Western Carolina 13, Appalachian State 4

CULLOWHEE, N.C. – Western Carolina softball (7-13, 1-2 Southern Conference) used four homeruns, including a grand-slam by sophomore catcher Heather Chastain, to defeat Southern Conference rival Appalachian State (5-8, 2-1 SoCon) 13-4 in six innings Sunday.

Trailing 3-2, at the bottom of the second inning, Western Carolina had a huge inning in scoring seven runs and all but sealing the game. Three straight singles by Megan Crowe, Karley Harkey and Griffin loaded the bases. The Catamounts scored two runs on an Appalachian error throwing home. After Scotton ground out and Steinhardt hit into a fielder’s choice, that saw Griffin out at home, Haley Pace drew a walk to load the bases again. Chastain strolled to the plate and smoked a shot over the centerfield wall, her second grand-slam homerun of her career. Freshman Taylor Sigmon followed with a homerun of her own, the second of the season for her.

After Appalachian State scored in the first three innings, the Catamount defense and sophomore pitcher Jordan Garrett held the Mountaineers scoreless in the ensuing three innings. After giving up a run in the third inning, to give Appalachian State the 3-2 lead, Garrett hunkered down and sat down the nine of the next 14 batters she faced including striking out four.

Western Carolina shortened the game by one inning scoring four runs in the bottom of the sixth inning to invoke the ruling that if a team is leading by eight runs after five innings the game is called.

The Catamounts hit their third and fourth homeruns of the game to end the contest in six innings. Pinch hitter Chandler Terrapin drew a walk and scored when Haley Pace hit a homerun to centerfield. Chastain singled past the short-stop, and after Kayla Meyers came into the game to pinch run for Chastain, Megan Crowe hit the first homerun of her Catamount career to score two more runs and end the game.

Garrett had seven strikeouts in the game giving up four runs on eight eights and walked five. She improved to 5-7 on the season. 

Neither team wasted anytime scoring to start the game. In an almost mirror image of each other, both Western Carolina and Appalachian State found themselves with bases loaded in the first inning. Catamount pitcher Garrett and Appalachian State hurler Shivaun Landeros worked out of the jam but not unscathed.

With one out, the Mountaineers had a single by Cynthia Gomez and a double by Allie Cashion. Lindsay Loudermilk drew a walk to load the bases. Garrett got the second out of the inning when she fanned Meaghan Smith but walked Ashley Seering to give Appalachian State a 1-0 lead. Alex Sohl ground out to end the inning.

The Catamounts got their chance in the bottom of the first when they found themselves with bases loaded and no outs. Back-to-back singles by Amelia Griffin and Jordan Fulton coupled with a walk by Shemekia Scotton loaded the bases. Mountaineer pitcher Landeros walked senior Amber Steinhardt to knot the game at one. With two outs, freshman Taylor Sigmon laced a shot up the middle to score Jordan Fulton. Scotton tried to leg out two bases for a third run but was thrown out at home.

Garrett continued to struggle on the mound for Western Carolina in the top of the second. She gave a lead-off walk to Caroline Rogers and Dani Heichen singled. Sarah Warnock tied the game at two on a single to left field. Garrett got a huge strikeout when she sat down Cashion but Loudermilk laced a shot to left field to give the Mountaineers the lead back 3-2.

Appalachian State tacked on a single run in the top of the third inning. Garrett kept the Mountaineers from tacking on additional runs by picking up three strikeouts. The Mountaineers would not score again.

Landeros was replaced on the mound in the second inning by Alissa Schoelkopf who went 4 innings. Landeros took the loss and falls to 3-3 on the year.

After going the first 12 games of the season without a homerun, Western Carolina has hit one or more homeruns in five of the last eight games.

Chastain, Sigmon and Crowe each has a pair of hits in the game and Chastain had for RBI.

Samford 5, UNCG 0

GREENSBORO, N.C. ---- Samford bounced back after two losses yesterday to wrap up the weekend series against UNCG as Mollie Hanson threw a no-hitter en route to a 5-0 shutout victory over the Spartans.

Samford (8-10) earned its first conference victory of the season off a nine-hit performance with the top three in the order accounting for six of those hits.  The Bulldogs hit two home runs in the game, a two-run homer from Casey Clark in the second and a solo homer from Callie Brister in the seventh. 

Hanson (6-8) had a masterful day in the circle, throwing 97 pitches with eight strikeouts while allowing only three UNCG runners to reach base safely.  It is the first Samford no-hitter since April 21, 2006.

