University of Southern Mississippi Athletics
Lady Eagles Blank Jackson State, 8-0
2/28/2003 12:00:00 AM | Softball
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Lady Eagles Blank Jackson State, 8-0
BATON ROUGE, La. ? The drought ended for the Southern Miss softball team, as they defeated Jackson State, 8-0, in six innings, at the Purple & Gold Challenge, at LSU?s Tiger Park. Sarah Boyd hit two-for-three and scored three runs, and Danielle Hatfield collected a two-hit shutout in her first start as a Lady Eagle.
After experiencing four-straight shutouts, Southern Miss (6-7) scored in every inning and produced three home runs. It was also the first game of the season that ended with the eight-run differential after five innings for the Lady Eagles.
With one out in the bottom of the sixth, Erica King scored from third, when Auriel Jenkins hit a chopper to shortstop, Valea Crowder. Crowder threw home, but King dove for the plate and avoided the tag, collecting her second run of the game and the eighth run for Southern Miss.
Boyd smashed her first home run of the season in the fifth, a solo shot. King scored her initial run in the fourth, off Laura Smith?s double, and Boyd scored in the third inning off a wild pitch.
Jenkins was two-for-four with two runs and two RBIs. She collected her first home run as a Lady Eagle in the second inning, sending the pitch over the left field fence for a solo shot.
The Lady Eagles scored three runs in the first inning. Jenkins came home on a wild pitch, and Amanda Brown popped a two-run home run over the left field fence, scoring Boyd on the play.
Hatfield (1-0) finished her first start, surrendering two hits and fanning seven Tiger batters in six innings. Crowder (2-2) collected the loss for Jackson State (3-10), pitching a third of an inning and recording two earned runs on two hits. Heather Shove came in relief, going five innings and producing four hits, three earned runs and one strikeout.
Southern Miss will face Jackson State, again, tomorrow, March 1, at noon, as the Purple & Gold Challenge continues. The Lady Eagles will battle tourney-host LSU at 2 p.m.
