a single and a walk respectively. Katie Nutaitis single to right field to bring Woodall and Harmon in, adding two RBI to her record. Linzi Bereitschaft reached on an error and Nutaitis scored the final run of the game.
Shifflett and Howard led the hitting campaign. Shifflett, the third baseman went 3-for-3 on the day. She scored one run and batted in two others. Howard, a junior from Carmichael, Calif., went 3-for-4 in the effort with one RBI. Left fielder Harmon finished 2-for-4, scoring two runs for the Cougars. Nutaitis, Brittany Small, Kotchman and Bereitschaft each added hits.
UNC Greensboro 6, Fordham 0
Delaware 1, UNC Greensboro 0 (8 Inn.)
GREENVILLE, N.C. ? The UNC Greensboro softball team split in first day action at the East Carolina Pirate Classic defeating Fordham, 6-0 in the early game and dropping a 1-0 extra inning contest to Delaware to conclude the day.
Whitney Sirois had a great day at the plate and was 4-for-5 from the plate with two runs scored, including going 3-for-3 in UNCG’s win over Fordham. The Hope Mills, N.C., native also recorded 16 putouts on the day while posting a .833 on-base percentage. Senior outfielder Mary Greenway had her 10-game hitting streak snapped after going 0-for-4 in UNCG’s loss to Delaware.
The Spartans couldn’t get any offense going in the late game and dropped a 1-0 extra inning contest to Delaware.
UNCG tallied hits from Whitney Miller, Kaitlin Merkt,Whitney Sioris and Mary Catherine Vercoe but couldn’t string anything together to send anyone around the bases. Hannah Angel (3-4) suffered the loss after twirling eight innings of work and allowing one run on five hits
The game was a pitchers duel the entire way. The Blue Hens threatened to score in the bottom of the fourth and used a double to put a runner in scoring position but the inning ended with a fly out to centerfield before heading into extra innings.
The Spartans had chances with runners in scoring position in the second and fourth innings but in both instances ended the opportunity with groundouts and a putout.
In game one UNCG and Fordham were scoreless until the bottom of the fourth inning when UNCG tallied four runs. Mary Catherine Vercoe tallied a leadoff single to reach Kayla Hensley, who pinch ran for Vercoe, moved into scoring position with a sacrifice bunt from shortstop Kaitlin Merkt and advanced to third base with a single from Whitney Sirois. She rounded the bases with a sacrifice fly from Kristen Gabel putting UNCG ahead, 1-0.
Emily Akiyama put the Spartans up 3-0 after crushing her first career home run across the centerfield wall. Fordham never really got their offense going although they managed to string together six hits on the afternoon but they left seven runners on base.
UNCG added two insurance runs in the sixth inning to put the game out of reach for the Rams. Whitney Sirois had a big afternoon and was 3-for-3 with two runs scored while Greenway ran her season stolen bases record to a perfect 15-of-15
Amber Harrell (5-4) twirled her second complete game in as many days and allowed no runs on six hits while striking out eight batters while Greenway extended her hitting streak to 10 games.
The Spartans return to action at the East Carolina Pirate Clash on Saturday when they take on Towson and Radford. The tournament concludes with bracket play on Sunday.
Chattanooga Rained Out
CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. ? After completing the first four games of the 2008 Frost Classic a steady rain forced the cancellation of the final six games of the day at both Jim Frost Stadium and Chattanooga State.
The schedule will resume tomorrow morning with the tournament's regularly scheduled games beginning at 9:45 a.m. at both sites.
In games that were able to be completed before the rains came, Connecticut defeated Indiana 4-1, Eastern Illinois defeated Indiana 4-2, Wright State downed Jackson State 7-1 and Kentucky beat Wright State 5-1.
Action resumes tomorrow at 9:45 a.m. with Kentucky taking on Marshall at Jim Frost Stadium and Buffalo facing Indiana at Chattanooga State.