The loss snaps a seven-game winning streak for UNCG (17-2) and it is also their first loss of the season by more than one run.  Starter Kelly Lupton (3-1) took the loss, lasting 3.1 innings.

In the top of the second, Abby Adams drew a leadoff walk and later in the inning with two outs, Casey Clark blasted a home run to center field, the first of her Samford career, to give the Bulldogs a 2-0 lead.

UNCG would not get a runner into scoring position until the bottom of the third inning, as a two-out fielder’s choice and a wild pitch moved Danielle Vega to second with their top hitter, Lindsay Thomas, at the plate.  Hanson got Thomas down 0-2 but Thomas battled back to even it at 2-2 before grounding out to Abby Adams at short to end the threat with the Bulldogs still holding on to the two-run lead.

With one out in the top of the fourth, Shelby Scott took the first pitch of the at-bat back up the middle for a single, her first of the season, which ended the day for Lupton in the circle as Nicole Thomas came in relief.  Caroline Seay was hit by a pitch to put two runners on but a double-play ball to third ended the threat as Samford couldn’t build on their 2-0 lead.

With one out in the top of the fifth, Callie Brister knocked a single through the left side and Megan Dowdy followed up with a great bunt single down the first-base line to put two on with one away.  Alex Adams drove Brister home with an RBI single into center field, putting runners at the corners with one out.  Madeline Baker, pinch-running for Adams, stole second to put two in scoring position.  A hard lineout to third base and a popup to short stranded the two runners but Samford now held a 3-0 lead through 4 1/2 innings.

With one out in the top of the seventh, Brister added an insurance run with a solo homer to left center, her second long-ball of the year, as the Bulldogs stretched the lead to 4-0.  Dowdy followed with a bloop single that fell just past the pitcher and advanced to second on an errant throw that went out of play.  UNCG intentionally walked Alex Adams to set up a force at any base but the strategy backfired as Kayla Shaffer took the first pitch of her at-bat down the right-field line, scoring Dowdy from second and putting runners at the corners with one away.  A groundout and flyout ended the inning but Samford now owned a five-run cushion heading into the final half-inning, up 5-0.

Samford secured the win and Hanson’s no-hitter in the bottom of the seventh as a flyout, popup and strikeout gave the Bulldogs the 5-0 shutout win.

College of Charleston 3, Furman 2

GREENVILLE, S.C. – The College of Charleston softball team completed its series sweep of Furman with a 3-2, eight-inning win at Pepsi Stadium on Sunday afternoon. Rebecca Mueller drove a two-out, two-RBI double to the wall in right to put CofC back on top in the eighth inning, and Hope Klicker preserved the win from the circle to register her sixth complete-game victory of the season.

Similar to Saturday’s game-one win, the Cougars waited until the late innings to spark any run production and rode a scoreless pitcher’s duel into the sixth inning.

CofC (11-7, 3-0 SoCon) briefly seized a 1-0 lead in the sixth, but a Furman solo homer in the bottom half forced an extra frame in which Mueller cashed in on the Cougar’s two-out rally with her-run scoring double, pushing the freshman left fielder’s RBI total to 10 on the season.

A Cougar fielding error in the bottom of the eighth extended the inning and allowed Furman to cut into CofC’s lead, but Klicker would shut down the Paladin bats to solidify the sweep. Klicker pitched all eight innings and struck out five without surrendering a walk.

The Cougars, who reached at least one runner in every inning but the seventh, manufactured the first run of the game in the top of the sixth inning.

Kristy Giragosian sparked the rally with a hard-hit single through the left side of the infield. She moved up to second on a sacrifice-bunt execution by Allison Pedigo and tagged up to third base on a deep fly ball to right off the bat of Lizzy Vaughn before scoring easily on a wild pitch with two outs.

Furman retaliated immediately, however, with Ambree Muller’s leadoff homer in the bottom half of the inning. Both teams went down in order in the seventh inning – marking the only inning in which the Cougars would do so – to force the extra frame.

After the Paladins quickly recorded two outs in the top half of the eighth, Pedigo – making her first start of the season – laced a single to right and  Vaughn was hit by a pitch to put two runners on base with two outs. The Cougars had lacked timely hitting for the first seven innings to the tune of nine stranded base runners, but Mueller erased that when she drove a long fly ball over the right fielder’s head to score both runners and put CofC on top 3-1.

The Cougars’ eighth-inning error allowed Laruen Collier to cut the lead to 3-2 with an RBI single up the middle, but Klicker would force the final two hitters to ground out to end the game.

