ORLANDO, Fla. - The College of Charleston (5-10) dropped a pair of close decisions at the UCF Invitational on Friday, March 5 as the Cougars fell 3-1 to Boston College (7-4) before suffering a 4-1 defeat to Central Florida (9-8) in the night cap.
Boston College struck early in Game 1 as a first inning single from senior third baseman Dani Weir set the stage for a two-run homerun by senior second baseman Renee Ramos on the next play. That shot gave the Eagles a 2-0 lead that they would add to in the third as they made it 3-0 with a run on a wild pitch.
That score would hold up until the sixth inning when the Cougars pushed across an unearned run on a fielding error to narrow the margin to 3-1. That would be as close as they would get though as senior Taylor Peyton set down the side in order in the seventh to collect the save and give junior Allison Gage (2-0) the victory.
Junior pitcher Alexa Datko (San Diego, Calif.) suffered the loss for the Cougars and fell to 1-5 despite five innings in which she allowed only two earned runs. At the plate, senior designated hitter Kristie Shifflett (Virginia Beach, Va.) and sophomore outfielder Katie Forbes (Odessa, Fla.) each went 2-for-3. Redshirt-senior second baseman Amber Shifflett (Virginia Beach, Va.) added her seventh stolen base of the season to move to a perfect 7-for-7.
It was the College of Charleston's turn to get on the board early in the night cap as they went up 1-0 in the first inning as Amber Shifflett reached on a hit-by-pitch, stole second and scored on an RBI double by her sister Kristie. Senior pitcher Terri Mesko (McDonough, Ga.) made that lead hold up through the first four innings as she did not allow a hit. That changed in the fifth inning as the Golden Knights pounded out four runs on three hits to take a 4-1 lead. Senior pitcher Ashleigh Cole then retired the final six batters in order to lock up the victory and move to 7-4 with a complete game, four-hit, one-run performance.
Senior outfielder Morgan Bullard and junior catcher Abby McClain accounted for UCF's two RBIs with one apiece while Kristie Shifflett went 2-for-2 with an RBI for the Cougars, raising her average to .429. Forbes and junior outfielder Kristi Woodall (Huntersville, N.C.) delivered the other two hits for CofC as each went 1-for-3. Mesko (2-4) took the loss following a six inning outing.
The College of Charleston is back in action tomorrow morning when they take on Harvard at 11 a.m. for the first time in program history. They will finish the day with a rare non-conference meeting with league opponent Georgia Southern at 3:30 p.m.
