University of Southern Mississippi Athletics
Lady Eagles Drop First Two Series Games Against USF
3/20/2004 12:00:00 AM | Softball
Files associated with this release:
Game 1 Box Score
Game 2 Box Score
Links associated with this release:
Live Stats
Lady Eagles Drop First Two Series Games Against USF
TAMPA, Fla. -- Southern Miss dropped the first two games of this weekend's Conference USA series against host USF, Saturday.
The Bulls (33-7, 2-3 in C-USA), ranked 21st and 22nd respectively in the USA Today/NFCA Poll and the ESPN.com/USA Softball Poll, took the opening game victory, 6-3, and then took the second game by a count of 5-3. Southern Miss fell to 14-16 overall and 3-2 in league play.
The two teams meet again in the final contest of the weekend series on Sunday, with a noon, CT, start time. Live stats for the third game can be found on the USF web site, www.GoUSFBulls.com, or by clicking here
Jessica Holaway (5-5) took the loss in the opener after giving up six runs, two earned, on 12 hits with one walk and four strikeouts. Danielle Wymer suffered the loss in game two, giving up four runs on eight hits with two walks.
USF pitcher Leigh Ann Ellis (21-4) picked up the game one victory, tossing 6.2 innings and allowing just three hits, walking one and striking out nine. Ellis also picked up the game two victory, pitching in relief.
In the opening game, the host Bulls reeled off 12 hits and took advantage of four Lady Eagle errors to pick up the three-run victory.
USF tallied runs in the second, third and fifth innings, including a solo home run by Tiffany Stewart.
Southern Miss didn't get on the board until the top of the seventh when Heather Bell's three-run blast off reliever Nicole Christensen cut the deficit to three runs. But that would be the end of the scoring as Ellis re-entered to pick up the final two outs of the inning.
The Lady Eagles opened the second game with two quick runs off starter Danielle Urbanik in the top of the first inning. Ashley Brenan reached after being hit by a pitch and advanced to second on Jessica Huerta's sacrifice bunt. Diane Hammes then singled to move Brenan to third, eventually stealing second to put two runners in scoring position. Sarah Boyd followed with a two-RBI double down the left field line to put the two runs across.
USF countered with a single run in the bottom of the inning, capitalizing on Holly Groves' RBI-single to score Kattrina Dowd.
That would be the score until the Lady Eagles tacked on a single run the top of the fifth inning. Ashley Davis lined an RBI-single up the middle to score Boyd from second base for the 3-1 lead.
But the Bulls took the lead for the first time in the game, putting up three runs in the bottom of the frame, courtesy of Groves' three-run home run to center field. The hosts then tacked on another run in the bottom of the sixth inning to push the lead to two runs, 5-3.