Pedigo, Carly Corthell and Kelsey Hodgson all had two hits on the day for the Cougars. Hodgson had at least one hit in all three games of the series and now has five multiple-hit games on the season.

Georgia Southern 5, Elon 2

BURLINGTON, N.C. – Georgia Southern Softball clinched a series sweep with a 5-2 win over Elon on Sunday afternoon. It was the third-straight SoCon series sweep dating back to last season. The Eagles tallied 19 runs off 30 hits in the series which opens defense of Georgia Southern’s 2012 SoCon Regular Season Championship.

Kourtny Thomas got the Eagles (14-10, 3-0 SoCon) off to a powerful start with a home run down the line in left. She tallied her seventh home run of the season and drove in her 13th run of the season on the play. Elon (9-9, 0-3 SoCon) answered in the bottom of the first by scoring a pair of unearned runs of their own to tie the game at 2-2.

In the third inning, GSU took advantage of an Elon error to plate leadoff hitter Brianna McLendon. A sacrifice fly by Shelby Morrill to centerfield allowed McLendon to score from third and give the Eagles a 3-2 lead.

An inning later, third baseman Andrea Tarashuk lashed a leadoff double and scored later in the inning on a Breigh Findlay RBI single to left. Findlay, who made her first career starts this weekend, posted her second career RBI on the play.

Starting pitcher Sarah Purvis stymied the Phoenix allowing just three hits through five innings of work. She struck out seven batters, but got into a jam in the sixth inning. Allie Miles came on and fanned four of the final six outs to pick up her third save of both the season and this week.

GSU plated an insurance run in the seventh as a Tabby Douberley ground out pushed pinch runner Dominique Grossman in to score and give the Eagles a 5-2 win.

Chattanooga 9, Temple 3

CLEARWATER, Fla. - The Chattanooga Lady Mocs softball team (14-10) defeated Temple (5-9) in Clearwater, Fla. Sunday afternoon in a 9-3 offensive outburst. Chattanooga totaled 11 hits and eight RBI during the seven inning victory. Four Lady Mocs collected multiple hits and freshman Kaisey Carson (Indianapolis, Ind.) earned her second win of the season in a relief appearance against the Owls.

Chattanooga struck for two runs in the first inning, taking a 2-0 advantage early. Alyssa Taylor (Orange, Calif.) walked to begin scoring and freshman Anyssa Robles (Lawrenceville, Tenn.) doubled to put two on. Sarah Beth Roberts (Mt. Juliet, Tenn.) singled in the next at-bat to clear both Robles and Taylor off the bases.

Leading 2-0, UTC tacked onto its lead with a run in the second inning as Stephanie Rieck (Chandler, Ariz.) and Kaiti Dutton (Tulsa, Okla.) laced back-to-back hits to board two runners. Junior Tyler Templet (Woodstock, Ga.) flied out to shallow right center to score Rieck from third base. The sacrifice fly extended Chattanooga lead to 3-0.

Temple fought back in the bottom of the third inning as the Owls cut the Lady Mocs lead to one run. After the leadoff batter was hit by a pitch and the ensuing at-bat resulted in a walk, an error loaded the bases for Temple. With the bases loaded, freshman Rachel Albritton (Murfreesboro, Tenn.) was unable to work out of the bases-loaded jam as second baseman Leah Lucas singled up the middle to drive in two, cutting the Chattanooga lead to 3-1. Carson was brought on in relief and was able to get an out to bring UTC out of the inning.

After two scoreless innings, the Lady Mocs tagged Temple for two more runs in the sixth inning with Roberts walking and senior Ninjja Suetsugu (Sao Paulo, Brazil) singling. Rieck was hit by a pitch to load the bases and Dutton was handed a four-pitch pass to walk in a runner. Templet grounded a ball to second base in the next at-bat, a fielder's choice that allowed Suetsugu to score from third.

Temple was held scoreless in the sixth inning and Chattanooga loaded on four insurance runs on four hits in the seventh to push the UTC lead to 9-2. Back-to-back singles from Taylor and Robles led off the frame and a Kasey Tydingco (Fairfield, Calif.) groundout to second allowed one run to score. After Rieck singled to load the bases for Chattanooga, Dutton reached on an error that allowed Taylor to score and keep the bases loaded. Redshirt freshman Jenny Garcia (Miami, Fla.) was brought on to pinch hit and delivered a two-run two-RBI single up the middle to round out the UTC scoring.

Temple plated one run in the bottom half of the last inning, but the last minute effort was not enough to overcome the UTC lead, falling 9-3.