College of Charleston
No. 8 Furman
Eighth-Inning Blast for Pesature Lifts Softball to Victory
5/12/2011 5:21:00 PM | Softball
STATESBORO, Ga. - The College of Charleston softball team extended its run through the Southern Conference Championship with a thrilling, eight-inning, 4-2 victory over Furman at Eagle Field on the campus of Georgia Southern on Thursday morning.
The win extends CofC's tournament life to Friday at noon when they will await the loser of Thursday's game featuring Samford and UNC Greensboro.
The Cougars led for most of the game but allowed Furman to draw even in the seventh and force extra innings in which Katie Pesature (Brewster, N.Y.) lifted CofC to victory with a two-out, two-run home run.
Pesature (Brewster, N.Y.) was 2-for-4 on the day with three RBIs including the game-winning two-run home run in the eighth inning.
Lizzy Vaughn (Placerville, Calif.) reached base in all four plate appearances on the day and scored twice.
Stephanie Saylors (Easley, S.C.) earned the win in the circle as she entered the game in the fifth and pitched four innings of three-hit, one-run softball. Alexa Datko (San Diego, Calif.) started the game and went four innings allowing two hits and striking out three.
"That was huge for our team to stay focused after letting them back in the game," said head coach Shelly Hoerner. "We needed everybody on our team to contribute. K.P [Pesature], as a senior, has been great all year about keeping our younger players up and in the game. I knew she would come through in that clutch situation. She saw a great pitch to hit and crushed it. Now we get to come back and we have another game to prepare for."
"Well they had been jamming me inside all day," said Pesature, "so I was just focused on getting the barrel on the ball and getting it to the outfield to score Lizzy [Vaughn]. We've talked about taking it one game at a time so we have to stay focused on the next one."
The Cougars took an early lead in the top of the first inning when Vaughn drew a one-out walk and scored on an RBI single off the bat of Pesature.
The Cougars have outscored their opponents 37-22 in the first inning of their games this season and hold a 27-8 record when scoring first.
The Paladins knotted the game in the fourth inning with their second hit of the game, a solo home run from Jessie Homesley into the leftfield bleachers.
CofC recaptured the lead in the top of the seventh when a Paladin fielding error granted CofC a base runner. The pinch-running Ashton Jarrett (Hanahan, S.C.) stole second base, took third on a ground ball the other way and scampered home on a wild pitch to put CofC out front.
Furman had another answer in its half of the seventh though when a pair of Cougar throwing errors put runners on first and third and Alex Bimonte's RBI single through the right side forced the game into extra innings.
Pesature took matters into her own hands in the top of the eighth with her two-run home run to left field which bounced on the top of the fence and over into the bleachers. Vaughn was on board to score after her single extended the inning and allowed Pesature the at bat.
