East Tennessee State 12, Furman 4
Furman 3, East Tennessee State 1
Johnson City, Tenn. - Furman plated two runs in the top of the seventh inning to down East Tennessee State 3-1 and earn a doubleheader split with the Buccaneers in non-conference softball action on Tuesday at Basler Field in Johnson City, Tenn. The Bucs claimed a 12-4 victory in game one.
With game two tied 1-1, Katie Michaels led off with an infield single to start the top of the seventh, but was erased when Stephanie Field reached on a fielder's choice. After moving to second base on Nikki Legg's ground out, Field scored when Jessie Homesley laced a two-out double to the wall in right-center field to put the Paladins (14-25) ahead 2-1. Morgan Hughey followed with an RBI single to center field and Kayla Suskauer worked around a two-out single in the bottom half of the inning to retire the Bucs and secure the win.
Suskauer (9-10), who allowed a solo homer to ETSU's Sam Lower on the first pitch in the bottom of the first inning, scattered five Buccaneer hits the rest of the way to notch her ninth victory of the season. The Tampa, Fla., native issued three bases on balls and recorded one strikeout in the complete-game effort while retiring 13 of the final 14 batters she faced.
Furman knotted the game at 1-1 in the second inning when Field lined a two-out, RBI single to center field to score Emily Boyer who had reached base on a walk and moved to second on Michaels' sacrifice.
Field went 2-for-4 at the plate with an RBI and run while Hughey went 3-for-3 with a base on balls.
Katie Wolff took the loss for ETSU (15-29) to slip to 1-8. She allowed three earned runs on nine hits in seven innings while fanning three batters and walking two.
In game one, ETSU exploded for six runs in the second inning and cruised to a 12-4, six-inning win over the Paladins.
The Buccaneers sent nine men to the plate in the second and scored six runs on just four hits. Lower's two-run single highlighted the frame as ETSU took advantage of three singles, two walks and a double.
Furman's Hannah Pace hammered an RBI double to left in the third inning and scored on a throwing error, but the Bucs answered with three runs in the bottom of the inning as Lower delivered another two-run single. Jackie Baird capped the rout in the bottom of the sixth with a two-run double off of reliever Hannah Pace to force the eight-run mercy rule.
Jessica Duncan (8-12) allowed just three earned runs on nine hits while fanning six Paladins over six innings to earn the win. Lower went 2-for-3 with four RBI to power the Bucs' 11-hit attack while Baird went 3-for-4 with a pair of runs driven in.
Suskauer allowed 10 runs on nine hits over four innings to suffer the loss. Stephanie Field, who belted her first homer of the season in the sixth inning, went 3-for-3 and drove in two of Furman's four runs.
The Paladins will return to Southern Conference play and celebrate Senior Day when they host first place Chattanooga in a three-game series at Pepsi Stadium beginning with a doubleheader on Friday at 1 p.m. The series concludes with a single game on Saturday at 1 p.m.