Georgia Southern 23, Savannah State 1
STATESBORO, Ga. --- The Georgia Southern softball team set school records for runs, hits, runs batted in and doubles in a 23-1 victory over Savannah State Tuesday at Eagle Field.
The Eagles improve to 30-26 while the Tigers drop to 4-29.
Sophomore Jenny Side (Loganville, Ga.) went 5-for-5 with five RBI and freshman Megen Smith (Springfield, Ga.) went 3-for-5 with six RBI, second-most in school history. The pair also added a home run each, the first of Smith’s career.
All nine starters had at least one hit and seven had at least two. Junior Amanda Hall (Haddock, Ga.) went 4-for-5 and senior Aubrey Thweatt (Georgia, Vt.), sophomore Nina Iduate (Norcross, Ga.) and Smith had three hits each.
All told the Eagles racked up 25 hits, 22 RBI and six doubles.
Georgia Southern batted around in the first three innings and put up nine runs in the first, five in the second and seven in the third.
GSU starter Kristan Glover (Evans, Ga.) allowed one hit and one unearned run in three innings of work. She walked one and struck out six to up her mark to 3-6. Senior Mandi Stophlet (Templeton, Calif.) pitched two innings of perfect ball.
Georgia Southern returns to Southern Conference play this weekend with a three-game series at Appalachian State.
Radford 4, Elon 2
Radford 14, Elon 2 (5 inn.)
Elon, N.C. ? The Radford Highlanders completed a non-conference sweep of Elon with a pair of victories on Tuesday afternoon at East Field. Radford took game one 4-2 before picking up a 14-2 victory in five innings in the second game.
Elon falls to 21-21 on the season but remains tied for second in the conference with a record of 9-6. Radford improves to 37-13 on the season.
Game one saw the Highlanders jump out to an early 2-0 lead in the top of the first inning. Sarah Himan drove in the first run with an RBI double through the left side that scored Jenn Everhart who reached on a fielder’s choice. Himan crossed the plate two plays later on an error by the catcher.
Elon answered with two runs in the bottom of second inning when the first two batters reached. Rebecca Rijavec drew a leadoff walk that was followed by a fielder’s choice that put Brandi Jones at first. Jaymie Shanahan drove in Elon’s two runs with a two-RBI single. The Phoenix would leave two stranded as the final batters were retired.
The teams were limited to just two hits combined over the next two innings. The Highlanders added a run in the fifth when Cassie Rhodes crossed the plate on an RBI-single off the bat of Kristen Shifflett. The final run of the game scored when Everhart drove the ball over the wall for a homerun.
Carol Lilley took the loss in game one to fall to 5-6 on the year. She allowed four runs, three of which were earned, on four hits in seven innings pitched. She also added three walks and struck out four. Kellie Snooks picked up the win to improve to 4-0 on the year. She did not allow a run and gave up just one hit in two innings of work. Ashley Taylor picked up her seventh save of the season after pitching the final inning and retiring all three batters.
Radford scored 10 runs in the first two innings of game two on the way to a 14-2 victory. Cassie Rhodes drove in two in Radford’s four-run first inning with a two-RBI double. Radford’s six-run second inning was highlighted by back-to-back homeruns by Shifflett and Shannon Keefe.
Radford added five in the top of the fourth to extend its lead to 14-0. Elon avoided the shutout in the bottom half of the inning as the team collected two runs on three hits. Patti Weber recorded the first hit for the Phoenix with a one-out single to left-center. Brandi Jones drew a walk to put Weber in scoring position. Hannah Shelton doubled to left field to score Weber and Jones for Elon’s first runs of the game. Elon would leave two on base as the Caitlin McGowan rounded out to the second baseman.
Samantha Schroeder took the loss for Elon, dropping her record to 3-2 on the season. She allowed eight earned runs in 1.1 innings of work. Chelsea Kelley earned her first win of the season in 2.0 innings of work, allowing two runs on three hits and two walks. She also added one strikeout.
The Phoenix returns to the field Saturday when they travel to Greensboro, N.C. to face UNC Greensboro. The first game of Saturday’s double-header will begin at 1 p.m. with the second game scheduled for approximately 3 p.m. Sunday’s game is scheduled for 1 p.m.
North Carolina A&T 6, Appalachian State 5
North Carolina A&T 8, Appalachian State 0 (5 inn.)
Boone, N.C. ? The woes of Appalachian State softball continued on Tuesday afternoon as the Mountaineers dropped a pair of games to North Carolina A&T. In the opener, both teams went run-for-run until N.C. A&T scored three in the ninth to put the Mountaineers away, 6-5. In the finale, Aggie hitters battered ASU pitching for eight runs off seven hits to take the run-rule victory. ASU falls to 7-33 on the season while N.C. A&T improves to 26-15-1 on the year.
Each team traded runs in the first inning to start the game. Junior Brittany Gaston drove in freshman Katie Boyd from second base with a single to knot the game up at one after just one inning.
Four scoreless innings were sandwiched by another run for each team. Gaston scored the run in the bottom of the sixth for ASU off a single to right field by sophomore Meagan Squartino. The one run inning answered the N.C. A&T home run in the top of the sixth.
The teams remained in the 2-2 deadlock through the seventh inning. To start the eighth, the international tiebreaker rule was invoked, placing a runner on second base to start the inning. The Aggies were able to score their runner, forcing ASU to post a run in the bottom of the inning.
Appalachian answered by scoring freshman Kristen Fister on a sacrifice fly by junior Stephanie Long for her 17th RBI of the season.
In the ninth, the Aggies took advantage of two ASU errors to score three runs and take a 6-3 lead. The Mountaineers answered by putting runners on second and third thanks to a fielding error by the shortstop. With freshman Sarah Rappe on second and senior Tiffany Hensley on third, junior Andrea McIntyre was able to lift a sacrifice fly to centerfield to advance each runner. Senior Natalie Willis plated Rappe on a single up the middle to cut the deficit to only one run. Willis, the tying run, would steak second but was stranded as the Aggies were able to retire the final Mountaineer batters to preserve the victory, 6-5.
Junior Kayla Richardson suffered the loss in her 17th complete game of the season. Richardson allowed six runs, one earned in nine innings of work. The West Jefferson, N.C. native fanned four and walked two in the outing.
In game two, N.C. A&T jumped out to a one run lead in the first thanks to a one-out groundout. A three-run homer in the top of the fourth extended the lead to 4-0. Four additional unanswered runs in the fifth and sixth sealed the Mountaineers’ fate, giving the Aggies an 8-0 run-rule victory in six innings.
Junior Teri Fister started for ASU and pitched four innings, she allowed four runs, three earned off four hits in the loss. She falls to 1-5 in the outing where she fanned three and walked two. Junior Yancy Moose had an ineffective outing out of the bullpen, recording one out and loading the bases on two hits. All three runners on base when she exited went on to score. Richardson replaced Moose and pitched the final inning and two thirds, allowing only one hit and of her own runners to score.
Appalachian outhit N.C. A&T 9-6 in the opener, but was on the other side of the hits tally in the second game, 7-6. After a four errors in game one, the ASU defense shored up the holes and did not commit a miscue in the second game.
The Mountaineers will host North Carolina Central on Thursday for a 2:30 doubleheader. The final non-conference game of the regular season will be held at the ASU Softball Stadium where admission is always free.