Newark, Del. – Sara Garcia had five hits, including a home run and triple, and drove in seven runs to power the College of Charleston to a doubleheader sweep over Delaware by scores of 9-5 and 8-0 on Saturday.
The Cougars improved to 27-20 and 6-8 in the Colonial Athletic Association and have won four in a row. Charleston will go for the series sweep tomorrow at noon.
The Blue Hens (10-30, 2-12) overcame deficits of 3-0 and 5-3 to force extra innings in the first game. The Cougars then came up with four runs in the 10th, breaking the tie on a Delaware error then getting a two-run double from Taylor Belfiore and a pinch-hit RBI single from Gracyn Thrasher to break it open.
Garcia drove in a pair with a triple in a three-run first, but Delaware tied it in its half of the inning on a home run by Reyna de Jesus. Garcia put Charleston back in front in the third when she smashed a two-run homer to left for her fourth of the season and 15th of her career.
Delaware tied it again with two in the fifth, and Garcia forced extra innings when she threw out Mariah Kondravy trying to score from second on a base hit to right in the bottom of the seventh.
Izzy Berouty earned the win in relief of starter Summer Jenkins, allowing only one hit in two shutout innings. Jenkins gave up 10 hits and all five runs (three earned) with two strikeouts over eight frames.
The nightcap was scoreless until the third when the Cougars loaded the bases with nobody out. The first two runs scored on a throwing error, and Garcia made it 4-0 with a two-run single. A ground out by Jordin Jones and another RBI single by Garcia boosted the Charleston lead to 7-0 in the fourth, and the game ended an inning later when Yari Felix singled and scored on a pair of Delaware miscues.
Garcia moved into a tie for ninth in school history with seven career triples and needs three more RBI to become the 10th Cougar to reach 100 in that category.
Berouty picked up her second win of the day and 15th of the season with the four-hit shutout. Felix had three hits and scored three times, and Taylor DuPree had two hits and joined Madi Brown with two runs scored. DuPree moved into a tie with Amanda Cone for the all-time Charleston lead in runs scored with 166.