College of Charleston
UNC Greensboro
Softball splits SoCon Doubleheader with UNCG
3/19/2011 9:55:00 PM | Softball
GREENSBORO, N.C. - The College of Charleston softball team split its doubleheader with UNC Greensboro on Saturday afternoon at the UNCG Softball Stadium. The Cougars were impressive in a 7-0 win in the opener but couldn't hold off the Spartans in the second game and fell, 5-4.
After Saturday's games, CofC stands at 18-9 (2-3 SoCon) while UNCG moves to 10-12 (1-1 SoCon). The teams will play the series conclusion on Sunday afternoon at 1 p.m.
In the opener, Alexa Datko (San Diego, Calif.) pitched a complete-game shutout and struck out six batters. Datko allowed just two hits in the game and pitched perfectly otherwise as she improved her pitching record to 8-3.
Kelsey Hodgson (Woodstock, Ga.), Katie Pesature (Brewster, N.Y.) and Kristi Woodall (Huntersville, N.C.) all homered for the Cougars in game one.
Stephanie Saylors (Easley, S.C.) was tagged with the loss in the second game after 4.1 innings pitched. Jen Rosene (Charlotte, N.C.) entered the circle late in the game and pitched 1.2 innings perfectly.
GAME ONE: CofC: 7, UNCG: 0
The Cougars reached at least two base runners in each of the first five innings and rallied behind Datko's pitching and spotless defense to win comfortably in the first game of the doubleheader.
The Cougars' offense sparked immediately as three of the first four hitters successfully reached base in the top of the first inning. Carly Corthell (Reno, Nev.) led the game off with a hard-hit single up the middle and Lizzy Vaughn (Placerville, Calif.) moved her to second with a well-executed sacrifice bunt. Katie Forbes (Odessa, Fla.) walked and Amanda Lonergan (Pembroke Pines, Fla.) reached on an empty fielder's choice to load the bases but UNCG starting pitcher Cory Pattson forced a groundout and innocent fly ball to work out of the jam.
After quieting the Spartans in the bottom half of the first, Hodgson opened the scoring on her own when she hammered a one-out, 1-1 pitch well over the fence in right to put CofC up, 1-0.
In the third inning, the Cougars furthered the power outburst when Pesature pulled a two-strike pitch over the left-field fence with Forbes on base via a single. Katie Nutaitis then singled down the third-base line to set up Woodall who homered down the left-field line to push the lead to 5-0. Woodall's blast was her first of the year.
The Cougars pushed two more runs across in the fifth inning after Pesature led off with a double just inside the foul line in deep right field. Nutaitis then singled to move Pesature up to third and Woodall picked up the RBI with a sacrifice fly to right. CofC's next batter, Hodgson, then doubled to right center to score Kaitlyn White (Columbia, S.C.) who pinch ran for Nutaitis.
GAME TWO: CofC: 4, UNCG: 5
The Cougars allowed five runs in the first three innings of the second contest and fell short with a late-inning comeback effort.
CofC took a brief lead in the top of the first when Corthell led off with a double to the leftfield fence. Corthell moved to third on a tag up and scored on a passed ball.
UNCG rallied for the first time in the afternoon in the bottom half of the inning to erase the deficit, however. Jordan Jewett started things for the Spartans with a one-out single followed by a walk and a Kaitlin Merkt single to load the bases. UNCG then picked up two runs on a sacrifice fly and wild pitch before Eileen Horsmon singled back up the middle to make the score 3-1.
The Spartans tacked on two more in the third when Merkt homered to right with a runner aboard.
The Cougars chipped back into the lead in the top of the fifth with a Hodgson walk followed by a double by Kristy Giragosian (Charlotte, N.C.). A Spartan throwing error allowed two runs to score and extended the inning to Vaughn who laced a triple down the rightfield line to draw the score to 5-4.
The Cougars put runners on first and second in both the sixth and seventh innings but could not manage the game-tying run and ultimately fell by the same total.
